Beware of the Dogs, Philippians, 3:2-3
Philippians 3:2-3 · Vern Peterman · Aug 24, 2003
Philippians (2003), No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262258324624

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I have found this a fascinating passage to study, and you'll find out why in a minute. There's some depth in it and some significance that doesn't jump out at us in the English. The Philippians 3, 2 through 3 is a follow-on. Remember last week, Paul started off this warning with rejoicing the Lord. Remember that? Hope you do. Anyway, rejoicing the Lord was his preface, and he's going to come back to that in chapter 4.

But here we're looking at the first a couple of verses of his warning to the saints in Philippi. Now remember, Philippi, as you recall, boy, this was, you know, weeks back, 30 weeks back, but if we first were looking, Philippi was a city that was largely Roman. There were very few Jews there who were actually, you know, living in Philippi. However, he's giving them caution. Why? Because some of the Jews in neighboring cities, Thessalonica was one of them, were absolutely rabid about coming aggressively and vigorously after Paul had been there and teaching the law. And so that's why he starts to give this warning here. And anyway, I think you'll find it fascinating as I did.

Let's take a look at it. He comes across, basically this passage breaks down to two very simple parts. Beware of And he gives these kind of three descriptions. I believe it's pretty clear he's talking about the same people but giving multiple descriptions. Just like any one of us might have three different titles even though we're the same person. He's giving three different descriptions for the same group of people. Beware of the dogs, the evil workers, and the false circumcision. Those are three descriptions for the same group. That's his word of warning.

Pretty simple, isn't it? It's just he's using a little bit of metaphor here, we'll have to look into. The next, he says, for we are the true circumcision who, one, worship in the spirit of God, two, glory in Christ Jesus, and three, put no confidence in the flesh. Simple, isn't it? Nothing terribly complicated, no highly complex Greek to have to analyze or anything of the sort. He just lays it out plain and simple, okay? It's right there for us to see.

So he's got this two-part warning. The first part of it is kind of the negative side, isn't it? And the second half of it then is, this is who we are. I'm warning you about these guys, be careful, because this is who we are. So that's the approach he takes. It's really quite simple and quite clear. But there's still more in it that we need to dig in. Even if it is simple, even if it's clear. Can you handle that? Okay, let's go there.

This first word is beware. This word beware, BLEPO. Now, if I said BLEPO to you, you might not be thinking, beware, but they did, okay? So BLEPO, he says, look out for or be in cautious alert for, okay? You'd be looking for that. He uses this three times, the exact same thing, beware of. I simplified it when I put it in kind of outline form, beware of those three descriptions, right? The dogs, the evil workers, the false circumcision. He uses beware three times. Beware of this group. Beware of them. Beware of them. You'd think he wanted to beware of them.

You get that impression. Now, it is in this passage a plural present active imperative. What does that mean? It applies to all of them. You all be beware. Not just a couple of you be on watch. All of you beware. The next thing, it's a present active imperative. What that's saying is that they're all to be continuing to look out for those he's warning about. And since it's imperative, they must, it is absolutely essential that they do that. They must of necessity, all of them, be continuing to look out for these people that he's warning about. The next thing, the dogs.

Now this is a fun one. What he's got here... I'm going to turn off the sound. I think it's nerve-wracking. The dogs. The Greek word is kouon, and we need to make a discerning point here. Kynarion is a pet dog. You have that as a distinction on your handout there. So he's not talking about pet dogs. So he says, beware of these kouon.

Now, in the world of the Old and New Testament, this is like a centuries-old pattern. What they would do is they have these pack of dogs that would run around. They were nobody's dogs, okay? And these dogs would just run around scavenging, and if they thought there was food to fight over, they'd fight over it with each other. And if you were walking by and you happened to be coming near them, they might think that you're going to take the food, and so they'd snip at you. And so these dogs were kind of vicious. Nobody cared for them, so they're just kind of nasty, okay?

