May 4 – Philippians 3:2-3
"Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—"
Do you remember the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman from Matthew 15:21-28? She begged him to heal her daughter. His response was meant for the Jews in the room when he responded that it wasn't right to take the food from the children and give it to their dogs. He was teaching the Jews a lesson in compassion, but I'll bet they didn't learn it.
'Dogs' was one of the degrading terms the Jews used for Gentiles and here in Philippians 3:2, Paul turns it around on the Judaizers who just couldn't be satisfied with the idea that Jesus actually expected nothing more than faith in Him for salvation. They wanted to impose the Law on Gentiles and were making the church in Philippi nuts with their demands.
Paul was actually playing with words here. 'Mutilators of the flesh' comes from a Greek word which means 'harshly cut.' Well, the last thing anyone wants to do when performing a circumcision is to mutilate the child. When they attack the Gentile Christians, they are mutilating the spirit.
Circumcision is a symbol of the covenant between God and His children Israel. But, Paul goes on to say that was all about the flesh. When Christ came and the New Covenant was set into place, there was no longer a need to put confidence in the things of the flesh. With His resurrection and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, we put our confidence for salvation and eternity into the Spirit.
We are no longer bound by the Law, but by the Spirit.
"Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—"
Do you remember the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman from Matthew 15:21-28? She begged him to heal her daughter. His response was meant for the Jews in the room when he responded that it wasn't right to take the food from the children and give it to their dogs. He was teaching the Jews a lesson in compassion, but I'll bet they didn't learn it.
'Dogs' was one of the degrading terms the Jews used for Gentiles and here in Philippians 3:2, Paul turns it around on the Judaizers who just couldn't be satisfied with the idea that Jesus actually expected nothing more than faith in Him for salvation. They wanted to impose the Law on Gentiles and were making the church in Philippi nuts with their demands.
Paul was actually playing with words here. 'Mutilators of the flesh' comes from a Greek word which means 'harshly cut.' Well, the last thing anyone wants to do when performing a circumcision is to mutilate the child. When they attack the Gentile Christians, they are mutilating the spirit.
Circumcision is a symbol of the covenant between God and His children Israel. But, Paul goes on to say that was all about the flesh. When Christ came and the New Covenant was set into place, there was no longer a need to put confidence in the things of the flesh. With His resurrection and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, we put our confidence for salvation and eternity into the Spirit.
We are no longer bound by the Law, but by the Spirit.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment