Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (26)

+II. Committed to a trustworthy messenger.+--1. _A messenger in genuine sympathy with the anxiety of the sender._ "For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state" (ver. 20). Timothy is of such a nature, has a soul so like my own, that when he comes among you he will manifest a true regard for your best interests. This choice evangelist was a native of Lycaonia, in the centre of Asia Minor. Faithfully and lovingly taught by his mother, a pious Jewess, to long and look for the Messiah promised to the fathers, he was led, on Paul's first visit to these regions, to recognise in Jesus of Nazareth the great Deliverer and to accept Him as his Saviour. On the apostle's second visit, four or five years afterwards, finding Timothy highly commended by the Christians of the district, he took him as his companion, to give such aid in missionary work as a young man could, and to be trained for full efficiency as a preacher of the cross. From that time onward we find him in constant connection with the apostle, either as his companion or as carrying on some special ministerial work which Paul had entrusted to him. His close fellowship with the apostle gave him opportunities of becoming familiar with the great reading themes of the Gospel, and with the high aims and motives with which his teacher was constantly animated.

2. _A messenger free from a self-seeking spirit._--"For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's" (ver. 21). Among the other members of the Church likely to be entrusted with such a mission there was no one like Timothy--so devoted, so whole-hearted, so unselfish. The early Church was not less free from imperfections than the modern Church; the self-seeking spirit is as permanent as human nature. When a certain bishop was asked by an acquaintance what was the best body of Divinity, he did not scruple to answer, "That which can help a man to keep a coach and six horses."

3. _A messenger whose fidelity has been tested._--"But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel" (ver. 22). Paul does not say that Timothy served him--though that was true--but served with him in the Gospel, showing filial affection and willing obedience. The simplicity and unselfishness, the mellow Christian wisdom, the patience and gentleness of the apostle, fitted in with a charming meekness, unselfishness, and affectionateness in his young friend. The apostle watched with joy the maturing grace of his beloved companion and fellow-labourer; and Timothy was thankful to God for giving him such a friend. The courage and fidelity of the young evangelist had been tried in times of difficulty, and of this the apostle and the Philippians had had many proofs. The Church was therefore ready to welcome him with confidence and respect. The minister should be faithful to the Gospel at all times. Oliver Millard, an earnest and popular preacher of the reign of Louis XI., attacked the vices of the court in his sermons, and did not spare the king himself, who, taking offence, sent the priest word that if he did not change his tone he would have him thrown into the Seine. "The king," replied Oliver, "is the master to do what he pleases; but tell him that I shall reach paradise by water sooner than he will by post-horses." This bold answer at once amused and intimidated the king, for he let the preacher continue to preach as he pleased and what he pleased.

+III. To be followed by a hoped-for personal visit.+--"Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly" (vers. 23, 24). Until his own fate is determined, the apostle seems desirous to keep Timothy with him; but as soon as he learned the issue, he would despatch his trusty messenger to Philippi, and cherished the hope of coming himself. Whatever the result may be, martyrdom or liberty, the apostle calmly and firmly trusts in the Lord.

+Lessons.+--1. _The good are ever devising plans for the benefit of others._ 2. _An earnest spirit inspires others to holy toil._ 3. _The best virtues are strengthened by Christian work._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 19-24. _Ministerial Anxiety for the Welfare of the Church._--1. The crosses and comforts of a Christian, endued with a truly public spirit, depend not so much upon those things which concern himself, as those which are of public concern to Jesus Christ and His Church. 2. A minister imitates the apostles in watching over their flock when the state of souls is the object of his care, and when the care arises, not from constraint, but from love to the party cared for. 3. Our own things and the things of Christ are often in two contrary balances. 4. The calling of the ministry is a service, and ministers are servants of Christ, for the Church, and not lords over their faith.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 21. _The Life of Christ the only True Idea of Self-devotion._--A refined selfishness is one of the worst antagonists of the Church of Christ.

+I. It may consist with all the Church requires as a condition to
communion in her fullest privileges.+

+II. But it extinguishes all that ever produced any great work in
Christ's service.+

+III. The secret of that stupendous self-devotion which saints in all
ages have manifested is--they set up the life of Christ before
them.+

+IV. The customs of life and all the current maxims and unwritten
laws of society maintain so tyrannous a hold even over good
minds that high and generous tempers are chilled into
inaction.+--_H. E. Manning._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 25-30.

_A Devoted Christian Minister_--

+I. A valued associate of good men.+--"Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants" (ver. 25). Epaphroditus had been sent by the Philippian Church with a gift to Paul, and, pending the proposed visit of himself or Timothy, he employs him as his messenger. The commendation of Epaphroditus indicates the apostle's high estimate of the character of the man--a Christian brother, a colleague in toil, a fellow-soldier in scenes of danger and conflict. The work of the Christian minister brings him into contact with the noblest spirits of the times.

