Commentary on Philippians 3.1–3.21

“For the rest, brothers, rejoice in the Lord: to write the same things to you is not tiresome to me, and for you it is plain.” Rejoice, he says, in the Lord, O brothers, because it is not tiresome to me to write the same things to you, and it profits you greatly. What I write is firm and safe. The Greek put it so, saying “firm” and “safe”; the Latin says “plain.” “Beware of the dogs, look out for the evil workers, look at the cutting off. For we are the circumcision, who serve God through the spirit, and exult in Christ Jesus, not trusting in the flesh.” This admonition teaches not what is to be done, but what is to be avoided. He warns them to keep themselves from the Jews: “beware,” he says, “of the dogs.” There is a treatment about dogs: for divine Scripture also sets down that there are dogs that are useful and are defenders of the church, as David teaches in Psalm 68, whom he says … from the blood of enemies in the temple of God. And here he speaks against dogs, from whom he says one must beware; the Jews, namely, who they are, that they are workers, and evil: for workers spend their life in works, not knowing God, and hope for salvation from works; of whom it has already been said above that works avail nothing. “Look,” he says, “at the cutting off.” So that among them it is a cutting off, because they cut off a shameful part of the body. But we, he says, are the circumcision. For we circumcise all malice from our hearts: and we do this because we serve God through the spirit, but they through the flesh; so they are cut off, not circumcised. Let us exult, he says; or rather, we exult. And where do we exult? Not in the flesh, having confidence like them, but in Christ Jesus. So call away all your knowledge from the Jewish discipline, from the works of the Jews, from Jewish circumcision; and have circumcision of the heart, so that we may serve God through the spirit and exult in Christ. But let them exult in the flesh, having confidence from there, because they are circumcised in the flesh, that they can be saved and merit eternal life.

“Although I too might have confidence in the flesh.” It is proved in many ways that the Jews have all confidence in the flesh and in circumcision: since the Jews even interpreted it so, when salvation came to Moses by circumcision: from which it can be understood that the Jews bear confidence also from the flesh, and more in the flesh. But Paul teaches this: if, he says, there is confidence in the flesh, that is, in circumcision, I have more: for I, he says, have confidence in the flesh. Then it is set down thus: “if anyone else thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I more.” And he teaches why, if anyone has confidence in the flesh, he himself has more. And so he shows that his whole person is Jewish in every way: by circumcision, race, tribe, nation, law, office in the law, and also zeal of life. And yet, though he had fulfilled all these things with regard to the Jewish discipline, all these, I say, he said were loss to him for the sake of Christ, and for the sake of the eminence of his flesh. All these, then, will be proved thus in the statement. “Circumcised on the eighth day”: this is circumcision. By race, he says, “of the race of Israel.” Likewise by tribe, “Benjamin.” Likewise by nation, “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” Likewise by law, “according to the law a Pharisee.” Likewise by zeal, “according to zeal persecuting the church.” Likewise by life, “according to the righteousness which is in the law, since I was without reproach.” By all these, then, he proved that he had more confidence in the flesh and in circumcision; having all things of the Jewish discipline, in blood, in nation, in mind, and in life. And as to his saying “according to zeal persecuting the church”: as having great zeal for the synagogue, he persecuted the church. Likewise as to his saying “according to righteousness,” that is, by morals and life, from which a man is justified; but he says in the law of the Jews. “Since I was without reproach,” so that I committed no crime and did all that the law commanded. For this is righteousness among the Jews from the law. But since righteousness now comes to us Christians from Christ, and we are justified because of him: “Those things which were gain to me, these I have counted as loss”: that is, I understood that they caused me loss, holding all those things cheap for Christ’s sake.

