Sermon on Philippians 3:2-11, The True Gospel and Unity

“Beware of Dog!” Or in the Latin, “Cave Canem!” There is a pic from ancient Pompeii of a tile mosaic at the entrance to someone’s house that says this with a picture of a dog on it. Yes, people have owned dogs for thousands and thousands of years, and used them for watch dogs just as long. One of the most successful interspecies collaborations of all time, someone has said.

Of course, people haven’t been content with just a simple sign, beware of dog. Here’s one person who also has a cat: “Beware of the Dog, But beware of the cat too, he’s kinda weird.”

Sometimes it’s the owner who is the issue: “Dog is Friendly, Beware of Owner” and “Dogs Welcome, People Tolerated.”

Sometimes it’s downright scary: “Warning: Dog Hiding in Yard. Knock Softly, Move Slowly, Act Calm” and “Beware of the Dog. His Bite is Worse than His Bark” and “Beware of Bad Dog: Dangerous Dog, does not bark! You wil not hear him coming. We are not responsible for your injury or death” and “Beware of Dogs: They are faster than you are.”

Sometimes it’s not the bite you need to worry about: “Beware of Dog: He is very sarcastic” and “Beware of Dog Poop” and “Beware: Dog can’t hold its licker.”

And some you’re not sure how serious they are: “Death from the ankles down.”

The apostle Paul, on the other hand is very serious. It’s not a laughing matter for him at all when he warns the Philippian church of the dogs:

² Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Up until this time in his letter Paul has been generous and loving and affectionate, but in this third part of the letter he starts to sound downright nasty. What’s going on? Paul uses a little technique that isn’t evident in our translation. He says in Greek, beware the κύνας, the κακοὺς ἐργάτας, and the κατατομήν, each term starting with the Greek letter kappa or k. If we were to try to duplicate this in English we could keep the letter ‘d’ in dogs and write, “Beware the dogs, beware the devil workers, and beware the destroyers of the flesh.

In the ancient world dogs could be pets or guard dogs, but they could also be symbols for what is vulgar, profane, and unholy. These false teachers are those who should be faithful guard dogs for the gospel (and no doubt see themselves as such) but are actually ravenous dogs attacking those who hold to the true gospel. They are evil workers who are undoing the work of the gospel by teaching a false gospel. They are mutilators of the flesh who think that physical circumcision is essential to salvation, because in their view law keeping is the means of gaining favor with God. They believe that their righteousness will gain them entry into the kingdom.

And this is why Paul is so severe in his warning. You may remember that in the first part of his letter Paul mentioned the two camps of those proclaiming the gospel in Rome while he was there under house arrest. One group was trying to cause Paul trouble and stress. We don’t know what it was they thought would do that, undoubtedly they had some differences with Paul. But he says they are preaching Christ, the true gospel, so he isn’t stressed, he rejoices! But this group he is calling dogs, devil workers and destroyers of the flesh are not preaching Christ truly. They are preaching a false gospel, and that is a great danger to the true gospel.

Paul knows that if the Philippians embrace this perspective, it will mean a danger to their spiritual lives. They will have fallen from grace, to use Paul’s phrase in Galatians 5. That doesn’t mean they will lose their salvation, but that they are likely not true believers, because true believers don’t desert the true gospel. And though Paul is concerned for the unity of the Philippian church, a unity that is in agreement about a false gospel is the worst kind of unity possible.

There was a split in a church in our community this last week. The ones who felt that their church was abandoning the gospel left the congregation and are starting a new congregation. If indeed that church is teaching a false gospel, those who departed are right in doing so. According to Paul, in Philippians, we should not divide if we are holding to the true gospel, no matter our differences. Proclaiming the true gospel should unite us. Paul didn’t divide from those who were preaching the true gospel with impure motives. But as he says in Galatians, if someone preaches a gospel other than the one he preached, let them be anathema. There can be no unity with a false gospel.

What is the crux of Paul’s warning, the gist of the false teachers’ concept of how to be saved? Look at verse 3:

³ For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh—

There are only two paths to salvation taught by the world’s religions, works and faith. Every religion other than Christianity teaches salvation by works: Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, etc. This in essence is salvation by heroic doing of good, and it revolves around confidence in our abilities to please God enough to make it into His favor. There is an arrogance about it that says, “I’m capable of scoring points with God by the way I live my life.”

Christianity, on the other hand, says we don’t have the ability to win God over by our goodness. We are extraordinary beings, made in God’s image, and capable of amazing things, but we are, at heart, in rebellion against God, trying to make it in life without Him. We can’t earn heaven. Someone has to earn if for us by paying the penalty for rebellion that we deserve. And that someone is Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not from yourselves. It is the gift of God – not from works, so no that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8,9).

These particular false teachers that Paul warns about have Jewish aspect to their good works. They believed that you have to keep the Law of Moses to score points with God. Men submitting to circumcision was part of that. Paul wasn’t against circumcision, per se, but against circumcision and all law-keeping as a means of earning God’s favor. If all you had was physical circumcision, you were just mutilating yourself. Christians, followers of Jesus, were truly circumcised, whether they were physically circumcised or not, because they worshiped by the Holy Spirit of God and did not put confidence in the flesh.