+II. Full of sympathy for the anxieties of his people.+--"For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick" (ver. 26). It may be that Epaphroditus was the more anxious to return to his people lest the rumour of his sickness should have disastrous consequences on the state of his Church, that some parties between whom he had mediated should take advantage of his prostration and fall again into animosity, or it may be that he might dispel the distress and sorrow of his people on his own account. This longing to see his people reveals a womanly tenderness that some men might call weakness. Paul did not so regard it. He knew the manly robustness of spirit, the decision, energy, and devotedness that had made Epaphroditus his honoured companion in labour and fellow-soldier; and to him the element of softness and sweetness brought out in the languor of the recovery exhibited a new charm. "The best men often show a union of opposite virtues; for example, Epaphroditus. The finest delicacy of soul which, if alone, might seem excessive and effeminate, allies itself to a manly courage, which sets at naught life itself. The deepest love of the Church does not exclude a most faithful attachment to its great apostle, nor anxiety for the present moment forbid sympathy for a distant community. One may reverence and acknowledge superior men, and yet give all the glory to God alone; may be anxious for his own soul, and yet give himself to the welfare of the Church and the common service of its membership" (_Lange_).

+III. Exposed himself to great risk in the eager discharge of duty.+--"For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; . . . I sent him therefore . . . that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful" (vers. 27, 28). The sickness of Epaphroditus was probably brought on by the risks and exposures of his journey from Philippi to Rome. It was no easy task for a Christian, one of a sect everywhere spoken against, hated and oppressed, having no protection from either Jewish or Roman rule, to undertake such a mission, carrying aid to a man in prison, who was bitterly hated by many, and over whose approaching execution they were gloating with a fiendish satisfaction. But Epaphroditus braved all the privations and sufferings of the perilous enterprise, and would not hesitate to acknowledge publicly before the world that the prisoner he sought to help was his friend. Paul fully understood all the perils of the adventure and that it had nearly cost a valuable life; he thus specially acknowledges the mercy of God both to himself and the Philippians and the mitigation of their mutual sorrow in the recovery of Epaphroditus. "Life, especially the life of a faithful servant of Christ, possesses great value. For such a life we ought to pray; and it is an act of God's grace when it is preserved to the Church" (_Heubner_). "It is a fine thing," wrote Sailer, "if you can say a man lived and never lifted a stone against his neighbour; but it is a finer far if you can say also he took out of the path the stones that would have caught his neighbour's feet. So did Feneberg, and this his doing was his life."

+IV. Highly commended for his character and work's sake.+--"Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service towards me" (vers. 29, 30). Words of highest eulogy, coming from such a source, and uttered under such circumstances. How tender, unreserved and unselfish are the apostle's commendations of Timothy and Epaphroditus, and how large and loving the heart from which they came! Even with these friends, so dear and needful to him, the aged servant of Christ, worn with labour and suffering, is willing, for the work of Christ, to part, and to be left alone. And this man was notorious, a few years before, as Saul the persecutor. What wrought the change? The glorious Gospel of the blessed God. The faithful, conscientious, self-denying minister of the Word cannot fail to win the esteem and love of his people.

+Lessons.+--1. _A Christian minister has many opportunities of usefulness._ 2. _Should cultivate a generous and sympathetic nature._ 3. _Should be faithful in all things._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 25-28. _Anxieties of Ministerial Life._--1. Ministerial employment is a painful, laborious work, and faithful ministers who are standard-bearers or sentinels, and march in the front, before the Lord's people, have a peculiar battle of their own for truth and piety. 2. The Lord sometimes suffers His servants to fall into desperate dangers, that His mercy may be the more seen in their delivery. 3. Courage under sufferings for Christ, and rejoicing in God, may consist with moderate sorrow and heaviness. 4. The weights and griefs of the godly do prove an occasion of rejoicing afterwards, so the grief which the Philippians had because of their pastor's sickness and apprehended death ended in joy when they saw him in health again.--_Fergusson._

Vers. 29, 30. _Heroic Devotion to Christ_--

+I. Is wholly absorbed in the work of Christ.+

+II. Risks life in serving the cause of God.+

+III. Should be held in highest esteem.+

+IV. Should be joyfully acknowledged in whomsoever manifested.+

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER III.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Finally.+--Lit. "as to the rest." The apostle had intended to bring his letter to a close, but something of which we have no information leads him to warn his readers against Judaizers and their methods. He resumes his farewell at ch. iv. 8, yet lingers there. +To write the same things.+--Whatever they may have been, they concerned the security of his readers. His hand had so often written up in bold letters the _Cave canem_ to warn his unsuspecting children, that we may be allowed to think that is what he means to do again.

Ver. 2. +Beware of dogs.+--Who would "turn again and rend you." If the term is a retort on "Gentile dogs," and looks like "railing for railing," we may explain it by the directness of the metaphor. Dogs and Judaizers have this in common--that they tear flesh. The savage delight of having inflicted a wound is shown in Gal. vi. 13. +Beware of the concision.+--A bitter play on the name by which the Jews thought themselves distinguished (Eph. ii. 11). St. Paul changes the prefix, and stigmatises them as "the mutilation party." Lightfoot gives illustrations of this toying with words, _e.g.,_ in the complaint of an ambassador that he had been sent, not to Spain, but to Pain.

Ver. 3. +For we are the circumcision.+--How completely Paul had sloughed his Rabbinic literalism this verse clearly shows (Rom. ii. 28, 29). +Which worship God in the Spirit.+--See our Lord's words to the woman of Samaria, prophetic of the day when worship shall be set free from its trammels and cerements (John iv. 23, 24).

Ver. 4. +Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.+--They will never be able to say he "speaks evil of that which he knows not." "If there is any profit in that direction," he might say, "I will set my foot as far as who goes farthest." An _argumentum ad hominem._

Ver. 5. +Circumcised the eighth day.+--Beginning with this he works his way, though this and the following verses, to the climax of the straitest sect. The items of this verse have to do with the birth and education of the apostle.