But he also added this: “Because of the eminence of Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Greek has, “because of the eminence of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”: to show that those things are both small and least and rather contrary, if they stand alone; because they are loss, he says; and this eminence of Christ is what excels and conquers all things. “For whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung.” He concludes the thought: that he despises all those things and suffers every loss for Christ’s sake, so that he may gain Christ. And what is “I have suffered the loss”? All those things that had been glorious to me, of blood, of tribe, of nation, and that I had been a Pharisee in the law, and that I had kept righteousness so as to be without reproach: all these cast away, I have borne the loss of all things; and I have counted or count all those things as dung. For we read it better so, “I count,” than “I am counted”: for the Greek too put it so, hēgoumai, not that he is counted by others, but that he counts all those former things as dung; and casts them away, and by a just judgment gains Christ. He himself adds: “And that I may be found in him.” For this is to gain Christ: to be now in him, to be joined to him by faith, to perceive him, to have him. “Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law.” That, namely, which I set out above, when I lived without reproach: for then it is as it were my righteousness, or ours, when we think we merit God’s righteousness by our morals, perfected through morals. But not, he says, having this righteousness. But which? He adds it: “But that which is from the faith of Christ,” which he foretold; “the righteousness from God, from faith.” This righteousness, then, he says, he has; not that which is from the law, which is in works, as I said, and fleshly discipline; but this which proceeds from God. What is it? Righteousness from faith, which is faith from the faith of Christ, that is, from us toward Christ. And he added most fully what our faith toward Christ is, from which righteousness comes to us.

“To know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings: sharing in the burden of his death; if by any means I may come to meet him in the resurrection which is from the dead.” He sets out the faith we have in Christ, which he said he urges and proclaims to the Philippians, which proceeds from God, righteousness from faith, from the faith which he adds: to know him, what he is, who he is, where he is from. Surely it is of Christ that he then added: “and the power of his resurrection.” Either in that he rose by power: for it is a great power to rise from the dead; or in that he rose for our salvation: for this is the power of his resurrection. And he proved the same by what follows: for, he says, if we have fellowship in his sufferings, as he himself said, because we were or are sharers in his death, therefore we shall also be sharers in him. This is the power of the resurrection: that there is for us fellowship in his sufferings. And what is this fellowship? That we who believe Christ endure sufferings, and all sufferings, even to the cross and to death: from all of which, from knowledge and from fellowship in sufferings, resurrection comes; and from there, since we are sharers in his death and its burden, we are in some way made to meet him, so that in the resurrection we may come to meet him, the resurrection which is from the dead. See what faith in Christ is; and this he says he teaches, teaching what must be done in life: namely, that as companions of Christ’s passion we both believe this and have this faith, that we shall come in the power of his resurrection, having been made sharers in the burden of his death: so that for this we may in some way come to meet him in the resurrection which is from the dead. This is the reward; that is the labor; that is the life; this the merit and glory.

“Not because I have already received, or am already perfected.” He added this more strongly, speaking of himself indeed; but it is for us to refer to ourselves what Paul says of himself. And what is this? That by those labors, and that endurance of fellowship in death and sufferings, we may be able to go to meet him, and at the same time rise together in the resurrection of the dead. But not because, he says, I do these things, that I have already received them or am already perfected: for as long as anyone lives, he does not yet receive these things or is not perfected: for he is still engaged in fellowship with his sufferings, since the fellowship of sufferings lasts until death. So he does not yet receive nor is perfected, but perseveres until the end of life, remaining in those same labors and true fellowship with his sufferings; then he will be able to go to meet him in his resurrection from the dead. In this he also placed doubt, saying, “if by any means I may come to meet him.” Because he still lives, therefore he said “if by any means.” For when one perseveres in fellowship with the sufferings, and becomes like him even in death itself, there is no doubt that he will come to meet him in the resurrection. And what is it to come to meet him in the resurrection of the dead? The perfect and full life of each, completed from fellowship with Christ’s sufferings in every way, at that time when the resurrection from the dead comes about, that is, when the dead are raised. He, as Paul says speaking of himself, he, I say, who has led his life in full fellowship with his sufferings, comes to meet Christ: he is not merely raised, but comes to meet Christ. Others are only raised; but the perfect, who have suffered in every way like Christ, will meet him, and will go to meet Christ as he comes; as he himself said elsewhere. Rightly, then, he says “if by any means,” because he is still in life. And rightly he added, “not because I have already received, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if I may at last lay hold, in that in which I also have been laid hold of by Christ.” You see that he says he is still in life, and therefore he doubted above. For he still pursues Christ through all sufferings, so as to lay hold of Christ, that is, to reach Christ, having become a sharer in all his sufferings. For Christ by all his sufferings freed all who follow; and in a way laid hold of all, but those who would follow. Whoever wishes to follow and lay hold of Christ ought to follow Christ in all sufferings, so as to lay hold of Christ in that in which he has also been laid hold of by Christ. For if Christ freed all by his sufferings, he laid hold of all by his sufferings; in these, then, we are. That is, having become a sharer with Christ through his sufferings, he lays hold of Christ in that in which he was laid hold of by Christ.