The interesting thing is these dogs often ate things that the Jews were forbidden to eat. So what is he doing? He's calling these Jews, who are so careful about what they eat, dogs, but he uses the term not for pet dogs, but dogs that eat anything and everything, including things Jews aren't allowed to eat, including things you and I wouldn't eat. The Jews despised these roaming packs of dogs and often referred to the Gentiles as Kuan.

Interesting. So Paul turns the term around and says, no, in fact, these are the dogs. This is this roaming pack of dogs. This mangy, but well, I won't get into the descriptions. Anyway, it's not these, okay? Not these guys. We're not, we're not warning about these little fellas, okay? Not worrying about this either.

This is a particular, you know, dog that's designed to defend and attack and whatnot. And by the way, Archaeologists have found this throughout the Greek and Roman Empire. They actually had those signs, too. They'd dig these things up and they'd have stone signs engraved in them, beware of the dog.

Pardon? Not like that, no. And especially not the neon stuff, okay? No, and they didn't find these little thin plastic sheets, you know, with paint. No, they didn't do that. It was get the chisel out time, okay? But interesting, they did find signs like that. So what Paul is playing on is there'd be signs like this around the cities. He puts it into his letter. We watch out for these people, just like you see the signs around town. Here's what Paul is saying here. If you look at this, he makes use of several terms here.

In modern vernacular, we have come up with this term, Judaizers. You won't find it in Scripture. If you look it up in a concordance and read from front to back of the New Testament, you won't find it. It has been coined as a term to describe those who try to bring the law of Judaism back into Christianity.

That's the term that is used. And it particularly is brought to a focal point in the book of Galatians. From the very first verses all the way to the end. He's addressing basically what this group is trying to spread, the Judaizers. Again, you won't find it in scripture, but it's a useful term for understanding the group that he's talking about. Make sense? Okay. Now, the Judaizers didn't follow the law themselves frequently, they just wanted everybody else to follow with them. Okay? He's not particularly real careful about how they do it, but they sure want to make sure that other people are in the same pack.

The Judaizers operated with dishonest and fleshly motives. We know that from a couple other books here, the references in Galatians and Titus, that make it real clear. These guys were frequently not so interested in your being righteous as they were making sure that you're in their pack and under their control. That's what they're interested in. So Paul makes it very clear, dishonest motives are behind these guys. When they bring in the law, they don't do so with good intent. Instead, they want you to knuckle under, to be a part of their pack, that they can lead and that you will follow. Next, he calls them evil workers. These evil workers, kakos ergates. These evil workers here, evil workers is a good translation, that's exactly what it says. It's interesting, we've just been through studying So here's a contrast between the four examples.

Remember in chapter 2, Christ, Paul, Timothy, and finally Epaphroditus in chapter 2? And we notice how Epaphroditus was called a worker together. Epaphroditus was one who risked his life laboring, using that same word, laboring for Christ. Now, in contrast, here's these Judaizers, and what are they doing? They're not the workers together, they're not the good workers, to the examples that he'd given four of in chapter two. Now in chapter three, he's given an example of evil workers, bad workers, workers that are not the ones to follow. He's warning instead. What he does here is he puts it out in contrast to Epaphroditus, who would risk his life for other believers for the sake of Christ. These are risking your lives. How do you like that? Putting your lives at risk for their sake. Does that impress you? Does that grab your attention? Are you impressed? Do you like that?

Now, false circumcision. Now, this is a fun one. This, the King James calls the concision. I don't know about you, but it's been a long time since I've used that word. Let's explain what it means. Katatome, it's a compound word, and you know how Paul loves compound words. You know it. Every week we see them. It means a down-cutting or cutting against, and the bottom line is it means mutilation.

It is used in the Old Testament to describe some of the false prophets of Baal who would cut themselves. The translation in the Greek version of the Old Testament is katatome. It is not just simply a false circumcision. It is those who cut themselves as ritual pagan priests.

How about that? Paul is characterizing these guys in such a way... I'm sure, you know, when the Judaizers heard this, they hit the ceiling. There's no question. Paul's calling us dogs! You know? And he says, and here we are trying to do good things, good works. And he calls us evil workers. And now he calls us these mutilators, I mean, these are pagan priests who are mutilating themselves thinking they'll impress the pagan god.