Ver. 6. +Concerning zeal.+--"An expression of intense irony, condemning while he seems to exalt his former self" (_Lightfoot_). +Righteousness which is in the law.+--Legal righteousness. Exact attention to all its manifold commands and prohibitions.

Ver. 7. +What things were gain.+--The various points in which I had considered myself fortunate, giving me an advantage over others. +Those I counted loss for Christ.+--The tense of the verb "counted" denotes an action the result of which continues. It leaves no place for after-regrets, like those of the woman who stopped to look back on Sodom. St. Paul counts his Judaism, with its emoluments, well lost. "Having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it" (Matt. xiii. 46).

Ver. 8. +Yea, doubtless, and I count, etc.+--A more explicit statement of the abiding satisfaction with the chosen lot. "I still do count." +All things.+--Whatever they may be--not simply those named above. +For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.+--"The eminent quality of a possession attained is the ground for estimating other possessions according to their relation to that one" (_Meyer_). +For whom I have suffered the loss of all things.+--The words "gain" and "loss" are the same in these verses as in our Lord's memorable saying "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" [R.V., "soul" A.V.] (Mark viii. 36). +And do count them but dung.+--So R.V. text, "refuse," margin. If we accept the meaning "that which is thrown to the dogs," we have an apt interpretation, but we need to guard against attributing to the apostle subtleties of expression born in a lexicographer's brain.

Ver. 9. +Through the faith of Christ.+--Better without the article as R.V. Faith is the medium by which righteousness comes. +The righteousness which is of God.+--Which originates from God as the fount of all righteousness. +By faith.+--R.V. margin, "upon"; that is, resting upon faith as its condition; above it was the medium.

Ver. 10. +The power of His resurrection.+--The wide-reaching and conquering force and efficacy which render death inert (2 Tim. 1. 10) and draw "the sting of death" (1 Cor. xv.). +And the fellowship of His sufferings.+--The apostle has no desire to go by any other way to his glory than that by which his Lord went--_per crucem ad lucem._ +Being made conformable unto His death.+--R.V. "becoming conformed." The original is one word where we have three, "being made conformable," taking that lowly guise which will agree with the bearing of Him who "took the form of a servant." "The agony of Gethsemane, not less than the agony of Calvary, will be reproduced, however faintly, in the faithful servant of Christ" (_Lightfoot_).

Ver. 11. +If by any means I might attain.+--How little is there here of the spirit of those who profess themselves "as sure of heaven as though they were there." Meyer thinks the expression excludes moral security, but not the _certitudo salutis_ in itself. +Unto the resurrection of the dead.+--By a very slight change "from the dead" instead of "of the dead" the R.V. indicates rather too feebly the only use of the term in the New Testament. "From amongst" would have been more likely to arrest attention. Whilst Meyer says the compound word for resurretion in no way differs from the ordinary one, LIghtfoot thinks the form of expression implies and the context requires the meaning "the final resurrection of the righteous to a new and glorified life."

Ver. 12. +Not as though I had already attained.+--The word for "attained" may possibly refer to the turning-point in St. Paul's history, and so the phrase would mean, "not as though by my conversion I did at once attain." This interpretation, which is Bishop Lightfoot's, is challenged by Dr. Beet. It seems preferable, on other than grammatical grounds, because the following phrase, if we refer the former to conversion, is an advance of thought. +Either were already perfect.+--Describing a present state which is the consequence of past processes. He has not reached the condition where nothing else can be added. He is most blessed who, as he mounts ever higher, sees perfection, like Abraham's mount of sacrifice, "afar off."

Ver. 13. +Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.+--Some think a reference to the opinion of others lies in the words; but St. Paul seems to be denying of himself what others asserted (in various ways) of themselves. +But this one thing I do.+--Lit. "but one thing"; the words "I do" in A.V. and R.V. are a supplement. Meyer thinks it better to supply "think." It does not seem necessary to supply anything. "One thing" the apostle never loses sight of; all the threads of life are gathered up into it. +Forgetting the things that are behind.+--The thought of how much of the course had been covered, and how it was done, sinks in the consideration of what has yet to be achieved. +And reaching forth.+--"Like one of those eager charioteers . . . of the Circus Maximus . . . leaning forward in his flying car, bending over the shaken rein and the goaded steed" (_Farrar_). St. Paul usually employs the figure of the foot-race; and the "not looking back, which showed a right temper in a runner, would be fatal to the charioteer" (_Lightfoot_).

Ver. 14. +I press toward the mark.+--"I hasten towards the goal" where the adjudicators stand. +For the prize of the high calling.+--If the "hollow wraith of dying fame" could lead the athletes to put forth almost superhuman effort, how much more worthy was "the amaranthine crown of glory" (1 Pet. v. 4).

Ver. 15. +As many as be perfect.+--No longer novices, but having been initiated fully into the most secret mysteries of the faith--"that Christian maturity in which one is no longer a babe in Christ." The reproachful irony which some detect hardly comports with the general tone of the letter.

Ver. 16. +Let us walk by the same rule.+--That which had been to them the means of such distinct progress had thus approved itself as the safe and prudent course to follow.

Ver. 17. +Followers together of me.+--He does not, as some ungracious pastors do, show the steep road to perfection whilst himself staying at the wicket-gate. Like the Good Shepherd, he leadeth his sheep.

