The True Circumcision

Philippians 3v2-3

1^st May 2026

Philippians 3v2-3
Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

In discussing mutilation here, Paul is addressing a problem we no longer have. He's not talking about torture. He's not talking about transgenderism, which encourages women to have their breasts removed and men to have their genitals removed. I'm sure he would be against these things, but he's talking about circumcision, the remove of a male human's foreskin.

Who are "the dogs, the evildoers, the mutilators"?

In the early years of the church, some false teachers were insisting that all male Christians should be circumcised. They did this because they believed that, in order to be a proper Christian, you also needed to be a Jew, and circumcision was the Jewish initiation rite. Paul is so acutely aware of the damage that this teaching could do that he warns the Philippians three times to look out. "Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh". In each case, Paul is describing the same people.

In England, we thing of dogs as rather charming domestic pets. For first-century Jews, however, dogs were seen as violent, dirty scavengers, and viewed with contempt. For example, Jesus said in Matthew 7v6, "Do not give dogs what is holy", speaking about people who were unable to appreciate the things of God. Anybody who told the early church that they needed to be circumcised, to become Jews, in order to be proper Christians, were like dogs, dirty, damaging, comtemptible. They were, to use Paul's second description of them, evildoers. What could be more evil than perverting the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians primarily to oppose this heresy, this idea that Gentile Christians should be circumcised. In that letter, he wrote:

Galatians 5v2-4
Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Circumcision is not damaging to a man's physical health. Paul's concern wasn't about the act of circumcision itself; it was about the reason for doing it. These people wanted to circumcise Gentile Christians to make them Jews. We don't need to be Jews. We need to be Christians. If we were to submit to circumcision for religious reasons, we would be accepting a burden of keeping the whole of the Old Testament law. To submit to circumcision would be to deny the Gospel of Christ, in which were saved through faith, not by obeying the law.

Who are "the circumcision"?

Jews referred to themselves as "the circumcision" because their flesh was circumcised but Paul teaches that we – both Jewish and Gentile Christians – are the true circumcision. He writes elsewhere:

Colossians 2v11
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ

Romans 2v28-29
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter…

The church is the fulfilment of the ancient prophecy of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 36v26-27
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

The church grew out of ancient Israel. Jesus and His early disciples were Jewish. But a Gentile can be just as much of a Christian as a Jew. Peter told a group of early Christians – both Jewish and Gentile:

1 Peter 2v9-10
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people…

We Christians respect Jews because they are descended from God's ancient people. We deplore antisemitism both for this reason and because we deplore all racism. But Gentle Christians are not second-class citizens in the kingdom of heaven.

Three marks of the circumcision

Paul gives us three distinctive marks of the true circumcision, which is all Gentile and Jewish Christians, God's chosen people, God's royal priesthood, God's holy nation. Firstly, he says, we worship by the Spirit of God. Secondly, we glory in Christ Jesus. Thirdly, we put no confidence in the flesh. We'll consider these in turn.

We worship by the Spirit of God. All people can worship God. All people have a duty to worship God. God created us all. It is only proper that His creation worship Him. God gave us life. He gives us air to breathe and food to eat. He gives us the ability to think, and the ability to choose. Whatever a person's religion, whatever a person's belief system, it is only right to give God thanks and praise, show Him some gratitude, even people who don't know who He is. But we alone, Jewish and gentile Christians, whom the Bible calls the circumcision, we alone worship God by the Spirit of God.

Every Christian was given the Holy Spirit the moment He believed. Other people can worship with their minds. They can appreciate something of the glory, majesty and power of a God they don't know. They can worship with their emotions. When a non-Christian sees a sunset, or the ocean, or the mountains, or a new-born baby, when a non-Christian sees beauty or nobility in other people, he can sometimes understand that creation was achieved by a creator, and can feel awe and gratitude to that creator.

But we alone, the church, God's chosen people, worship by the Spirit of God. Others may have some kind of intellectual or emotional appreciation of God, but only we have a spiritual connection with God.

Other people may enjoy singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs but only we, the church, love to worship. Only we are filled with inexpressible joy when we worship. Only we touch God, and are touched by God, when we worship. How blessed we are!

We glory in Christ Jesus. Paul has been comparing the church with what we might call ethnic Israel, or Israel according to the flesh, or those Jews who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour. Obviously, they cannot glory in Christ Jesus. They don't accept that Jesus is the Christ. They're still waiting for the Christ – the Messiah – to come. How tragic that is!

Some Gentile non-Christians have considerable respect for Jesus. They see Him as a good man or a good teacher. Some of them are aware that Jesus is holy, different, set apart from other men. They respect Him. It must also be said that many Gentile non-Christians disrespect Jesus appallingly, and will be judged for doing so. But even those non-Christians who respect Jesus can't be said to glory in Him.

We alone – the church – glory in Christ Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 10v17, Paul tells us, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." We know we're sinners. We know we have nothing to boast about apart from this one thing: Jesus is our Lord.

Non-Christians may boast about their money, or their property, or their power, or their personal appearance. Some may even boast about how many Facebook friends they have. Some may boast about a sports team they watch, as if that team's success had anything to do with them. They may boast in their country, or a skill they have, or their career, or their family. Even those non-Christians who have respect for God, even those who come to church meetings and sing songs of praise to Jesus, don't glory on Christ Jesus; they don't boast in Him.

We feel have a heartfelt desire to sing God's praises, to speak about Him to each other and to tell other people about His love and goodness. We don't boast in our church, or in our leaders, or in our missionary activity. We boast in our Saviour. We tell stories about what God has done in our lives, not to make ourselves feel good, but to testify to God's love, wisdom and power.

We're glad to be God's people, glad to be His family, glad to be his slaves. We know that slavery to Jesus is the only true freedom. Only we know this.

We put no confidence in the flesh. Again. Paul is speaking about those people who want us to become Jews, to be circumcised. But we pout no confidence in the flesh. We know that mutilating our bodies won't make us right with God. It's the precious shed blood of Jesus that puts us right we God.

We don't trust in our own flesh. We don't trust in ourselves. We don't believe we can do anything that will pay for our sins and establish us in a healthy relationship with God. We put all our confidence in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.

We don't trust in our own wisdom. We trust in the Bible, the word of God. We don't trust in our own sense of right and wrong, we trust what the Bible teaches us about ethics. We don't trust ourselves to make good decisions; we pray to God, asking Him to head us.

We don't trust in our own strength. We know we can't bring anybody to saving faith in Jesus without the Holy Spirit. We know that the day will come and our strength fails us. We know that then, like Jesus, will have to pray, "Father into your hand I commend my spirit" before we breathe our last (Luke 23v46).

We trust God. And even the faith we have that enables us to trust God is not of ourselves; it's His gift to us. We put no confidence in the flesh. And we don't need to.