Defiant Joy: A Study On PhilippiansIsampula

DAY 6: JOY THAT DEFIES MEASURING UP

In chapter 3, Paul does something that he doesn’t do anywhere else in Philippians. It is a distinct change in his tone, and it sounds TOTALLY unlike him up to this point. This is what he says:

“Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.” (v. 2)

These words seem so out of place. This is the same man who, two chapters earlier, brushed off his critics with a shrug. But something is different here. Paul still echoes his refrain of rejoicing (v. 1), but now his words are pointed and harsh. The question is why? Who was Paul talking about?

Some background

In chapter 3, Paul describes a group called the “Judaizers”—these were Jewish Christians who believed all Christians must be Jewish too. In short, they were adding to the gospel. For these people, Jesus’ death wasn’t enough to save us. We must DO something to justify ourselves.

Paul doesn’t mince words about this. In his day, there were few greater insults than calling someone a “dog.” However, Paul also explains that he used to be just like the Judaizers. Before becoming a Christian, Paul was the perfect Jew, an accomplishment that he ultimately “counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” (v 7)

But why? 

Paul counted his religiousness as a “loss” because, in hindsight, he realized it stood between him and God. He had resisted God’s grace by trying to live without it. He wanted to do it all on his own, so he followed all the rules and lived a good life, to minimize his reliance on God.

To put it another way, not everyone rebels against God by being bad. Some of us rebel against God by being good. We want to earn our seat at the table. We want to prove ourselves. We don’t want to need grace—that’s for the flawed and the weak—so we try our hardest to follow the rules so that we don’t actually have to rely on God.

This rebellion—masterfully disguised as faithfulness—was what Paul considered a total loss. It didn’t make him holier or closer to God; it actually made him less.

The Heavy Burden of Measuring Up

This “rebellion” manifests in many ways, but one of the most common is the pressure to “measure up.” The need to measure up comes from our inner "Judaizer", which adds rules and expectations to the free grace of Christ. 

What Paul understood is that confidence in the flesh (v. 3), in whatever form it comes, will always steal our joy which is why we need to place our confidence in Christ. He is the one who measures up so we don’t have to. We can simply cease striving and let the perfect One be perfect enough for us all. Trying to be perfect ourselves costs way too much.