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have laid hold.” He still persists in what I said, that he is still living, and therefore has not yet received, nor is perfected, nor has yet laid hold. For this is what he said: “but I pursue, if in some way I may lay hold.” So I consider that I have not yet laid hold, so that the Philippians may understand from this how far they are from the benefits of liberation, since that very Paul, often engaged in so many of Christ’s sufferings—beaten, imprisoned, thrown to beasts, and burdened with other evils—yet does not consider that he has laid hold of Christ; since he still lives and survives. Great is that sharing in suffering through which we are truly joined, if we imitate Christ even in suffering. “One thing, however: sending into forgetfulness what is behind, and stretching myself toward what is in front, according to the rule, I pursue toward the prize of the heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.” Since, as we said, he spoke above thus, “if by any means I may come to meet him in the resurrection of the dead,” and we taught why this doubt was set down—that he still lives, and many things could happen, above all death itself—therefore he added that he does not consider that he has yet laid hold of Christ. But he shows that he has something even now in his purpose: “one thing,” he says. What is it? That all that is past be sent into forgetfulness, and he follow only what is to come in front; that is, in those things which are first before us and must be followed according to the rule and discipline of the precepts, so that we may come from Christ to the prize of the heavenly calling, yet in Christ Jesus. There are, then, two precepts for the rest of life for one living in Christian order and still living by the rule: that all the things he has done, though he does them well and rightly, he should not keep in his memory as though he merited from them what he is to obtain; but send them into forgetfulness, and always follow, as if new, what remains, yet living according to the rule, and always stretching himself in it, and keeping the rule of a Christian until the end in death, so that he may come to the prize. For to remember past things, even things rightly done, belongs first to one who attributes them to his own merit and claims them; whereas these are not ours, and we do not obtain grace by our works. Then, somehow, we become negligent toward the things in front, that is, those that follow, out of confidence that we do many things. Hence the apostle commanded that the things behind should all be sent into forgetfulness. What we have said can also be taken of a different life we have lived: as Paul himself, that he was a Jew, a zealot of the law, and the rest: so that he called these “behind” and to be sent into forgetfulness; as if each of us ought to send his past life into forgetfulness. But the stronger sense is that we ought to send into forgetfulness even a past life well conducted and rightly lived according to the rule, and stretch ourselves toward the things in front according to the rule, so that we may follow Christ to the prize of the heavenly, he says, calling. For from the time we are Christians, we have been called by God. This is the heavenly calling: for no one is called to God or by God except in Jesus Christ. For he is the door, he the propitiator, he the reconciler: and this we have taught in many parts: and so our life is, and ought to be, that with Christ leading, that is, by our faith in Christ, we may come to the prize.

“Whoever, then, are perfect, let us think this: and if you think anything otherwise, this too God has revealed to you.” From here it may be understood that we have truly explained what we said above, that we should send back into forgetfulness the things done by us under the right rule. Since he joins: “whoever, then, are perfect,” let them send back into forgetfulness all that has been done. For we obtain the prize not by our merits but by God’s grace. So, then, he exhorts: “let us think this,” he says. Who should think this? “Whoever of us are perfect.” And what should we think? That we send into forgetfulness what is behind—and even the present time, that is, what we are now doing, must be sent into forgetfulness. Surely if the present, then also the past, and the things we had in life: and that we stretch ourselves toward the things in front according to the rule. This, he says, let us all think, and all be perfect. And as to what he adds, “and if you think anything otherwise, this too God has revealed to you”: if the sense is complete, holding itself and not joined to what follows, it must be understood thus: and if there is anything about this very thing that we have said which you take and understand otherwise, think so, I grant you: for he speaks of the perfect; for so he said, “whoever, then, of us are perfect.” So you who are perfect, even if you think otherwise: which he concluded as a concession, “this too God has revealed to you,” it is good, since both this which you think and what I said. But if this is not so, conceding, the sense will hang, so that it is said thus: “if you think anything otherwise, and yet God has revealed this to you”; he adds what is joined: “Yet let us think that to which we have attained,” that is, what we taught, and to which we have been instructed. For so he adds: “nevertheless, to what we have attained, let us think that very thing, let us walk in the same.” That is, from the time I proclaimed the gospel to you, and to this point we have attained in the manner of living and understanding; that very thing, he says, let us think, and walk in the same; namely in that to which we have attained: for by saying “yet,” he as it were rejects. We do not admit what is above, and the sense is such: this indeed is tolerable and may be done; yet that above all. So even if you think otherwise, and even if God has revealed this to you, by which you think otherwise, “nevertheless, to what we have attained, let us think that very thing.” And what is “to what we have attained”? What you received long ago from my admonitions, and what is now commanded by me: for to this we have attained from all admonition and precepts: and he says “we have attained,” by our precepts, namely; so that, sending into forgetfulness what is behind, we stretch ourselves toward what is in front according to the rule, so that we may come to the prize of the heavenly calling in Jesus Christ. In this, then, he says, let us walk. So the preceding reasoning concerns that life and the precept for life. Since it was said above, “sending into forgetfulness what is behind, let us stretch ourselves toward what is in front.” This is “let us walk in it.”

