Philippians 3 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Phil 3:1-3

A. Find Out:    

1. What does he encourage them to do? v.1a
   • Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord!
2. Why doesn’t he mind writing the same things? v.1b
   • It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you
3. What 3 descriptions does he give in v.2?
   • Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.
4. What is his claim for them? v.3a
   • For it is we who are the circumcision
5. What is the 1st description in v.3b?
   • we who serve God by his Spirit,
6. What is the 2nd description in v.3c?
   • who boast in Christ Jesus
7. What is the 3rd description in v.3d?
   • and who put no confidence in the flesh 

B. Think:

1. Who is Paul warning against?
2. Why does he see them as wrong?
3. What is a modern day parallel of requiring circumcision?

C. Comment:

Paul’s main concern in these few verses is to warn against those who still insist upon circumcision. His language is remarkably strong as he warns against those who insist on salvation being confirmed by an act of outward religiosity. His reasons are made clear when he goes on to state very positively how the real Christians live.

First, he says that Christianity is all about WORSHIP, that is Spirit led and inspired, and the implication is that it is not about formal, ritualistic worship.

Second, he says is that Christians are those who are WORSHIPPERS of Christ, those who are fully taken up by the wonder of what the Son of God has achieved.

Third, he says Christians are aware of WEAKNESS, weakness of self; they realise that nothing they can do can achieve their salvation and they are therefore, entirely reliant on the Lord’s provision of salvation. Paul’s warning, therefore, is against religion that relies upon external religious acts with no heart change. The true Christian has had his heart changed, not some outward part of him; it is an inward change, not an outward one, that brings the change of life we call “becoming a Christian”.

D. Application?

1. The temptation is to perform religious acts to try to confirm our salvation. Resist it. Jesus has done everything necessary.
2. Real life comes by the Spirit of God within who releases worship at the realisation of the wonder of our salvation.

Passage: Phil 3:4-6

A. Find Out:

1. In what did Paul have grounds for confidence? v.4a
   • If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh
2. In fact how much did he have? v.4b
   • I have more:
3. What was his prime sign of Jewishness? v.5a
   • circumcised on the eighth day
4. What was his family “pedigree”? v.5b
   • of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews
5. What was his sign of being a law-keeper? v.5c
   • in regard to the law, a Pharisee
6. What was his sign of being zealous? v.6
   • as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

B. Think:

1. What had Paul previously said about Christians?
2. What point was he now making? (also v.7)
3. How do people today parade their confidence in the flesh?

C. Comment:

Paul has just said that one of the three characteristics of a real Christian is that they don’t put their trust or confidence in the things of the flesh or the things of self. He is now going on to show that if that would have been any help he would have been head of the queue for righteousness.

First, he is Jewish through and through; he is one of God’s chosen people, the chosen race. That ought to be worth something. He is a circumcised pedigree Jew!

Second, he has been someone who has been all out to obey God’s laws, a Pharisee. That must make him really good.

Third, he has proved his zealousness for God by persecuting the church, positively standing against what he had seen as wrong religion. Without doubt he had been all out for God, so that ought to win him a place in heaven!

Today people do this by going to church once a week, by “being nice”, by being a pillar of society, by doing “good works”, but as with Paul we have to say that all such things are a complete waste of time, if you are trying to impress God, because salvation cannot be earned, it is a free gift that comes by the grace and mercy of God, and nothing we do can impress Him!

D. Application?

1. Under the robes of respectability is always an imperfect heart.
2. Because we always fail to achieve perfection, God’s salvation must be a gift of grace!

Passage: Phil 3:7-11

A. Find Out:

1. What does he consider all the previous list? v.7
   • But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
2. Against what does he compare that? v.8a
   • What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
3. What does he now consider those things? v.8b
   • I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
4. What is the first benefit of knowing Christ? v.9
   • and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
5. What other two things did he want to know? v.10
   •  I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death
6. What finally did he hope for? v.11
   • and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

B. Think:

1. What was it that Paul now viewed as pure rubbish?
2. What was he setting all that against so that he saw it as it really was?
3. How would you summarise Paul’s message?