Ver. 18. +For many walk . . . the enemies of the cross of Christ.+--Christians in name only, whose loose interpretations of the perfect law of liberty make it possible to live an animal life. The cross of Christ, symbol of His self-renunciation, should be the place of execution for all fleshly desires of His followers; and, instead of that, these men over whom an apostle laments have made it an opportunity of sensual gratification. They say, "We cannot help Him; He does not heed our help; it is of little consequence how we live."

Ver. 19. +Whose end is destruction.+--Beet argues from this that Universalism cannot be true. It must be admitted that St. Paul is speaking of sins of the body, and perhaps is thinking of the ruinous effects of fleshly indulgence. +Whose god is their belly.+--Against the dominion of appetite all the teachers of mankind are at one. All agree in repudiating the doctrine of the savage:

"I bow to ne'er a god except myself
And to my Belly, first of deities."--_Seeley._

"The self-indulgence which wounds the tender conscience and turns liberty into licence is here condemned" (_Lightfoot_). +Whose glory is in their shame.+--Their natures are so utterly perverted that they count that which is their degradation as matter for pride. Like the man whom our Lord describes, such men not only "fear not God, nor regard man," but can lightly vaunt the fact. +Who mind earthly things.+--The peculiar form of expression is noteworthy. At these men, "of the earth, earthy," the apostle stands looking in amazement. His expression reminds us of St. James: "Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways" (so the R.V.).

Ver. 20. +For our conversation is in heaven.+--"Our" is emphatic, contrasting with the "earthly things" just named. "Conversation" is that to which we most readily turn, as the needle trembles to the pole. Our hearts are with our treasure, and that is far away from earthly things. "They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a city;" it is the soul's _"Heimweh,"_ the yearning for the homeland. We must not understand the words to mean "Our mode of speech is like that in heaven," nor "Our habit of life is heavenly." The word for "conversation" means "the commonwealth," "the greater assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" (Heb. xii. 23). +From whence also we look for the Saviour.+--From that heaven, "whither the Forerunner is for us entered," "He shall come in like manner." Meanwhile we stand in readiness to receive Him. The word for "look for" (R.V. "wait for") graphically depicts the attitude of waiting.

Ver. 21. +Who shall change our vile body.+--R.V. much better, "Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation." We are not to consider the body as the cause of sin, as something outside the redemption wrought by Christ, "the Saviour of the body." The fashioning anew will not lose any essential part of the body. As the colours in a kaleidoscope change form at each movement, but are yet always the same, so in the change of the body there will be "transition but no absolute solution of continuity." The body of our humiliation is the frail tenement in which the exile spirit sojourns (2 Cor. v. 1-8); it is the soon-wearied companion of an eager spirit (Matt. xxvi. 41); it "returns to the dust as it was" (Eccles. xii. 7). +That it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.+--R.V. "that it may be conformed to the body of His glory," as contrasted with the body of His humiliation (Phil. ii. 8), the body in which He tabernacled amongst us (John i. 14). +The power whereby He is able to subdue all things.+--He has power, not only to raise and glorify the body, but to subdue and renovate all things.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 1-3.

_The False and the True in Religion._

+I. The false in religion evident in the character of its advocates.+--"Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision" (ver 2.). "Dogs" was an epithet expressive of great contempt, and indicative of impurity and profanity. It was a term applied to the Judaizers, or, as Chrysostom calls them, "base and contemptible Jews, greedy of filthy lucre and fond of power, who, desiring to draw away numbers of believers, preached at the same time both Christianity and Judaism, corrupting the Gospel." They were "evil workers" causing much spiritual mischief. They were of "the concision"--mere cutters or slashers of the flesh. "The same men are described in each clause as impure and profane, as working spiritual mischief, and as taken up with a puerile faith in flesh-cutting. In this first clause you have their character, in the second their conduct, and in the third their destructive creed. Men who insisted on circumcision as essential to salvation made the rite ridiculous--Judaized ere they Christianised. To circumcise a Gentile was not only to subject him to a rite which God never intended for him, but it was to invest him with a false character. Circumcision to him was a forgery, and he carried a lie in his person. Not a Jew, and yet marked as one, having the token without the lineage, a seal of descent and not a drop of Abraham's blood in his veins. To hinge salvation, especially in the case of a Gentile, on circumcision was such a spurious proselytism, such a total misappreciation of the Jewish covenant, such a miserable subversion of the liberty of the Gospel, such a perverse and superstitious reliance on a manual rite, that its advocates might well be caricatured and branded as the concision" (_Eadie_). The false in religion stands exposed and condemned by the character and methods of its propagators.

+II. The true in religion has definite characteristics.+--1. _In the spirituality of its worship._ "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit" (ver. 3). There is a great difference between the derisive use of the term "concision" and the use of the circumcision in this verse. There is a Christian circumcision, which is a "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh"; and this is not a manual but a spiritual act. All that the old circumcision typified the Christian enjoys. "The spiritual offspring of Abraham have nobler gifts by far than his natural seed--blessing not wrapped up in civil franchise, or dependent upon time, or restricted to territory." The Christian has learnt that true religion consists, not in forms and ceremonies and temporal privileges, but in a right state of heart towards God, in a loftier worship, and a more intense spiritual life.