“Be imitators of me, brothers.” Fittingly for the thought we were discussing: that they should do nothing new themselves, even if they think otherwise, even if they have something revealed by God. “Be imitators of me,” he says, “brothers”; so that what I do, what I command, what I practice in life, what I follow, this you too imitate and follow. “And observe those who walk so, as you have us for an example.” He had given the precept of what was to be done by perfect men, and afterward had added that they should not think otherwise, and as it were conceded it; yet concluding that they should rather follow him and walk as he himself did. Now, with full exhortation, when he said, “be imitators of me,” he added an example, so as to persuade more easily: that they ought to do so because others did: “Observe,” he says, “those who walk so, as you have us for an example.” He has concluded two things: “who walk so, as we do,” and in this very thing he briefly placed that he himself was an example to these, both one who was an example to others and one who ought to be one to them: namely, as they imitate me, so you too should have an example. “For many walk, of whom I have often told you.” He added more, so that there would not seem to be few who imitate him: many, he says, walk so. And he added another argument: lest I bring forward an example to you today for exhortation, there are many, he says, who walk as we do, of whom I have often spoken. So he did not bring forward for the occasion those who walked so; since he had already often spoken of them, that they walked so.

“But now I say even with tears, enemies of the cross of Christ; whose god is the belly, and the glory in the shame of those who mind earthly things.” A greater exhortation comes when it is from fear. For above it was from advantages and benefits. For there is an exhortation on how they should live, to this very thing which he commanded above, since he himself compels and drives the Philippians to the same life, and has given again another argument, that many already live in the same way, many whom Paul himself has often told the Philippians already live so. This benefit of exhortation is made firm by a greater reason, what evil they will suffer if they live otherwise; and, as I said, persuasion from fear is greater. He also added emotion, being about to speak of the evils that those who live otherwise will suffer, by saying, “I say with tears.” For I grieve and weep, because those who are enemies of the cross, that is, who do not believe in this gospel, namely that they should believe in Christ as man, that is, who was in a man, who was born of Mary, was crucified. All heretics, then, who accept neither Christ crucified nor Christ in a man, who are many and various, these, I say, will have destruction as their end. For some said that he was a man, not that he was in a man. Others deny entirely that he was born in the flesh, others deny that he was crucified. All these heretics, as I said, and those like them, will perish. For this is what he said: “whose end is destruction”: which surely will befall men of this kind. And what they will suffer and what they are he lists thus: what they will suffer, “whose end is destruction”; what they are, “whose god is the belly”; what they will obtain, “and glory,” he says, “in their shame”? How they think he added: “who mind earthly things”? Of destruction: that their end is destruction who do not believe these things, that is, who are enemies of the cross. For this is what he said, that to be enemies of the cross of Christ is not to believe in the cross of Christ. These, I say, will perish, and their end is destruction. But those who do not believe this, that is, who are enemies of the cross of Christ, how do they have the belly as god, of whom he said, “whose god is the belly”? There are in a way two kinds, that is, one of two, who are enemies of the cross of Christ: either, thinking in a fleshly way, they laugh at the cross of Christ, since they think that a man, Christ, was raised on the cross; not, by the mystery according to the gospel, Christ crucified in a man, through which he conquered sin and triumphed over the powers, and triumphed through the crucified flesh: this cross, I say, we hold in the mystery. Others, as I said, take the cross as according to man, truly only a man: and therefore they are enemies of the cross, and these, because they think in a fleshly way, despise the mystery of the cross: and these, as I said, think of the flesh and consider nothing but the flesh, and for them the belly is god, and the glory is in their shame, and these are those who mind earthly things, whose end, however, is destruction. Or again those who think of Christ as spiritual, and do not understand him in the flesh, nor crucified; and therefore they are enemies of the cross of Christ, and they too will have destruction as their end. And this part is concluded about them: although this part pertains also to those who think of Christ in a fleshly way; but these three that follow pertain to those who think of Christ in a fleshly way: that their god is the belly, and the glory in their shame, and they mind earthly things.