Can you imagine that? These guys' thermometer must have just burst out the top. They must have really gotten hot. Now, there's something interesting. As I looked at this, I said, there's something in the Greek that does not come across in the English, and so I'm going to try something. It's an experiment. Can you handle an experiment? Alright, you're all sitting down, right? Good, alright. I like experiments as long as you're sitting down.

Alright, this is the way this works. Oh, one thing to point out. Circumcision is paratomy, okay? Next verse there, just so you get the distinction. He's using a different word. Here are the patterns in Philippians 3.2, and I think I put it down as a line in your handout so you can fill it out, because I don't want to kind of steal the thunder. One at a time. Paul writes three times, beware. So he doesn't just say look out for the guys that are this and this and this. He says beware of this one. Beware of this one. Beware of this one.

That's emphatic, isn't it? He's getting the point across. It is a present active imperative. You must right now be continuing to look out with cautious alert for these guys. Must. Not a suggestion. Not here's a good idea. Hey, if you come across it, think about it. you all must right now continue to watch out for these guys.

Next, each descriptive noun is preceded by a definite article. It doesn't come across in all English translations. But he says, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilators. He's emphatic. This one, this one, this one. He's not dumb.

Each one of them in Greek starts with a K. He uses what we term in English alliteration, and so he's repetitive and emphatic, and he uses alliteration to make his point. Can you imagine that? And that doesn't come across strongly in English, and so I was thinking, how can I get the idea across in English what he's saying in the Greek?

And so this is what I came up with. Again, I'm glad you're sitting down. Hold on here. To carry the sense of what Paul is saying in 3.2, we might say in English, Beware the malicious mongrels. Starting with that first letter. Beware the malicious mongrels. Beware the malevolent minions. And finally, beware the male mutilators.

Paul isn't exactly flattering here, is he? He is using language here that, boy, this is hitting him like, whoa! Paul is speaking in very forceful, emphatic, patterned terms. And as they're reading it, these people are just in shock. Whoa! I mean, Paul is not kidding here. He is not fooling around. Now, this part I'm glad you're sitting down for, because I came up with something else to try to get the point across.

So that you understand how forcefully Paul is speaking. Beware the malicious mongrels. Like this. Beware the malevolent minions. I want you to think about it like this. Beware the male mutilators, okay? The point here, if you were writing at that time, how could you get the point across?

Paul is doing it as well as he possibly could to get the point across to these people using imperative, present tense verbs powerfully and repeatedly, using descriptions, each starting with a K, he is really hammering the point home. He is not fiddling around. He is not soft-pedaling his message, not in the least.

Okay, why would Paul characterize the Judaizers this way? I mean, after all, that's pretty strong language to use about these guys, and to speak that way. Here's why. Imposing the law on Christians either as a means to earn salvation or as an expression of righteousness out of the flesh, doesn't bring about dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because it says, here's what I can do. God, are you impressed? Here's what I can accomplish. God, here's what I'm going to do for you, and here's my list, and I've done it all right, and what do you think? That's what it says. It's depending upon the flesh to produce what we think, somehow, God's impressed with.

Paul does not speak kindly elsewhere of those who are trying to bring in the law, and he calls it in 2 Corinthians 3.7, a ministry of death. Well, that's not nice, is it? Or, as he speaks of the Galatians, a curse.

Or, further on in Galatians, an overbearing slave tutor to a child. This is where they would have pedagogos, where they would have someone who was a slave tutor. It wasn't exactly a tutor in the sense of someone who helped the child learn per se. The main thing is the slave tutor would take the kid to school, hammering home the lessons as much as he could there on the way, and take the kid back from school and just beat the things into the kid, and I'm speaking figuratively here, but forcing the things in. And when the kid was finally rid of that slave tutor, it was an immense relief.

