Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, July 25, 2013 Read – Philippians 3 Chapter 3 is important to us because of the autobiographical information it contain – and it is more valuable to us because of the gospel it proclaims. We are going to focus on the autobiographical sections. The huge issue that generated the Jerusalem conference had to do with circumcision – and circumcision was at the core of the fiery letter Paul wrote to the Galatians. In this letter as well, Paul warns against those who still were insisting on circumcision for Christians. We have noted how Luke has striven hard to present a church that is unified in its decision that circumcision was not necessary. There is all kinds of evidence in Paul’s writings that the Jerusalem conference did not bring an end to the problem. Even in Philippi Paul found it necessary to warn against those whom Paul calls “dogs” – not a very nice way to talk, but Paul was never one to mince words. It is very obvious that Paul was angered by the “circumcision party.” Paul maintains that the actual motive of the circumcision party was so that they could boast about being better than others. Whether or not that is true we cannot tell. If anyone wants to boast – Paul can out-boast them all. And he provides his credentials: he was circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel from his birth, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews. No one could present more solid credentials than that. Paul goes on to describe himself as a Pharisee – something Luke will also say in the book of Acts – and then Paul goes on to make the claim that if you wanted to measure him up against the law he was blameless. This is no groveling sinner tortured by a guilty conscience! Paul does not flinch when he claims that he was the best there was at keeping the law! Luke would have shared this appraisal – the Paul he portrays on the Damascus Road is not a tortured sinner longing for conversion and forgiveness. Paul was a self-assured Jew! He was so self-assured that he became a persecutor of Christians. This portrait of Paul is important – both because it matches that of Luke in Acts and because it helps to highlight the power of the gospel. Paul does not describe his encounter with Jesus or why and what changed for him. Something obviously did change. The self-assured Paul remains as confident as ever – but now his confidence is in Jesus. And in the process Paul is willing to lose everything in order to be held fast by the one thing – Christ Jesus has made him his own. Those are important words. Becoming a Christian is not something we can do – it is something Jesus does to us and with us. And that made all the difference in Paul’s life. What motives Paul is not that he might achieve something but that he might be found faithful to Jesus who has revealed himself to him and claimed Paul as his own. Paul welcomes the Philippians – and us – to imitate him in our own lives.