Philippians, Rightly Divided, Verse-by-Verse
Session 15 | Phillippians 3:15-21
Philippians 3:15-16 | Paul's Message To His Companions In Judaism
Verse 15 — Black
Paul speaks to believing Jews, but those who have attained perfection in kingdom matters. Even though they have already attained (v. 16), he reminds them to be thus minded lest they fall.
Verse 16 — Black
Fully believed that the Jewish nation had a national promise based on obedience to the Mosaic dispensation.
Philippians 3:17-21 | Instructions For The Body of Christ
Verse 17 — Blue
Paul returns to instruction for the Body of Christ (thus our blue print) and reminds them to be followers together of me. By using the word together, he is making a call to the entire body, not just the individual (as in 1 Corinthians 4:16). Then Paul calls the body to mark them which walk, speaking of the Jews who are either perfect (v. 15) or still pressing toward the mark (v. 14), and that this group is to be an ensample (a pattern, a type). Even though these individuals are living in a kingdom plan, their walk can be an example for those of us in the grace plan, because holiness is desired of the body of Christ. So, even though we rightly divide, we still recognize the many values of a Jewish ethic.
Verses 18-19 — Blue
In these two verses, Paul gives a parenthetical statement about those who would not be good patterns for righteous living. These people are enemies of the cross of Christ. It is difficult to know whether Paul is speaking of some of his non-believing Jewish countrymen or speaking generally, though the context is his countrymen. And it would, at that point in history, be more likely that Jews who had rejected Jesus would be enemies of the cross rather than Gentiles (who largely would not care one way or another).
Paul says that, for these people, their God is their belly“they worship themselves." Compare Romans 16:18. These people glory...in their shame and mind earthly things. Ultimately, their end is destruction.
Verse 20 — Green
This is in green letters because Paul speaks in the first-person, and I am interpreting this to be a statement concerning the believing remnant. There are enough similarities to the Body of Christ that we can apply it without harm, but we would have slightly different interpretations of the words of verses 20-21.
The remnant has a conversation that is in heaven. The Greek word translated conversationπολίτευμα [politeuma], referring to the ground rules or constitution. Sometimes right dividers make much of the earthly role and status of the Jewish people and the heavenly role and status of the Gentiles. While some is merited, we should not go so far as to say that the Jewish people do not have a heavenly conversation. See Ephesians 2:6, for example.
Verse 21 — Green
When the Lord arrives from Heaven he will change our vile body. The pronoun is, in my interpretation, a reference to the body (singular) of Israel. A direct application of this passage to the Body of Christ would require one of two things, neither of which are true:
That the Body of Christ was vile. Such thinking would be anathema.
That the grammar of the verse was wrong, Paul actually intending to use bodies, referring to our individual bodies. However, both in the noun (body) and in the pronoun (it) Paul uses the singular.
At His arrival, the vile body will be fashioned into his glorious body and this will be done by the same working (Greek ἐνέργεια [energeia], from which we get energy) that God uses to subdue all things. Of course, the time of God's subduing is at the Second Coming, and not the rapture.
All in all, this verse describes the transformation of Israel at the Second Coming much more closely than the transformation of the bodies of believers at the rapture.
