26 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Philippians 3 In this chapter the apostle cautions the Philippians against false teachers, whom he describes as evil men, and exhorts them to walk as they had him, and other faithful ministers for an example. And whereas these judaizing teachers were for drawing them off from Christ, and weakening their joy and glorying in him, he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord,.... The Syriac version reads, "in our Lord", i.e. Christ. The apostle seems as if he was about to conclude his epistle; and therefore, as if he was taking his farewell of this church, and giving his last advice to them, he exhorts them in a most affectionate manner, as his dear brethren in a spiritual...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
He cautions them against judaizing seducers (ver. 1-3) and proposes his own example: and here he enumerates the privileges of his Jewish state which he rejected (ver. 4-8), describes the matter of his own choice (ver. 9-16), and closes with an exhortation to beware of wicked men, and to follow his example, ver. 17-21. Description of True...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
The Holy Ghost incited this Epistle by the pen of his servant Paul. May he also write it on our hearts! Php_3:1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. When you get to “finally,” when you are very near the end of your journey, still “rejoice in the Lord.” “Finally,” says Paul, as if this was the end of his epistle, the conclusion of all his...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. As much as to say, “If this were the last sentence that I should write to you, I would say, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.’ It is your privilege, it is your duty, to rejoice in God; — not in your health, your wealth, your children, your prosperity, but in the Lord.” There is the unchanging and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Let this be the end of everything; before you get to the end of it, and when you do get to the end of it, “rejoice in the Lord.” It is incumbent upon us, as Christians, to rise out of our despondencies. Joy should be the normal state of the Christian. What a happy religion is ours in which it is a duty to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Beware of dogs,.... By whom are meant the "judaizing" teachers, who were for imposing the works and ceremonies of the law upon the Gentiles, as necessary to salvation; and they have the name retorted on them they used to give to the Gentiles; see Matthew 15:26; nor should they think it too severe, since the Jews themselves say (p), "the face of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For we are the circumcision,.... And not they; they have the name, and we the thing, or that which legal circumcision was a shadow of, namely, circumcision of the heart; which lies in being pricked to the heart under a true sense of sin; in having the hardness of the heart removed, and the iniquity of it laid to open view; in pain and contrition...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh,.... This he says, lest it should be objected to him, that the reason why he had no confidence in the flesh, and did not boast of it, was, because he could not; he had nothing to glory of, and put his confidence in, and therefore acted the common part of such persons, who despise what either they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Circumcised the eighth day,.... Circumcision was an appointment of God to Abraham, and his male issue; to him and them God gave the covenant of circumcision: this to Abraham personally was a sign and seal, that the righteousness of faith, which he had while he was an uncircumcised person, should come upon the uncircumcised Gentiles in the times or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church,.... The Vulgate Latin version adds, "of God", as in Galatians 1:13. The apostle was very zealous of the traditions of the elders, and for the law of God, and towards God also; though his zeal was not according to knowledge, but blind, ignorant, and furious; which pushed him on to persecute the followers of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But what things were gain to me,.... As circumcision, and the observance of the ceremonial law, which he thought were necessary to salvation; and his natural and lineal descent from Abraham, which he supposed entitled him to the favour of God, and eternal life, as well as to outward privileges; and his being of that strict sect of religion, a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yea, doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss,.... Not only the things before mentioned, but anything, and everything else but Christ, or that stood in competition with him, or were short of him; as his natural and acquired parts; the whole compass of learning he had attained to; all that honour, credit, reputation, and popularity he was in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And be found in him,.... This is another end the apostle had in view, in counting all things loss and dung, and suffering the loss of all for Christ. Calvin, different from other interpreters, reads the words actively, "and may find in him"; and thinks the sense is, that the apostle renounced all things for Christ, that he might recover all in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That I may know him,.... The Ethiopic version reads "by faith"; and to the same sense the Syriac. The apostle did know Christ, and that years ago; he knew whom he had believed; he knew him for himself; he knew his personal interest in him; nor did he know any but him in the business of salvation: but his knowledge of Christ, though it was very...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If by any means I, might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not in a figurative sense, the resurrection from the death of sin to a life of grace, of which Christ is the efficient cause, for this the apostle had attained to; unless the consummation of that spiritual life, in perfect holiness, should be intended, than which nothing was more...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Not as though I had already attained,.... Or "received"; he had received much grace out of the fulness of it in Christ; he had received the gift of righteousness, the forgiveness of his sins, and the adoption of children; he had attained to a lively hope of the incorruptible inheritance, and had received a right unto it, and had a meetness for it;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,.... That for which he was apprehended of Christ: he had not attained to perfect knowledge, was not come to the mark, had not received the prize, or laid hold on eternal life; though he had received so much grace, and such gifts, as had qualified him for an apostle; and he had been so many years in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I press toward the mark,.... The allusion is to the white line, or mark, which the runners in the Olympic games made up to, and to which he that came first received the prize; and by which the apostle intends the Lord Jesus Christ, who is σκοπος, "the scope", or "mark", of all the thoughts, purposes, and counsels of God, to which they all aim, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect,.... Not absolutely, but comparatively, with respect to other believers, in a lower class of knowledge and experience; and not with respect to degrees, but parts; and regards such who were not children, but of riper age in divine things, unless the words are spoken ironically: be thus minded; as the apostle...