That's the comparison that Paul makes. Paul nowhere speaks of bringing the law on top of Christians as a good thing. The descriptions that he gives are multiply negative. Here's the way I've described it here. Imposing the Mosaic Law on heavenly-seated believers who already have Christ's mind and the life of Christ and God's righteousness is a ghastly outrage. You can sum it up in the way Paul describes it here. The last half of what he comes up with, this is the positive part of it.

We've had the negative warning. The reason these things don't fit is because of who we are. Does that make sense? The reason that Paul says you've got to watch out for these guys is because of who we are and because of what we do because of who we are. That's the difference. That's the distinction. And that's why he says, watch out for these guys, because you have an identity that is expressed very differently from following a set of rules. It's because of who you are in Christ and how that expresses itself that following a set of rules to seek righteousness, to hope to impress God, makes no sense at all. And that's why I'm giving you this warning, That's his point.

We are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. If you look at this circumcision, this is the cutting away of the male foreskin, typically done under Judaism to the babies at eight days, or if someone is converted later on to Judaism at an older age. Even in the Old Testament, it was intended to point to a circumcision in the heart, and multiple Old Testament passages point to that. The idea was never that you're going to be righteous because you cut off a little piece of skin. Scripture never comes across that. Even the Old Testament points to that.

Deuteronomy 10.16, Jeremiah 4.4, and other passages tell the Jews to circumcise your hearts. That's where The difference needs to start.

Cutting out a little circle of skin is not going to do it. That's his point. The bottom line is it's a heart issue and not a righteousness gain with a knife. You can't get righteousness with a knife. Either circumcision or, as the pagan priest did it, cutting themselves this way. Nor with piercings either, by the way.

In Colossians 2, 11-13, Paul uses the circumcision made with hands as a picture of the believer's position in Christ. I'll read that here. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands and the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. When you were dead in your transgressions in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. What Paul is describing there is our position in Christ with respect to circumcision. Made clear? Position.

So it comes across this way in Colossians 2.11.13. The position we have in Christ is a spiritual circumcision, a putting off of the sin nature. What's he doing here that is different in this Philippians passage? He's talking about our condition. Notice that the three things he describes are expressions of our position not a statement of our position. Do you see that? See the distinction?

And so he spells out in Philippians 3.3 that we're looking at the outcome of our spiritual circumcision, that is, our position, is that our condition logically follows in specific ways. So we have in the Colossians passage position. We have here in the Philippians passage expression in our condition. And it is because of the distinction of our position and our condition that Paul wants to warn them about these Judaizers. Whether they have come in yet or whether they're just coming in, we don't know. But nonetheless, apparently the warning is needed.

He says next, worship in the Spirit of God. Notice here that worship in the Spirit of God will glorify Christ. We get that from several passages here in the New Testament. Worship in the Spirit of God will glorify Christ. That's an important thing to remember, by the way, as we worship. A lot of churches have gone on to worshipping the Holy Spirit and pleading for the Holy Spirit to come.

The Holy Spirit's ministry will focus us upon Christ. Then, as we look next here, this is in contrast to the Judaizers. What are they doing? The focus is not upon anything of the Lord, really. It's just, here's the rules, you do them. They even had the group of Sadducees who didn't believe that there was any life beyond Earth. And they still came with what? Here's the rules, you do them.

I'm not sure why, but that was their declaration, that was their message. Thinking that they can do this to impress God and thereby set aside what Christ has done. It focuses on what we can do instead of what Christ can do. What we have done instead of what Christ has done. Finally, glory in Christ Jesus.

This word glory isn't the same as doxa, which we usually think of as glory, that glory being the essential brilliance of who God is. This instead has the idea of glorying, boasting, not in a negative sense, but glorying in the Lord. He uses that in Romans 15, 17, and 18 in that same kind of sense.

Paul uses a related word in Philippians 1.26 and 2.16, chalkema, that we've looked at before.

