“The Exploring Philippians” event with N.T. Wright was organized by Admirato.org.
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I in turn may be encouraged by getting news about you. 20 I have nobody else of his quality: he will care quite genuinely about how you are. 21 Everybody else, you see, looks after their own interests, not those of Messiah Jesus. 22 But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a child with a father he has worked as a slave alongside me for the sake of the gospel. 23 So I’m hoping to send him just as soon as I see how it will turn out with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come very soon as well.
25 But I did think it was necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. He is my brother; he has worked alongside me and fought alongside me; and he’s served as your agent in tending to my needs. 26 He was longing for you all, you see, and he was upset because you heard that he was sick. 27 And he really was sick, too; he nearly died. But God took pity on him—yes, and on me as well, so that I wouldn’t have one sorrow piled on top of another.
28 This has made me all the more eager to send him, so that you’ll see him again and be glad, and my own anxieties will be laid to rest. 29 So give him a wonderfully happy welcome in the Lord, and hold people like him in special respect. 30 He came close to death through risking his life for the Messiah’s work, so that he could complete the service to me that you hadn’t been able to perform.
-Philippians 2:19-30
Paul commends Timothy and Epaphroditus to the Philippians. Timothy had traveled with Paul to Philippi in the past and the Philippians had sent Epaphroditus with the money for Paul. Perhaps Paul was making sure the Philippians knew that Epaphroditus had not stolen the money since he had not yet returned! Instead he had gotten sick but was now better.
For more on the New Perspective on Paul which has become quite well accepted see Paul and His Recent Interpreters and Paul and the Faithfulness of God.
Two Themes in this Passage
Paul’s Judean Context
The Judaizers wanted the Gentiles to follow the law starting with getting circumcised in order to become followers of Jesus.
Paul refers to these Judaizers as “dogs.” Jews often called Gentiles “dogs.”
Paul also says they are doing bad works rather than good works as they suggest.
Paul says they are not the “cutting round people” but the “cut off people.” He may be referencing the way the priests of Baal mutilated themselves when going up against Elijah.
Paul insists followers of Jesus are the circumcision and children of Abraham! (See also Romans 2:25-29)
Followers of Jesus have access to the Spirit of God and none of this has anything to do with moral good works or ethnic heritage. This happens because of what Jesus has done for us and our faith in His faithfulness.
Justification and Being in Christ
Paul deals with this more in other letters, but he includes this here as well.
The word “righteousness” is a HUGE word that has picked up lots of baggage along the way. Does it mean covenant faithfulness and loyalty or moral goodness? It means those things and so much more!
So then, my dear family, it comes down to this: celebrate in the Lord! It’s no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and it’s safe for you.
2 Watch out for the dogs! Watch out for the “bad works” people! Watch out for the “incision” party, that is, the mutilators! 3 We are the “circumcision,” you see—we who worship God by the spirit, and boast in Messiah Jesus, and refuse to trust in the flesh.
4 Mind you, I’ve got good reason to trust in the flesh. If anyone else thinks they have reason to trust in the flesh, I’ve got more. 5 Circumcised? On the eighth day. Race? Israelite. Tribe? Benjamin. Descent? Hebrew through and through. Torah-observance? A Pharisee. 6 Zealous? I persecuted the church! Official status under the law? Blameless.
7 Does that sound as though my account was well in credit? Well, maybe; but whatever I had written in on the profit side, I calculated it instead as a loss—because of the Messiah. 8 Yes, I know that’s weird, but there’s more: I calculate everything as a loss, because knowing Messiah Jesus as my Lord is worth far more than everything else put together! In fact, because of the Messiah I’ve suffered the loss of everything, and I now calculate it as trash, so that my profit may be the Messiah, 9 and that I may be discovered in him, not having my own covenant status defined by Torah, but the status which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness: the covenant status from God which is given to faith. 10 This means knowing him, knowing the power of his resurrection, and knowing the partnership of his sufferings. It means sharing the form and pattern of his death, 11 so that somehow I may arrive at the final resurrection from the dead.
– Philippians 3:1-11
Phil. 3:1-11
Paul is talking about how God’s covenant people are to live.
He is not talking about what we must do to get to heaven as so many Westerners think.
The inner heart of covenant status is to KNOW JESUS! This is the beating heart of our relationship.
The meaning of “pistis Cristou” is “the faithfulness of the Messiah” rather than “faith in the Messiah” as what is meant so our “faith in the faithfulness of the Messiah” is the more accurate meaning.
Resurrection is the Jewish aspiration! No one else believed this (and really only the Pharisees within Judaism held onto this hope).
God has done for Jesus what He promises to do for all of His children.
Belief in Jesus makes us Messianic people.
Jesus expressed and lived out a new way to be human which meant fully surrendered to God including giving His life.
Jesus lived out and experienced the Messianic obedience of the cross, the Messianic vindication of the resurrection, and the Messianic enthronement of the ascension.
Paul sets aside his elite Jewish status to be a Messianic man. Perhaps he is hinting at the need for the Philippians to set aside their special Roman status. Paul goes through his “insignia of honor” which was a common thing to do in their culture. He lists 7 things – 6 of which had nothing to do with his own moral goodness.
Paul tells his own story to communicate that even he had to die to the law so that he might live for God. He is wanting to see others like him come to faith in Jesus as well. He is not boasting! He is inviting others like him to follow Jesus as the Messiah.
So much of this is grounded in the Christology of Phil. 2:6-11 and Jesus’ invitation to “take up your cross and follow me.”
Just as Jesus did not consider his equality with God as something to exploit, Paul does not consider his elite Judaism heritage as something for him to exploit. These “successes” are not considered “loss.”
Phil. 3:8-11
The personal cost for Paul included losing his family and comfort or identity in his ethnic heritage.
But all the loss was worth it to be with Jesus!
Paul experienced Jesus’s love for him. There is a deeply personal note of friendship and understanding that Jesus is the King! The Lord of the whole world! The promised Messiah!
All that was honoring to him in the past was now just like trash, what you find in the dump.
Knowing Jesus is deeply personal, but it should not remain private. We are to be those who proclaim this opportunity to others! We are to live as royal family and ambassadors to the world as Jesus is King of the whole world!
Roman emperors exploited their power. Jesus, the True King, suffered for us.
If you are in Messiah then you are part of the innermost circle of God’s people. That’s how Paul knows we are the circumcision.
We have covenant status with God (diakosune) because of the (pistis) faithfulness of the Messiah himself and our faith in Him.
We now have the courage and confidence to be the Messiah’s people in our broken and dark world.
We live joyfully in our world rather than hiding in a corner from the world.
The Messiah’s people do not need to wait to find out what our status in with Him.
When Paul writes “that I may be discovered in Him” (Phil. 3:9), this is a declaration of his present status not just something to come in the future.
We are not like the Judean community whose identity is based on ethnicity but the Messianic community whose identity is based on who Jesus is and who we are in Him.
We cannot allow ourselves to be sidelined!
We are in Him – the One who is King of the whole world! The One whose Kingdom is here!
