“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. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 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” (Philippians 3:1-3).
We, as believers in Jesus, rejoice in the Lord. He alone is our source of joy. Paul isn’t just saying “Rejoice.” He is focusing attention from religious form to our experience of and relationship with the Lord.
He follows this command with a warning against the enemy who would destroy the joy of a believer. He was talking about anyone of who would follow the message of God’s grace with an insistence that we add our effort to God’s grace. God offers salvation as His free gift to those who believe in His Son, Jesus.
Those Paul calls refers to unclean scavengers who roamed the streets then, not the pets we love and keep in our homes. He calls those who undermine grace evil-doers who don’t promote true righteousness but leave wickedness in their wake. He calls them mutilators of the flesh who have missed the whole purpose of circumcision in the Old Testament.
Circumcision in the Old Testament marked someone as a member of the people of God. “We are the circumcision” is Paul’s way of saying that a Jew or Gentile who believes in Jesus is already part of the people of God. We don’t need validation by circumcision or any religious performance we add to the salvation that comes from the free grace of God.
Do we want to improve our behavior? Of course! The gospel makes that happen. We serve God by the Spirit and boast in Christ Jesus. To try to achieve righteousness by our performance, apart from Christ, means that we have confidence in the flesh instead of Jesus.
Paul shows the danger of empty religious performance in Galatians 2:21, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