2. _In making Christ the basis of confident exultation._--"Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord . . . rejoice in Christ Jesus" (vers. 1, 3). Christ, and Christ only, is the Christian's plea, and the joyous theme of his unending song: Christ, the Divine, all-glorious Son of God. Theodosius, in the fourth century, at one time so far favoured the Arians as to let them open their place of worship and labour to undermine the Divinity of Christ. Soon after this he made his son Arcadius, a youth of sixteen, an equal partner with him in his throne; and the noblemen and bishops were invited to come on an appointed day to congratulate him. Among the number was Amphilocus, a famous old bishop who had bitterly suffered in the Arian persecution. He made a very handsome address to the emperor, and was about to take his leave, when Theodosius exclaimed: "What, do you take no notice of my son? Do you not know that I have made him partner with me in the empire?" Upon this the good old bishop went up to young Arcadius, and, putting his hand upon his head, said, "The Lord bless thee, my son." The emperor, roused into rage by this apparent neglect, exclaimed: "What, is this all the respect you pay to a prince that I have made of equal dignity with myself?" Upon this the bishop, with the grandeur of an angel and the zeal of an apostle, looking the emperor full in the face, indignantly said: "Sire, do you so highly resent my apparent neglect of your son because I do not give him equal honours with yourself? And what must the eternal God think of you who have given leave to have His co-equal and co-eternal Son degraded in His proper Divinity in every part of your empire?"

3. _In distrusting the supposed virtue of outward rites._--"And have no confidence in the flesh" (ver. 3). No confidence in the supposed good conferred by externals. Birth and lineage, family, tribe, and nationality on the one hand, and the moral character determined by them on the other, Paul reckons together as excellencies and gifts of the same kind, and holds them in slight esteem compared with what he has in Christ. The morality of men belongs to the province of the natural life; it depends on birth, family, position, culture, time, and circumstances, and gives reason, as does every favour, for humble thankfulness, but not for proud boasting. Such, as contrasted with the concision, is the circumcision; the children of believing Abraham and blessed with him; serving God by His Spirit in a higher and more elastic worship; glorying in Him who has won such privileges and blessings for them, and having no trust in any externals or formalities on which the Judaizer laid such stress as securing salvation or as bringing it within an available reach (_Lange, Eadie_).

+III. Against the false in religion it is necessary to faithfully warn.+--"Beware . . . beware . . . beware!" (ver. 2) Like three peals of a trumpet giving a certain blast do the three clauses sound, and the repetition reveals the intense anxiety and earnestness of the alarmed apostle. It is the duty of the minister to warn his people of whatever endangers their spiritual life and eternal welfare. News came to a certain town, once and again, that the enemy was approaching; but he did not then approach. Hereupon in anger the inhabitants enacted a law that no man on pain of death should bring again such rumours as the news of an enemy. Not long after the enemy came indeed, and besieged, assaulted, and sacked the town, of the ruins of which nothing remained but this proverbial epitaph--"Here once stood a town that was destroyed by silence."

+Lessons.+--1. _Genuine religion is self-evident._ 2. _Falseness in the garb of religion works serious mischief._ 3. _True religion demands constant watchfulness._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 1. _Safeguards against Error._--1. To rejoice in Christ--to be constantly and with delight making recourse to Him--is a choice guard against any error contrary to the truths relating to Him. 2. Often repeating and inculcating truths that are most for edification ought neither to be burdensome to a minister nor yet wearied of by the people. 3. Temptations to error are covered over with such pious pretences and lively baits that there is need of many guards and frequent warnings.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 2. _Emphatic Warnings against False Teachers_--

+I. Because of their snarling methods and insatiable
greed.+--"Beware of dogs."

+II. Because of their wicked and destructive policy.+--"Beware
of evil workers."

+III. Because their zeal is wholly misdirected and
injurious.+--"Beware of the concision."

Ver. 3. _Spiritual Circumcision_--

+I. Is an inward and conscious spiritual change.+--"For we are the
circumcision."

+II. While reverently using outward forms of worship is superior to
them.+--"Which worship God in the Spirit."

+III. Finds its joy in living union with Christ.+--"And rejoice in
Christ Jesus."

+IV. Repudiates all ordinances that divert from Christ.+--"And have
no confidence in the flesh."

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 4-8.

_External Religionism incomparable with the True Knowledge of Christ._

+I. The highest example of external religionism affords no ground for confident boasting+ (vers. 4-6).--External religionism had its most complete embodiment in Paul. He was its most zealous devotee, its ablest champion. These verses describe the best eulogy that can be given of the observer of external rites. By birth, lineage, training, ability, consistency of character, and sincerity of aim, Paul was an ideal Jew, a model all his countrymen might aspire to copy. If there was ground for boasting, no one had a greater right than he. He needed no Christ, no Saviour; he was well able to look after himself. But one day the discovery came that all this glorying was vain; instead of gaining salvation he was farther from it than ever, and in danger of losing everything. Religious progress is often more apparent than real. When Captain Parry and his party were in search of the North Pole, after travelling several days with sledges over a vast field of ice, on taking a careful observation of the pole-star, the painful discovery was made that, while they were apparently advancing towards the pole, the ice-field on which they were travelling was drifting to the south, and bringing them nearer to the verge, not of the pole, but of destruction.