“For our citizenship is in heaven.” Surely this is the contrary of what precedes; yet in relation to that part in which he said, “who mind earthly things,” thinking that Christ is a man, and was a man, and was not in the flesh, but came with flesh, as the Jews say he will come, and the other heretics. But we, on the contrary, have our whole life and manner of living in heaven, thinking that Christ came from heaven, put on flesh, was raised on the cross. Then he adds thus: “from where we also await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.” So that he both came from there and will come from there. For if he will come from there, he also came from there before. For he who ascended is himself also he who descended. So we have our citizenship in heaven, because from there we also await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will come to judgment in the last times; and he will be our Savior, because we believe in him and await Christ.

“Who transfigured the body of our lowliness, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working of his power, so that he may also subject all things to him.” This place too holds the mystery about the resurrection. For what Christ, placed in the flesh, fulfilled in order to save souls, so that immortality might be given also to the flesh through the resurrection, he worked by the powers of his cross. And all these things we await, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who, he says, by that mystery by which he descended and was crucified and rose again, transfigured the lowliness or figure of our body, or rather the body of our lowliness. How is this? Because when our lowly body rises and is changed, Jesus Christ has transfigured the lowliness of our body for the better, or has transfigured our lowly body into a magnificent one. He gives it, namely, eternity, making for it a heavenly garment; “that it may be,” he says, “conformed to the body of his glory.” For Christ is spirit, from which there is for him a body, form, and power, the form itself which is power; the form of glory is a divine and eternal body. And when we, rising, are changed, and have been made spiritual in soul and body and spirit—for so these come together into one man, and will be one spirit—if the body of our lowliness too is conformed, that is, of the same and equal form with the body of the glory of Christ himself, so that we too may be spirit, as he too is spirit. And this will come about “according to the working of his power.” For the whole mystery and every action of Christ works this and completes this according to his power: that we come together into one; when soul and body and spirit will be, as he himself is spirit. Likewise, since God is spirit, all things will be subjected to God when they are brought back to one power, and so, he says, he will be able to subject all things to him, namely to God. It may seem to be continuous and not joined in the discourse, since he put it thus, “so that he may also subject all things to him,” and did not first set down to whom we should refer “to him.” For if we refer “to him” to God, God has not been named above; it would be obscure and not right, and set down rather by the translator than by Paul. To whom, then, do we refer “to him”? It is agreed indeed that Christ works for this, to subject all things to God; but here there is no mention of God. To whom, then, do we refer it? It must be understood how briefly, yet plainly, he has set down God. For when he said that Christ, whom we await, transfigured the body of our lowliness, so that that body of our lowliness may be conformed to the body of his glory, here is where the understanding of God is received, and God himself, when he said, “according to the working of his power.” For Christ did all things to take care of souls, to give eternity to the flesh too, and to make our body conformed to the body of his glory; but he did this according to the working of his power. For he worked, but it is his power through which he worked: and that is God; for he works through the Father. Christ indeed works: namely, the Father is in him, and works through him. So where he said “of his power,” there God is understood, to whom, namely, he subjects all things, and for this he works, so that he may also subject all things to him. And as to his saying “also all things,” it refers to the fact that he himself is subject to him. For surely the Word, which is Christ, is subject to God, for God is more powerful. And this is proved by many things. He is the one who sends, this one the one who is sent; he the Father, this one the Son; this one through whom the working is, he the worker. So if these things are so, Christ is toward God as himself also subject. For so it is said in the first letter to the Corinthians: “but when all things have been subjected to him, then he himself will be subject to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.” Or is that the sense, that he said “so that he may also,” so that he not only makes the body of our lowliness conformed, but also can subject all things to him? For when all things that are either fleshly or creatures have been overcome and changed, all things are rendered subject to the power of God, through which Christ works.