C. Comment:

Paul has just listed all his human qualifications for being considered good but, he says, they are all rubbish for the scrap heap when you compare them against what is possible. All those things are debris in comparison to knowing Christ. Hold onto all those things and you just know yourself. Lose them and you come to know Christ when you surrender all to him.

Note the phrases “in him” and “in Christ” (v.9) which occur many times in the New Testament. That is the POSITION we have when we come to him, and with it, it carries many PRIVILEGES.

The first privilege is to be declared righteous by God, to receive His righteousness, a real righteousness, not just an outward one.

Second, we receive power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (see also Romans 8:11)

Third, we share in the experiences of Jesus, the experience of being rejected by men.

Fourth, we have the hope of resurrection after death to reign with him for eternity IF we persevere to the end (note Paul’s uncertainty “somehow”). All the means are ours to ensure that eternity. What a balance of things! Righteousness, power, rejection and resurrection to eternal life!

D. Application?

1. My righteousness, if it comes from my own endeavours is worthless. If it comes from him, from knowing him, it is everything.
2. Being in him, guarantees a power and a position and a future

Passage: Phil 3:12-14

A. Find Out:

1. What 2 things hadn’t happened? v.12a
   • Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,
2. But what was Paul doing? v.12b
   • but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
3. Again what negative does Paul reiterate? v.13a
   • Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
4. What 2 positives is he employing? v.13b
   • But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead,
5. What does he reiterate he is doing? v.14a
   •  I press on towards the goal to win the prize
6. What is the end result? v.14b
   • for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

B. Think:

1. How does Paul convey a sense of incompleteness in his life?
2. What response does that create in him?
3. What assurances does he have of getting it?

C. Comment:

There is here, in these few verses, a strange mixture of the sense of incompleteness in Paul mixed with a great sense of purpose to obtain that completeness. The one follows on from the other.

First Paul’s sense of incompleteness. In the previous verses he spoke about the power of the resurrection, sharing in Christ’s sufferings and attaining the resurrection from the dead. Now he puts great emphasis on his failure to have obtained all these things yet, his imperfect state still. He is quite aware of his imperfect state.

But then see the force of the response that this creates in him. Twice he says he presses on, and that has force and energy behind it, an active straining to achieve it. His goal is the ultimate call of Christ to Paul, to join Him in heaven for eternity. That, says Paul, is the all-important thing to go for; everything in the present contributes towards achieving that.

The strange thing, which doesn’t often come over with Paul, is the clear implication that it IS possible for a person who is a Christian now NOT to obtain all this, and perseverance is needed to ensure there is no falling away and losing the promised inheritance.

D. Application?

1. The promise of eternity with Christ in heaven is ours, but it needs perseverance to take it.
2. A sense of incompleteness or imperfection is common in Christians, it gives a goal to continue on to.

Passage: Phil 3:15,16

A. Find Out:

1. To whom does he speak? v.15a
   • All of us, then, who are mature
2. What does he say they should do? v.15b
   • should take such a view of things.
3. But what may happen? v.15c
   • if on some point you think differently
4. But what will God do? v.15d
   • hat too God will make clear to you.
5. What does he exhort them to do? v.16
   • Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

B. Think:

1. What has Paul previously just been referring to?
2. What is he now saying?
3. How is his exhortation tinged with graciousness?

C. Comment:

In these two brief verses there is so much to consider. We can sometimes rush over large passages but instead let’s meditate on these two verses. Initially let’s consider Paul’s main point: that a mature Christian will think in the way he has been saying.

What has he been saying?

•  First, that we need to count all things as lost in coming to and knowing Christ.
•  Second, righteousness comes from God alone. 
•  Third, although having been declared righteous by God, our part is to push on to claim the inheritance that is ours which concludes with us receiving a place in heaven for eternity.