+II. The supposed gains of external religionism are for Christ's sake esteemed as loss.+--"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (ver. 7). Not losses, compared with the plural of gains; but all the supposed gains are treated as one great loss, and this after the most careful scrutiny and calculation. "I counted loss." The swelling sum of fancied virtues, painfully gathered and fondly and proudly contemplated, vanishes into nothing at one stroke of the discriminating pen. All that was prized as valuable, and as the all of personal possession, is regarded as dross, because of Christ. They did not help him to win Christ, but to lose Him; the more he gained in self-righteousness the more he lost of Christ. It was not only profitless, but productive of positive loss.

+III. The surpassing excellency of the knowledge of Christ renders external religionism utterly worthless.+--"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; . . . and do count them but dung [refuse], that I may win Christ" (ver. 8). The gains were: circumcision performed without any deviation from legal time or method; membership in the house of Israel, and connection with one of its most honoured tribes; descent from a long line of pure-blood ancestry; adherence to a sect whose prominent distinction was the observance of the old statutes; earnest and uncompromising hostility to a community accused of undermining the authority of the Mosaic code, and a merit based on blameless obedience to the law. These once gloried and confided in were counted as a loss, for the sake of a superior gain in the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. He was no loser by the loss he had willingly made, for the object of knowledge was the Divine Saviour. Is it not super-eminent knowledge to know Him as the Christ; to know Him as Jesus, not because he wears our nature, but because we feel His human heart throbbing in unison with ours under trial and sorrow; to know Him as Lord, not simply because He wears a crown and wields a sceptre, but because we bow to His loving rule and gather the spoils of the victory which He has won and secured? The apostle made a just calculation, for neither ritualism, nor Israelitism, nor Pharasaism, nor zealotism, nor legalism could bring him those blessing with which the knowledge of Christ was connected; nay, until they were held as loss this gain of gains could not be acquired (_Eadie_). As with the two scales of a balance, writes Rieger, when one rises the other falls, and what I add to one diminishes the relative weight of the other; so as one adds to himself he takes away from the pre-eminence which the knowledge of Christ should have. What he concedes to Christ makes him willing to abase himself, to resign all confidence in His own works. Therefore the sharp expressions, "to count as loss, as dung," become in experience not too severe; for to reject the grace of Christ, to regard the great plan of God in sending His Son as fruitless, were indeed far more terrible.

+Lessons.+--1. _The highest kind and supreme end of all knowledge is the knowledge of Christ._ 2. _True religion is the spiritual knowledge of Christ._ 3. _Religion without Christ is an empty form._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 4-7. _Formalism tested and found wanting_

+I. The best that formalism can do for man, in religious lineage,
reputation, zeal, and strictest outward observances, has been
experimentally exemplified+ (vers. 5, 6).

+II. The most distinguished champion of formalism has confessed its
utter inadequacy to satisfy the soul+ (ver. 4).

+III. The highest advantages of formalism are worthless compared with
Christ+ (ver. 7).

Ver. 8. _The Excellent Knowledge of Christ_--

+I. Is extensive.+--Apprehends Him in all those notions and respects wherein the Gospel principally discovers Him.

+II. Appropriating.+--Christ Jesus _my_ Lord.

+III. Effectual.+--Has a powerful efficacy both upon heart and life, both upon judgment, affection, and practice.

+IV. Fiducial.+--It brings the soul to rest upon Christ and His righteousness alone for pardon, acceptance, salvation.

+V. Useful.+--He that has it studies to improve Christ, to make use of Him for those blessed and glorious purposes for which he knows Christ is given.

+VI. Christ Himself is most excellent.+--1. There is nothing in Him but what is excellent. 2. All excellencies in the creatures are eminently to be found in Christ. 3. All these excellencies are in Him in a more excellent manner; perfectly, without any shadow of imperfection; infinitely, without any bounds or limits; eternally and unchangeably, they ebb not, they wane not, they are always there in the full, they alter not, they decay not. 4. Not only all that are in the creatures, but innumerable more excellencies than are in all the creatures together, are in Christ alone.

+VII. Those that have attained the excellent knowledge of Christ will not think much to lose all things to gain Christ.+--1. All outward enjoyments and earthly possessions. 2. Personal righteousness as a means of justification.--_David Clarkson._

_The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ._

+I. To know Christ in the Divinity of His person is excellent
knowledge.+

+II. To know Christ in the glory of His redemption is excellent
knowledge.+

+III. The comparative worthlessness of all else.+--1. _Wealth._
2. _Worldly honour._ 3. _Human learning._ 4. _Mere morality._

_The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ._

+I. Is pre-eminent excellence is to be found in its
certainty.+--Proved by--1. _Prophecy._ 2. _Miracles._
3. _Experience._

+II. In its majesty and grandeur.+

+III. It its suitableness and adaptation.+

+IV. In its comprehensiveness.+

+V. The knowledge of Christ is sanctifying.+--_R. Watson._

_Christ the Only Gain._

+I. To count Him gain.+

+II. To covet and seek Him as gain.+

+III. To appropriate Him as gain.+

+IV. To enjoy Him as gain.+--_R. S. Candlish._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.

