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3:2 As in many of his letters, Paul puts his readers on guard against false teachers, especially those who pressure the Gentile believers to be circumcised.
3:4 Paul tells his own story to place his warning about circumcision in context. He is a Jew himself, and a Pharisee, one of the most careful observers of the Law. His teaching about circumcision comes from one who has loved and lived by the Law all his life. This background gives great force to Paul’s statement that he considers all the gains he might have had through observance of the Law as “so much rubbish” (3:8) in comparison with the love of Christ. He no longer trusts to his observance of the Law for his salvation. He trusts only to Christ.
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a. [3:1] 2:18; 4:4.
b. [3:2] Ps 22:17, 21; Rev 22:15 /
2 Cor 11:13 / Gal 5:6, 12.
c. [3:3] Rom 2:28–29; Col 2:11.
d. [3:4] 2 Cor 11:18, 21–23.
e. [3:5] Lk 1:59; 2:21 / Acts 22:3; 23:6;
26:5.
f. [3:6] Acts 8:3; 22:4; 26:9–11.
g. [3:7] Mt 13:44, 46; Lk 14:33.
h. [3:9] Rom 3:21–22.
PHILIPPIANS 
3Concluding Admonitions.
1Finally, my brothers, rejoice* in the Lord. Writing the same
things to you is no burden for me but is a safeguard for you.
V. POLEMIC: RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THE GOAL IN CHRIST*
Against Legalistic Teachers. 2* Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil-workers!b Beware of the mutilation!* 3For we are the circumcision,* we who worship through the Spirit of God, who boast in Christ Jesus and do not put our con dence in esh,c 4although I myself have grounds for con dence even in the esh.d
Paul’s Autobiography. If anyone else thinks he can be con dent in esh, all the more can I. 5Circumcised on the eighth day,* of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage, in observance of the law a Pharisee,e 6in zeal I persecuted the church, in righteousness based on the law I was blameless.f
Righteousness from God. 7[But] whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss* because of Christ.g 8More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ,h the righteousness from God, depending on faith 10to know him and the power of his resurrection and [the] sharing of his su erings by being conformed to his death,i 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.j
a
* [3:1] Finally. . .rejoice: the adverb often signals the close of a letter; cf. Phil 4:8; 2 Cor 13:11. While the verb could also be translated “good-bye” or “farewell,” although it is never so used in Greek epistolography, the theme of joy has been frequent in the letter (Phil 1:18; 2:2, 18); note also Phil 4:4 and the addition of “always” there as evidence for the meaning “rejoice.” To write the same things may refer to what Paul has previously taught in Philippi or to what he has just written or to what follows.
* [3:2–21] An abrupt change in content and tone, either because Paul at this point responds to disturbing news he has just heard about a threat to the faith of the Philippians in the form of false teachers, or because part of another Pauline letter was inserted here; see Introduction. The chapter describes these teachers in strong terms as dogs. The persons meant are evidently di erent from the rival preachers of Phil 1:14–18 and the opponents of Phil 1:28. Since Phil 3:2–4 emphasize Jewish terms like circumcision (Phil 3:2–3, 5), some relate them to the “Judaizers” of the Letter to the Galatians. Other phrases make them appear more like the false teachers of 2 Cor 11:12–15, the evil-workers. The latter part of the chapter depicts the many who are enemies of Christ’s cross in terms that may sound more Gentile or even “gnostic” than Jewish (Phil 3:18–19). Accordingly, some see two groups of false teachers in Phil 3, others one group characterized by a claim of having attained “perfect maturity” (Phil 3:12–15).
* [3:2–11] Paul sets forth the Christian claim, especially using personal, autobiographical terms that are appropriate to the situation. He presents his own experience in coming to know Christ Jesus in terms of righteousness or justi cation (cf. Rom 1:16–17; 3:21–5:11; Gal 2:5–11), contrasting the righteousness from God through faith and that of one’s own based on the law as two exclusive ways of pleasing God.
* [3:2] Beware of the mutilation: literally, “incision,” an ironic wordplay on “circumcision”; cf. Gal 5:12. There may be an association with the self-in icted mutilations of the prophets of Baal (1 Kgs 18:28) and of devotees of Cybele who slashed themselves in religious frenzy.
* [3:3] We are the circumcision: the true people of God, seed and o spring of Abraham (Gal 3:7, 29; 6:15). Spirit of God: some manuscripts read “worship God by the Spirit.”
* [3:5] Circumcised on the eighth day: as the law required (Gn 17:12; Lv 12:3).
* [3:7] Loss: his knowledge of Christ led Paul to reassess the ways of truly pleasing and serving God. His reevaluation indicates the profound and lasting e ect of his experience of the meaning of Christ on the way to Damascus some twenty years before (Gal 1:15–16;
Acts 9:1–22).