God’s Word for You

Philippians 3:2-4a we are the circumcision

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, April 7, 2026

2 Look out for the dogs. Look out for those who do evil. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Many of the Philippian Christians were, like Lydia, Jews who had been converted to Christianity by Paul’s preaching. Would the Apostle refer to Jews as dogs? Probably not, at least not generally. It might be offensive to the Philippian Christians who had formerly been Jews, and it would be meaningless to those who had been Gentiles, because they wouldn’t understand the Jewish aversion to dogs as unclean animals (Leviticus 11:26-27). The “dogs” here are rather those people, some Jewish, perhaps, and others not, who were outside the Christian church and who barked and snapped and yapped at the preaching of the Gospel.

“Those who do evil” are and were common in every city and town, valley and hilltop, throughout the world. Paul is distinguishing them from the “dogs” of this verse as people who might appear to mind their own business, but who still lead a sinful life. It would certainly be easier for a Philippian Christian to be friends with this kind of a person who at least isn’t opposed to the Christian’s faith, but then could damage that faith with their sinful life and words. Therefore, watch out for them.

What about “those who mutilate the flesh”? This is a reference to the Jewish practice of circumcision, going all the way back to the time of Abraham, centuries before even Moses was alive, when God commanded that his people should be circumcised. Now, is Paul crying out against that practice, which was something like an Old Testament sacrament, the rite by which men and boys entered into the Hebrew faith? Is Paul saying that he and other Christians who were once Jews should be ashamed of this small assault on their flesh, done on the eighth day of life for most? No. He is warning about those Jews and perhaps some others who insisted that in order to be an authentic or true Christian, one had to enter by the ancient rite of circumcision, and that mere baptism was not sufficient. This idea is nowhere expressed by Christ or in the Gospels or anywhere else in the New Testament. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, that is to say, one week after he was born, as were all little Jewish boys. What about little Jewish girls, and women who joined their church? What does the prophet say? “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and you people of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 4:4). And God threatens to punish anyone, man, woman, or child, who was “circumcised only in the flesh” (Jeremiah 9:25). God was clearly thinking of circumcision as something more than an attack on a little piece of a man’s flesh. God was thinking of circumcision as an attack on sin, sin that has its seat in the flesh and affects the whole body and life of every man, every woman, every little baby boy and every little baby girl. Therefore the ritual or rite was in the flesh of the males, but it was to be in the hearts and minds of all the Jews.

In Colossians, Paul connects circumcision of this kind, a putting off of sin in the bodies of all believers, with baptism that raises the Christian from spiritual death to spiritual life. “In Christ you were also circumcised,” Paul writes, “in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of man but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:11-12). So those that Paul calls “mutilators of the flesh” were those who didn’t understand the removal of sin that is offered in Baptism. To them, baptism was a mere nothing, an empty ritual. They were guilty of rejecting the Gospel, the word of God, because they thought that it contradicted Moses when in fact Christ fulfilled what Moses wrote about. Therefore, Paul says, watch out for them.

3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, we who glory in Christ Jesus, and we who put no confidence in the flesh—4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

Here Paul goes a step further; a bold step for all to see. The Christian church is not a lesser church, a mere fad, a contradiction of the old ways. It is the only way; for “We are the circumcision.” Paul sets Christians apart from Jews, that is, from the Jews who rejected Jesus, by saying that even their circumcision has no more power in it. For a man who is circumcised but who does not believe in Jesus is not really circumcised at all, but is circumcised as Jeremiah put it, “only in the flesh” (Jeremiah 9:25), “and really uncircumcised.” Why? Because they had no faith in Christ, no forgiveness of their sins. They had given up on the word of God given in the Garden of Eden and the promise of the Savior who was a fleshly descendant of Eve and the Son of God. His believers are the ones who glorify Christ and who put no confidence in the flesh, which is to say, in their circumcision. Because without faith, as Paul told the Galatians, “neither circumcision or uncircumcision has any value” (Galatians 5:6). But with faith, circumcision is no longer necessary, since baptism washes all sins away. That is why Paul calls Christians “we, who put no confidence in the flesh,” even though Paul could have confidence in his own Jewish heritage, as we will hear about in the verses that follow. But the “no confidence” also gets to the very heart of God’s holy word. A person cannot be saved by anything that has to do with that person. The heritage, the thoughts, the accomplishments, the attachments of this lifetime—nothing that a person says, does, or belongs to, including a Christian church—counts toward their salvation. It is Christ, absolutely and completely outside of us, who accomplished everything necessary for us. It is only that we put our trust in him that connects us to him.

Now, this is not to say that belonging to a church is not a good thing. The Apostle warns us not to give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing (Hebrews 10:25), but that we gather with a church to hear the word, confess our sins, confess our faith, receive the sacraments, pray with other Christians, and encourage one another. We do this to the glory of God and out of thanks to Christ, for all of our confidence is in him and not in ourselves.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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