Slices
Prepare
What do you have to rejoice about (v 1)? Write a list and spend time being joyful before the Lord.
Bible passage
No confidence in the flesh
3 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh – 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 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. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 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. 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, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Explore
‘Confidence’ is a key word here (vs 3,4). Paul’s confidence had been in his heritage as a Jew, a learned, law- observant Pharisee and a persecutor of the Jesus-followers (vs 5,6). Some think of Paul as deeply burdened by guilt before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–19), but his reflection here is that as far as right standing with God under the Jewish law was concerned, he was faultless (v 6).
Paul warns the Philippians about people who sought to persuade Gentile believers to keep the Jewish law and (for men) accept circumcision (v 2; we meet these people in Galatians, too). It could be tempting, for Judaism was an established way of life, so Gentile believers could avoid being treated so much as social outsiders if others saw them as Jewish.
Against this pressure, Paul focuses the believers’ attention afresh on Jesus. Verses 7–11 are one long sentence in Greek, drawing a contrast, but not between ‘Christianity’ and ‘Judaism’, for Paul is still deeply Jewish. It is about finding that what God freely gives through Jesus is more valuable than all things – for Jesus makes us God’s own people.
Note down the things which flow from trusting Christ (vs 7–11) and give thanks to God for them.
Respond
Search for a YouTube recording of Graham Kendrick’s song ‘Knowing you, Jesus’ (2011), based on this passage, and listen worshipfully to it.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Isaiah 63,64; Hebrews 13
Pray for Scripture Union
Mission Partner DSWT gives thanks for nearly 30 years of outreach to schools in Doncaster with RE lessons, Open the Book assemblies Prayers and seasonal events and for the faithful work of Linda and Dan. Pray that new recruit Ellie will settle into her work in primary schools.