And that's their translated rejoice. It's a positive thing, not a negative thing. I'm not going to God and saying, hey, look how good I am. That's what the Judaizers were doing. Instead, it's finding glory and rejoicing in the Lord, in who we are in Him, and who He is in us. The focus here is on Jesus Christ, as opposed to the Judaizers saying, well, Jesus is good, He died for our sins, that's good, go ahead and believe in Him, but you've still got to follow all these 613 rules. and all the other subsidiary rules that we've got on top of that. By the way, anybody memorize the 365 rules of things they're not supposed to do? Anybody come to that? Neither have I. Okay, let's not do that. Okay, he says, put no confidence in the flesh.

I think this is very emphatic. Paul has written about confidence before. We've seen it in both the first and second chapters of Philippians. He's going to use this word twice more in just the passage we'll look at next week. We often hear about people speaking of somebody being confident or even lacking confidence and that being some kind of an issue. But Paul makes a clear point here. The primary issue is where the confidence is placed. You notice that? Where is the confidence? We've got all kinds of people pushing about self-esteem and self-confidence and things of that sort.

Paul says that's not the issue. It's where is it? Where is the confidence is the issue. And finally, he says, Paul isn't straddling fences. You notice that when he says, you know, no confidence in the flesh, he doesn't say we put a small amount of confidence in it, or we trust it just a little bit, or we try to straddle a fence, that's kind of the safest way to go. No, instead he says, none, no, no confidence, none whatsoever. Now, I've got a question that comes up here. Which meaning for flesh does Paul intend? Okay, so should we vote? Should we vote on that? I don't see anybody jumping up to vote, so let's not. Okay.

There's a Greek word, sarx. One of the things we do here is we do study Greek word and structure and all that. Guess what? The Greek here doesn't help at all, because this word sarx has about four different meanings. We can add to the fact there's no definite article here, but here there's four meanings, and now, You've got these four meanings, which one do we pick? How do we decide? Since the Greek word is identical in each one, and there's no studying Greek grammar or looking it up in a lexicon, it's going to help us. Which one do we pick? Which one of those four?

One of the things we brought up before, there are three rules when you're studying the Bible, and the three most important things, do you remember them? Context, context, and context. Those are the three most important things. Remember that? Okay, got it? Three most important things. Context, context, context. When you walk out of here, just repeat that, okay? People think you're nuts, but it'll be helpful. Okay. Those three things. So we're going to look at that.

Here's a look at the next verses, and what does he say? Though I myself might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. And what does he do? He lays out his human credentials. So that's telling us very clearly, not only is it the exact same word, it also lacks the definite article, just like the verses above. So context has told us clearly what he means. So we're not questioning which one of these four. We know clearly from this passage here that it's this last one. Because of context. See that?

It's the context that makes it absolutely clear what meaning he has in mind. So what Paul's talking about, we put no confidence in, and you could substitute for this verse and the one we'll be looking at next week, we put no confidence in human credentials. That's the point he's making. We put no confidence in human credentials.

Alright, let's look at this. This is the expanded and explained part. So let's step our way through it. you must of logical necessity. And notice, this is the way I take Paul's imperative. The last thing Paul wants to do is come to them and make a law for them and say, you've got to do this because otherwise I'm going to beat you over the head. That's not his point. He is saying this is imperative because it's of logical necessity based on your position. He's constantly telling the churches and the believers what their position is in Christ. And so when he pleads for them for something in their condition, it's on the basis of this is the logical outcome of the position that they have.

That's what he's doing. You must of logical necessity, based on your eternally fixed position in Christ, be in continuing cautious awareness of the pack of those legalists who are viciously and indiscriminately attacking and spiritually scavenging unclean food.

By the way, if you want to, Nancy isn't here because she's teaching the kids. She can tell you a story about the time I attacked the dog. Anyway, we'll let that go. Alright, let's get into this again. Of the ones who are basically evil in what they seek to accomplish. You see that? They're basically evil in what they seek to accomplish. What they are trying to do is wicked. Bottom line. He doesn't mince any words, does he? Just write like it is.

He then goes on, "...of those who seek to make a name for themselves and falsely presume to impress God by mutilating their followers in a manner that is in keeping with pagan rituals and practices." That's gross, but that's what Paul's saying. When he uses that word katatome, it's one short Greek word, a little compound word, but boy, it's potent, and that's what he's communicating. For we are, the reason being founded, the reason for the warning is because that's not who you are and that's not how who you are in Christ is expressed.

