Philippians 3:1-21
3:1 Paul continues his exhortation knowing that the Philippians (and even us reading now) will need these core concepts built into our faith in order to keep our faith strong and healthy.
3:2 Be careful not to be derailed, directed, influenced or inspired by people whose motives are corrupt. Paul warns that there will always be people who are deceptive in order to gain for themselves. We must recognize these people and institutions.
3:3 We are the metaphorical circumcision; we are edified through the development of our faith.
3:2 Be careful not to be derailed, directed, influenced or inspired by people whose motives are corrupt. Paul warns that there will always be people who are deceptive in order to gain for themselves. We must recognize these people and institutions.
3:3 We are the metaphorical circumcision; we are edified through the development of our faith.
To have no confidence in the flesh is to understand that the way of the world is backward. The world is within the final stages of globalization. Cultures are almost entirely stripped from regions and with them so are the natural ways of living, eating, building, communicating, reasoning. Instead of being original and inquisitive, thoughtful and creative, people seek to have the latest mass-market commercialized product. Humanity desperately, ceaselessly desires to procure material, power, property or wealth.
The way of the spirit is to revert back to what truly gives us life and happiness and wealth: originality, curiosity, thought and creativity! We must once again become explorers. We must again fall in love and awe with the miracles around us...life in so many manifestations. We take our incredible earth and universe for granted:
“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are here for so much more than to procure. We are here to become authentic, to create and develop our character. To observe the world and absorb its lessons. To be impacted by humanity and subsequently changed, influenced and grown. We are here to contemplate our earth, humanity, our spirit. To know oneself is to understand oneself as a part of the whole.
"Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment." Lao Tzu
3:4 Paul is explaining that he is not exempt from understanding the physical, tangible "flesh" life. This is our reality. We wake up in these bodies but from deeply entrenched in this world, it feels as though we wake up as these bodies. They bear much of the burden we carry here. It is easy to have confidence in what we feel like we are. It is easy to have confidence in this world because we are here and without digging, it feels like we always have been and might always be. And yet... there's more. Paul is relating to us saying: I get it. This life is challenging but although we feel as though this life requires our entire focus, we actually focus in on it better through the focus of our spirituality.
3:5-6 Paul identifies his ancestry and his past as an ardent supported of a faith different than this one. Paul's intention here is to explain to us that his shift into this spirituality was entirely unlikely... and yet when he gave it a chance, it changed his life.
Realize that Paul is not promoting a quick and easy solution to our problems in life. Paul is promoting a philosophy of Spirit which through a lot of work makes navigating the world manageable and logical. This philosophy guides us on how to keep our sanity in a chaotic and seemingly nonsensical world. It is worth the effort to develop and grow your character in spirituality.
3:7 No matter how zealously and tirelessly Paul tried to live another way, it never provided him wisdom or comfort or wisdom. All of the work Paul had done against spirituality was a loss, for himself and for humanity. We want to ensure that our impact on the world contributes to its betterment. When we are unproductive and apathetic we waste our lives, our potential but also we waste away the life and potential of our earth.
3:8 Paul started gaining when we started to divest his life of his corrupt and selfish pursuits. Remember from the gospels, specifically: Matthew 16:25, Luke 9:24, Mark 8:35. To give up our selfish desires in order to enlist in God's army is the way to inherit life. The life we have here is temporary, vulnerable, uncertain... we can spend what time we have here trying to procure for ourselves but inevitably it will all come to nothing and will provide nothing for us. When we devote ourselves and our resources to justice and compassion while we are here, our lives become permanent, invulnerable and certain.
3:9-11 Paul lives with true, solid righteousness: the pursuit of justice, compassion, wisdom, truth. Paul is not focused rigidly on rules and customs. Paul is focused on being and thinking and speaking and doing things based on this philosophy of spirituality. This natural way of life. He knows that this is the true journey not only through but also to life.
3:12 "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on..." Paul's humility reminds us that our spirituality does not qualify us as better or superior in any way to others. Spirituality helps us as a wise guide, a comforter, a home but never as an inciter of arrogance.
Paul is admitting that he is not perfect, but he keeps working to be better than he is. God's children have the potential to be workers of justice and compassion. God's enlightened children are considered workers of justice and compassion and therefore have responsibility, humble work to do. God's workers are privileged in that the have the same love as God gives to all of His children and also that he provides the tools they need to work. On themselves. On the earth. With Humanity. For Humanity. Through God.
3:13-14 Paul told us that he knows he is not perfect, he does not have anything more than anyone else except he does have this philosophy of life and spirit. He does have the ability to reach forward, spiritually, philosophically, beyond this earth and this life. And that has made all the difference.
We have this same ability; the same difference can be made in our lives.
3:15 Our faith allows and invites God to come into our lives as our advocate. Our faith is able to understand and hear His guidance. He assists us through every moment, highlighting lessons we would have missed without His wisdom. Our faith expands and makes flexible our objectivity and curiosity. How? Through our faith we learn to think beyond the confines of self.
3:16 When we have obtained spirituality (through focused, thorough and consistent work), we must live as it has instructed us to live. Once we know better we are required to do and be better. To remain focused, thorough and consistent in justice, truth and compassion.
Paul is admitting that he is not perfect, but he keeps working to be better than he is. God's children have the potential to be workers of justice and compassion. God's enlightened children are considered workers of justice and compassion and therefore have responsibility, humble work to do. God's workers are privileged in that the have the same love as God gives to all of His children and also that he provides the tools they need to work. On themselves. On the earth. With Humanity. For Humanity. Through God.
3:13-14 Paul told us that he knows he is not perfect, he does not have anything more than anyone else except he does have this philosophy of life and spirit. He does have the ability to reach forward, spiritually, philosophically, beyond this earth and this life. And that has made all the difference.
We have this same ability; the same difference can be made in our lives.
3:15 Our faith allows and invites God to come into our lives as our advocate. Our faith is able to understand and hear His guidance. He assists us through every moment, highlighting lessons we would have missed without His wisdom. Our faith expands and makes flexible our objectivity and curiosity. How? Through our faith we learn to think beyond the confines of self.
3:16 When we have obtained spirituality (through focused, thorough and consistent work), we must live as it has instructed us to live. Once we know better we are required to do and be better. To remain focused, thorough and consistent in justice, truth and compassion.
3:17 Follow the example of God's honest, authentic, hard-working children. At the very least, we have very much: the life example of the prophets, disciples, apostles, Messiah, children of God in this book. Those who have entered and exited this classroom before us have left many lessons.
3:18-19 Follow the just and the compassionate, the humble and selfless because the alternative will lead us astray and inevitable destroy us piece by piece: our happiness, our purpose, our contentment, our curiosity, creativity, our freedom.
3:20-21 Follow the just and compassionate example because it is where we belong and originate from. It is where we return to. We want to return as family rather than foe, familiar with the naturally compassionate way of life in Spirit.
3:18-19 Follow the just and the compassionate, the humble and selfless because the alternative will lead us astray and inevitable destroy us piece by piece: our happiness, our purpose, our contentment, our curiosity, creativity, our freedom.
3:20-21 Follow the just and compassionate example because it is where we belong and originate from. It is where we return to. We want to return as family rather than foe, familiar with the naturally compassionate way of life in Spirit.