_Features of the Believer's Life in Christ._

+I. The believer's life has its home and stronghold in Christ.+--"And be found in Him" (ver. 9). Once lost, now found: found by Christ; found in Him by others. Once homeless, now safely sheltered. One day Charles Wesley was sitting by an open window looking over the bright and beautiful fields in summertime. Presently a little bird, flitting about in the sunshine, attracted his attention. Just then a hawk came swooping down towards the little bird. The frightened thing was darting here and there, trying to find some place of refuge. In the bright sunny air, in the leafy trees or green fields, there was no hiding-place from the fierce grasp of the hawk. But seeing the open window and a man sitting by it, the bird, in its extreme terror, flew towards it, and with a beating heart and quivering wing found refuge in Wesley's bosom. He sheltered it from the threatening danger, and saved it from a cruel death. Wesley was at that time suffering from severe trials, and was feeling the need of a refuge as much as the trembling bird that nestled safely in his bosom. So he took up his pen and wrote the well-known hymn--

"Jesu, Lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly."

To be found in Christ means more than mere shelter, more than external fellowship. It means a union as close and vital and abiding as between the members of the body and the head; a union effected by the Spirit, and being the very Spirit of Christ dwelling in us.

+II. The believing life consists of righteousness, not self-acquired, but Divinely inspired through faith.+--"Not having mine own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ" (ver. 9). The apostle now touches upon a theme--justification by faith--which he has argued out with a clearness and fulness unequalled by any other New Testament writer. The righteousness which was his own was out of the law, or originated by the law, and was acquired by his own effort; but the righteousness which he finds in Christ is not his own, but God's, and is acquired, not by his merits or efforts, but by faith in Christ. "This righteousness, Divine in its origin, awful in its medium, and fraught with such results, was the essential element of Paul's religion, and the distinctive tenet of his theology." When a friend happening to say to the Rev. John Brown, of Haddington, "I suppose you make not your labours for the good of the Church the ground of your comfort," he, with uncommon earnestness, replied, "No, no no! it is the finished righteousness of Christ which is the only foundation of my hope; I have no more dependence on my labours than on my sins. I rather reckon it a wonder of mercy that God took any of my labours of my hand. Righteousness belongeth unto Him, but unto me shame and confusion of face."

+III. The believer's life is the creation of Divine power.+--1. _It is a life communicated by the exercise of the Divine power that raised Christ from the dead._ "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection" (ver. 10). The power exerted by Christ's resurrection is exerted in raising the Divine life in the believing soul, and raising it to still higher developments of power and enjoyment. The aspirations of the soul after Christ are aspirations to know more and more the power of His resurrection.

2. _It is a life that will be consummated by the ultimate resurrection of the body._--"If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (ver. 11). Towards this consummation the apostle yearns with intense desire. All his hopes, all his soul longed for, seem gathered up in this: perfect freedom for ever from sin and sorrow; knowledge of Christ up to the fullest measure of his capacity of knowledge; perfect experimental acquaintance with the power of His resurrection, through perfect fellowship of life with Him; the ineffable and everlasting blessedness of being with Him and like Him; to rise out of the ashes of the tomb and assume the glorious body of the resurrection. We can never forget a corridor in the Vatican Museum, exhibiting on the one side epitaphs and emblems of departed heathens and their gods, and on the other side mementoes of departed Christians. Face to face they stand, engaged, as it were, in conflict, the two armies clinging to their respective standards; hope against despair--death swallowed up in victory. Opposite to lions seizing on horses, emblems of destruction, are charming sculptures of the Good Shepherd bearing home the lost lamb--a sign of salvation.

+IV. The believer's life is in sympathetic fellowship with the suffering Christ+--"And to know the fellowship of His sufferings" (ver. 10). The sufferings of Christ are not ended--they are prolonged in the sufferings of His people--and of these the apostle desired to know the fellowship. He longed so to suffer, for such fellowship gave him assimilation to his Lord, as he drank of His cup and was baptised with His baptism. It brought him into communion with Christ, purer, closer, and tenderer than simple service for Him would have achieved. It gave him such solace as Christ Himself enjoyed. To suffer together creates a dearer fellow-feeling than to labour together. Christ indeed cannot be known unless there be this fellowship in His sufferings (_Eadie_). An intimate friend of Handel's called upon him just as he was in the middle of setting the words to music, "He was despised," and found the great composer sobbing with tears, so greatly had this passage and the rest of the morning's work affected the master.

+Lessons.+--1. _The soul finds its highest life in Christ._ 2. _Life in Christ is secured by the co-operation of man's faith with Divine power._ 3. _To live in Christ is to share the fruits of His mysterious passion._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 10. _Knowledge of the Power of Christ's Resurrection._

+I. To know Christ includes a clearly defined conception and
familiar acquaintance with the special characteristics and
unrivalled excellencies of His person.+

+II. To know the power of His resurrection.+--1. _As it is a public
and universal vindication of the proper dignity of His person._
2. _As it seals the doom of human sin._ 3. _As it ensures the
destruction of pain and death, and provides for the perpetuation
of the believer in a state of immortal felicity._

_The Power of Christ's Resurrection_--

+I. As a miracle attesting His Divine mission.+

+II. As an evidence of His Divinity.+--Resurrection does not always
prove Divinity, but in these circumstances (Rom. i. 3, 4).

+III. As an indication of the acceptance of His sacrifice.+

+IV. As an incentive to the pursuit of holiness.+--Risen with Christ;
risen in Him, sharing His life.

+V. As an instrument of social amelioration.+--The Gospel has
civilised where it has not Christianised, has repressed and
refined where it has not renewed or regenerated.

