{"id":7515,"date":"2021-08-12T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=7515"},"modified":"2021-08-12T13:21:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T03:21:38","slug":"watch-out-for-evil-biting-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2021\/08\/12\/watch-out-for-evil-biting-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philippians 3:2\u00a02<\/sup>Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evildoers, watch out for the mutilators. 3<\/sup>For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,<\/em><\/p>\n

Just about everywhere Paul went in his ministry, soon legalistic Jewish Christians followed and preached a distorted gospel of works of following the Jewish law and customs, particularly the need for male Gentile Christians to be circumcised. His mission strategy was to go first to the local synagogues where he would preach and explain to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. He was often rejected and expelled. He changed his strategy in Corinth and said, “Your blood be on your heads. \u00a0I am innocent, from now on I will go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6). A majority of his letters touch upon the topic of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. He gives a strong warning at this point in this letter against people like this.<\/p>\n

Paul uses strong rhetoric in this warning, seen in the repeated imperative verb watch out<\/em> (blepete<\/em>). The three descriptions of the unnamed opponents in verse 2 create vivid images and all begin with the same Greek letter\u00a0kappa<\/em> (“k”). \u00a0We do not hear more about these opponents, but they were likely similar to ones in other places like Galatia. Paul calls them\u00a0dogs,<\/em> which would be derogatory for Jews. Dogs in the ancient world were scavengers that ate garbage on the streets or under tables (Matthew 15:26-27). Jews sometimes called Gentiles “dogs.” Paul essentially turns this around and calls these Jewish heretics “unclean.” They were also\u00a0evildoers<\/em> because they were actually enemies of God because they distorted the gospel of Christ. These Jews may have called the Gentiles evil, but now Paul reverses that thought also. Finally, they were\u00a0mutilators<\/em> because they pushed circumcision of the flesh and not the heart. The act of circumcision was a matter of show in order to conform to some preconceived idea of spirituality. Circumcision was one of the key identity markers for Jews. Paul again turns this around with irony in the following verse and shows what genuine circumcision means.<\/p>\n

Paul answers the the negatives with three positive descriptions of the\u00a0we<\/em>. He does not say who this “we” is, but the addition of the word circumcision\u00a0<\/em>implies that he is referring to Jewish Christians like himself, Jews who had come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. True circumcision is one of the heart (Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:25-29; Colossians 2:11). First, they\u00a0worship by the Spirit of God<\/em>. The word for\u00a0worship<\/em> (latreuontes<\/em>) is used for service in the temple. Believers worship God now as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). This is done\u00a0by the Spirit because persons like this have given themselves totally to God on the altar of \u00a0consecration and have allowed God’s Spirit to fill them. They have become temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). Second, they\u00a0glory in Christ Jesus<\/em>. Glory (kauch<\/em>\u014dmenoi<\/em>) can also mean “boast” and has a positive sense of lifting up Christ. This requires the humility of which Paul writes in 2:1-4. The only boasting believers should do is in Christ (Galatians 6:13-14). Finally, they\u00a0put no\u00a0confidence\u00a0in the flesh<\/i>. They have crucified the flesh as they laid themselves on the altar of commitment. Confidence in the flesh is another way of describing the old life under the control of sin and the deceived self. The fleshly person finds his or her resources in this world and what it offers. Sanctified believers put their confidence in Christ.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Philippians 3:2\u00a02Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evildoers, watch out for the mutilators. 3For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, Just about everywhere Paul went in his ministry, soon legalistic Jewish Christians followed and preached […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7515"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7559,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions\/7559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}