But lest the false teachers think that the only reason Paul teaches salvation by grace instead of law is because he can’t cut it in terms of law-keeping, Paul begs to differ:

⁴ although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

⁵ circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

Paul has credentials:

• Paul’s circumcision credentials: circumcised the eighth day, not as an adult later, but as an infant
• Paul’s Jewish credentials: of the nation of Israel (a descendent of Jacob), of the tribe of Benjamin (not like those less pure Jews), a Hebrew born of Hebrews (not of mixed blood)
• Paul’s law-keeping credentials: a Pharisee (the strictest law keepers in town), a zealous persecutor of the church (working to root out heresy), and blamelessly righteous

It is consistent with teaching law-keeping that you will accuse grace teaching as heresy. The very church these false teachers want to uphold, they will tear down. I’ve seen it in Ethiopia with the Christian Orthodox Church. They persecute those evangelicals who teach salvation by grace through faith. I’ve seen it in the animosity of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons to evangelicals in Ecuador. They hate the idea of grace because that takes salvation out of their hands and no glory comes to them for their own righteousness.

And that is the problem, Paul says:

⁷ But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.

⁸ More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ

Trusting in your own righteousness is actually a hindrance to getting saved. You have to abandon your own works as a means of salvation. Like the rich young ruler whom Jesus told to sell all he had and give it to the poor and then follow him, we are asked to give up the supposed riches we have in our own righteousness. What are you trusting in? Yourself and your ability to impress the Lord? Or is all your trust and faith in Christ and what he has done for you?

That is why Paul says he had to reckon his “goodness” and “righteousness” as worthless and profane in order to gain Christ and the salvation available in him. Can you do that? Can you give up all your merit points you think you have with God and trust in Jesus’ provision for your life instead? Or like the rich young ruler will you walk away from Christ sorrowing. If you can’t humble yourself, you will never be exalted or elevated to heaven and eternal life.

Paul’s conversion was like this, a giving up of everything he thought of as gain for him with God. When he met Christ he saw the greater gain and let go of his so-called spiritual possessions. And as he is writing the Philippians he is still considering everything loss “in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord.” Though he is saved and reconciled to God through Christ he is still in the process of pursuing Christ. And so should we be. And as we do and are, our own selfish agendas and vanity about how important our viewpoints are will take their proper place, their lower priority, for the sake of the gospel and its progress in winning men and women, boys and girls, in this Christ starved world.

If the false teachers get us hooked on beefing up our own righteousness we will lose Christ and our unity in Him. And so Paul says, in verse 9,

⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.

Here, my friends, is the gospel that produces unity, because it is the gospel that acknowledges the bankruptcy of my own righteousness that comes from law obedience for the right standing with God that comes from Him through faith in Christ. We should obey God’s law, but our obedience is not enough to make us righteous.

For more than six hundred years the Hapsburgs exercised political power in Europe. When Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria died in 1916, his was the last of the extravagant imperial funerals. A processional of dignitaries and elegantly dressed court personages escorted the coffin, draped in the black and gold imperial colors.

To the accompaniment of a military band and by the light of torches as it had grown dark, the funeral procession descended the stairs of the Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. At the bottom was a great iron door leading to the Hapsburg family crypt. Behind the door was the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna. The officer in charge followed the prescribed ceremony, established centuries before.

“Open!” he cried. “Who goes there?” responded the Cardinal. “We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Defender of the Faith, Prince of Bohemia-Moravia, Grand Duke of Lombardy, Venezia, Styrgia…” The officer continued to list the Emperor’s thirty-seven titles.

“We know him not,” replied the Cardinal. “Who goes there?” The officer spoke again, this time using a much abbreviated and less ostentatious title reserved for times when speed was required. “We know him not,” the Cardinal said again. “Who goes there?” The officer tried a third time: “We bear the body of Franz-Josef, our brother, a sinner like us all!”

At that, the doors swung open, and Franz-Josef was admitted.

Paul says, in verses 10 and 11,

¹⁰ My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, ¹¹ assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

It was Christ’s resurrection that saved us. Yes, his death paid the penalty we deserved for our rebellion, but his resurrection proved that his sacrifice was accepted and its benefits applied to us. In a sense, we died with Jesus, paying the penalty for our crimes, and having been forgiven we were raised with Jesus to new life. That is our conversion. And now we are shown to be his when we suffer for the sake of the gospel, conforming once again to his death as we await the resurrection of our bodies and are made fit for the kingdom.

Knowing Christ must be our greatest aspiration. Knowing his resurrection and sufferings is what rescues us. Paul’s warning about the false gospel is that it teaches dependence on personal righteousness instead of on the righteousness of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

We call this Sunday in our church calendar Palm Sunday, because nearly two thousand years ago Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, riding on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, and was greeted by the citizens of that city waving palm branches and crying out “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” He was acknowledged as the son of David and therefore the true king, but less than one week later he was accused of blasphemy and sedition, and put to death on a cross. Then came Sunday, the first day of the week, and after three days in the tomb he came back to life. What an incredible Savior we have.

Each week we remember our Savior’s sacrifice and in obedience to him commemorate it with the eating of bread and drinking of wine, symbols of his sacrifice. We are sustained by his sacrifice, not by our own righteousness. With Paul we are making our number one priority to know him, and the power of the salvation that comes from his resurrection, and to share in his sufferings so that we will be resurrected ourselves when he comes again.

Christ died for our sins, Christ was resurrected, Christ is coming again!