+VI. As a pledge and preassurance of the glorious resurrection of
His people.+--_G. Brooks._

_The Fellowship of Christ's Sufferings._

+I. We have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings in the pain
caused by coming in contact with sin.+

+II. In having our motives misinterpreted and our conduct misjudged.+

+III. In the purifying influence of suffering.+

Ver. 11. _The Resurrection of the Dead as an Object to aim at._

+I. The object which Paul contemplated.+--1. _The resurrection as the proof of final escape from all evil._ 2. _The resurrection as the occasion of public recognition by the Saviour-Judge._ 3. _The resurrection as the pledge of eternal happiness in heaven._

+II. His desire for that object.+--_It supplies_--1. _A high appreciation of its value._ 2. _A deep sense of its difficulty._ 3. _A persuasion that it may be attained in various degrees._ 4. _A submission to all the Divine arrangements in reference to it.--G. Brooks._

_The Resurrection of the Just._

+I. What is that entire satisfaction and climax for which we are to long and labour?+

+II. What are the scriptural representations of its accompaniments and consequences?+--1. _The power of recognising all those whom they have known in holy fellowship on earth._ 2. _The resemblance of our nature to Christ._ 3. _High honour is destined for Christians._

+III. What are the determinations by which it is to be won?+--1. _The relation which the present happy spiritualism of deceased saints bears to the resurrection._ 2. _The representation of the intermediate state._ It is a relic and disadvantageous condition of death, though of death as far as possible mitigated. It shall be overthrown, not only as a state, but as a separate power, in the destruction of death.--_R. W. Hamilton._

_The Attainment of the Resurrection._

+I. Paul's aim.+--"The resurrection of the dead." 1. _The risen Christ is the pledge of a risen life for man._ 2. _The rising of Christ is a power to elevate life._ 3. _Hence arises the gradual attainment of the resurrection._

+II. Paul's endeavour.+--"If by any means." The necessity for this agonising endeavour arises from--1. _The difficulty of accomplishing it._ 2. _The glory of its attainment.--E. L. Hull._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12-16.

_The Highest Type of Christian Experience._

+I. The highest type of Christian experience is Divinely outlined in Christ.+--"That for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (ver. 12). "The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (ver. 14). The prize is not definitely described, but God through the Gospel calls upon the soul to take hold of some great, dimly portrayed good, some rich spiritual blessing, some fulness and splendour of character to be secured by a fuller knowledge of Christ. If we say the prize is heaven or the kingdom of God, what is the heavenly kingdom but the fulness of Christ? Though not explained in detail, the prize is sufficiently outlined in Christ, by the master-hand of the Divine Artist, as to make it an object of intense longing and strenuous effort to possess. The soul yearns to attain a moral and spiritual perfection found only in Christ, and which the unending development of the beauties of His character are constantly disclosing in ever-growing splendour, and which closer union with Him alone can seize and appropriate.

+II. The effort to attain the highest type of Christian experience is stimulated by conscious defect.+--"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend" (ver. 12). The more clearly the apostle saw his privilege in Christ, the more conscious was he of his shortcomings. There is no progress possible to the man who does not see and mourn over his defects. "The soul of all improvement is the improvement of the soul;" and it is only a keen sense of need that stimulates the soul to continuous and repeated efforts. The ideal is ever ahead of the actual, revealing its defects and exciting to fresh and more earnest endeavours.

+III. The highest type of Christian experience is attained only by strenuous and continuous effort.+--"But this one thing I do, . . . I press toward the mark" (vers. 13, 14). The racer, fixing his eye upon the goal, leans forward, and turning his back upon things behind, presses with all speed towards the prize he covets. If he turns aside, he misses the mark and loses the garland. The great prizes of life are gained only by persevering labour. However prodigious may be the gifts of genius they can only be developed and brought to perfection by toil and study. Think of Michelangelo working for a week without taking off his clothes, of Handel hollowing every key of his harpsichord like a spoon by incessant practice, and of the sculptor polishing his statue with unwearied repetitions because he said, "the image in my head is not yet in my hands." The prize of the Christian race--the crown of eternal life and blessedness--is worthy of the most laborious and self-denying efforts. When at times the heart grows weary in the struggle, a glimpse of the diadem of beauty obtained by faith revives the flagging energies.

+IV. Those who do not see the obligation of striving after the highest type of Christian experience shall be aided with Divine light.+--"If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you" (ver. 15). The difference of view was not some wilful and wicked conception, or some wretched prejudice adhered to with inveterate or malignant obstinacy. It was rather some truth not fully seen in all its bearings, some principle not so perceived as to be carried out in all its details and consequences, some department of duty which they might apprehend rather than appreciate, or some state of mind which they might admire in the apostle, but did not really covet for themselves. The apostle throws his own teaching into the shade, and ascribes the coming enlightenment to God (_Eadie_). The man who is honestly in pursuit of the highest good, though led away for a time by erroneous views, shall not lack the light he sincerely seeks. The light which will help him most must be light from God.

+V. All progress towards the highest Christian experience must be on the lines of real progress already made.+--"Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing" (ver. 16). Every victory over self and sin is a stepping-stone to further triumphs. The struggle of to-day will be the victory of to-morrow. Our most helpful lessons are gathered from our failures. Our present blessings were obtained through faith and labour; our next must be gained in the same way. God will give more light to the man who rightfully uses what he has. "When the morning bursts suddenly on one awakened out of sleep, it dazzles and pains him; but to him who, on his journey, has blessed the dawn and walked by its glimmer, the solar radiance brings with it a gradual and cheering influence."