It says, for we who are in Christ in our position are by the expression of that position in our present condition, right now, moment by moment, day by day, the very life of Christ, continuing, each moment, to have the circumcision which is a mark on the heart. Exclusive of gender. This is one thing that's an important distinction. Circumcision was only for the males. I understand African cultures have a female circumcision, which is horrible, but this is only for the males.

What's interesting, though, is when you move into the New Testament, this true circumcision, this mark on the heart, is for males and females, and that's why you could say in Galatians 3.28 there's no distinction. Male and female, they both have this position.

So, since we worship in the Spirit of God so as to focus our attention upon and behold Jesus Christ, and find ample reason to glory in the unique person and accomplishments of Christ Jesus, and place absolutely no confidence in human credentials, none. All the human credentials are designed to do is say, here's what I got. Are you impressed? And Paul says, none. No confidence. Zip. Not 10%, not 5%, not straddle the fence. None. Zip.

Now, we have some law versus grace issues, and there are some things to look at here that are important distinctions for us to make. The law sets up a standard and demands that you and I measure up to that standard perfectly. By the way, Perfectly. What does James say? You break one, you've broken them all. So perfectly. The law demands that we show our stuff. Okay, here's how good I am. Okay? Or be shown to be a lifeless failure. We have to behold whom? Ourselves in the process. Why? You've got to constantly look at the law and look at you and look at the law and look at you and look at the law and look at you and on and on and on.

The grace of God meets the standard of perfection at God's expense and standards and resources, and that shows His superabundant adequacy in contrast to the law, so that the life in us is not ours but His. Most unfathomably, we are offered to behold the glory of Jesus Christ. See the distinction there? The law keeps me focused on me and the rules. hoping that somehow, someday, God will be impressed. Instead, what's being offered here is the grace of God at His expense. If we look further on in there, the law presses us to generate from ourselves the best credentials that we somehow imagine that God wants from us. It means everything from us, nothing from God except the rules. And by the way, we'll tweak those. Grace looks to the credentials of Jesus Christ. It means everything from God, nothing from us.

See the distinction there? It's a big one. It's very important. Paul's emphatic about it. In 2 Corinthians 4, 7, when you look at this issue of credentials, he puts it this way, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power of God, excuse me, will be of God and not from ourselves. not from ourselves, of God instead.

If you can put up with it, I'd like to do a song here. I'm a pot, I'm a vessel, made to hold something special. I've got the living, loving life of Christ inside. I used to think that I was something, but now I know I'm really nothing but a vessel that's made from the dust of the ground. The value isn't with me, but with what's to be found inside. I'm a pot, I'm a vessel made to hold something special. I've got the living, loving life of Christ inside.

The focal point has nothing to do with the pot. You notice that if we look at this 2 Corinthians passage, how does he describe the pot? It's an earthen vessel. That's what this thing is. This little thing standing in front of you is just the earthen vessel. It's what's inside that's the value. It's the credentials of what's inside that's of value.

This, by the way, is not to displace or to fail to make mention of who we are in Christ. One of the points I wanted to make in the words that we had up there. But the point being that credentials that I have are who Christ is in me and who I am in Him. and not something that I put on on the outside. There is absolutely nothing that I can put on the outside that is going to be acceptable, much less impressive to God.

And so that's why as Paul continues on with his warning, he's going to say, I've got some great credentials. And we're going to see the amazing word that he used to describe his credentials. I think you'll be shocked. Lord, as we look at this passage here, what Paul has to say is very simple.

And it's also very clear, Lord, that our human credentials, the very best that we can put forth, all the habits and lists of things that we can call good, none of that is any kind of glory compared to the glory of the person of Jesus Christ, the one whom we're to behold, the one whose life is to be in us. as we are with him, and we just thank you for it all. We thank you for the many blessings, the abundant blessings that we have in the heavenlies in you. In Jesus' name, amen.