Now, says Paul, if you are mature as a Christian, I’m sure you will think like this, BUT if you haven’t seen all this yet, if you haven’t had this clarity of revelation in your Christian life, I’m sure God will make it clear to you sometime ahead. That is a gracious way of saying, these are basics of being a Christian and if you haven’t grown up enough to understand them yet, God still loves you and will get through to you on these things. There’s a gentleness in that.

His final plea is for each of us to hold the ground that we’ve been given and not let it slip away or be taken from us by the enemy. There IS something to live up to, this glorious wonder called the Gospel, that should motivate us to greater and higher things!

D. Application?

1. Maturity involves understanding the wonder of what we’ve been given and working to receive more of it.
2. Salvation is a gift to be received more and more.

Passage: Phil 3:17-19

A. Find Out:

1. What does he ask them to do first? v.17
   • Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
2. About who does he now feel saddened? v.18
   • For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ
3. Where is their destiny? v.19a
   • Their destiny is destruction
4. What is their god? v.19b
   • their god is their stomach
5. What is their glory? v.19c
   • their glory is in their shame
6. On what is their mind? v.19d
   • Their mind is set on earthly things.

B. Think:

1. How is Paul’s life more than just words?
2. How is Paul seen to be moved by compassion?
3. Yet how is his mind seen to be sharp and clear?

C. Comment:

Paul has been speaking about a life of living in the Spirit, glorifying Jesus and having no confidence in self activity (3:3 and following). He now makes a simple plea for his readers to follow in the same way, and as he does so he mentions in anguished tones those who are against Christ.

For a moment we catch the gentleness, humility and grace of this powerful apostle who weeps for the lost. Here is a man who is not just words, but one who sets an example of the highest kind and who is moved to weep for those who are lost. What an example indeed! We need to have noted that first, before we come to his description of the lost, otherwise his words might seem hard. He is quite clear, these people are bent on self destruction, they live for personal pleasure and they almost seem to revel in their shame and their minds are filled with earthly, material, transient things.

Yes, they have focused on false values, things that will only lead them into a godless eternity. When we see the non-Christian in this light and see the foolishness and hopelessness of their lives, it is no wonder that Paul speaks of them with tears in his eyes and anguish in his heart. May we feel the same.

D. Application?

1. We are called to stand out (see also Matthew 5:13 ,14,16). Do we?
2. When we consider the lost is it with harsh judgementalism or yearning compassion?

Passage: Phil 3:20 – 4:1

A. Find Out:

1. Who are we now? v.20a
   • But our citizenship is in heaven.
2. For whom are we waiting? v.20b
   • And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
3. What will he do? v.21b
   • will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
4. How will he do it? v.21a
   • who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control
5. How does Paul describe these Philippians? v.1a
   • Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,
6. To what end has he been speaking? v.1b
   • stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

B. Think:

1. These verses contrast with what?
2. How does Paul say our outlook on our future should affect who we are today?
3. How does Paul show his feelings for these Christians in Philippi ?

C. Comment:

Paul had recently said (v.15) that mature Christians should see themselves as counting all earthly things as loss for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ and his power in us. He then contrasted the foolish of the world who are against Christ, who concentrate on satisfying their physical appetites and who think only of transient material things. So it is in stark contrast to all this that Paul now says that we are to remember we are citizens of heaven; heaven is our home, our destiny, and that thought is to influence and govern how we live today.

Yes, says Paul, one of these days Jesus will come for you (either at death or when he returns to the earth) and he will then transform you into someone who has an immortal body, just like his own. With that new body you will live in eternity, never to see death again, living in the glorious presence of God for ever. For most of us today, we are locked into the material world in which we live, and most of our waking life is filled with thoughts of material things, but Paul encourages us to think on our heavenly destiny, to remind ourselves that life here on earth is not the end, and in that way be strengthened for today.

D. Application?

1. We are people of eternity!
2. In eternity, our time on earth is a mere drop in the ocean. Can we see life in that perspective?