Safeguards
Philippians 3v1-4a
We've heard so much already in this beautiful letter about Paul's troubles but despite all his troubles, he writes:
Philippians 3v1a
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord!
(When Paul uses the word finally here, he means this passage is the end of one thought process. Clearly it's not the end of the letter.)
There is no hypocrisy here, no "Do as I say, not as I do". Epaphroditus, the messenger and gift-bearer from Philippi to Paul, was with him and would shortly be returning (Chapter 2, verse 25). Had Paul not been rejoicing in the Lord in his prison, Epaphroditus would have reported that back to Philippi.
Like Paul, you and I can rejoice in the Lord whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. The English disease of complaining about everything should never be found in a Christian. Perhaps we can't rejoice about our pain and our loss, but we can rejoice in the Lord. The Lord is good. The Lord is perfect. The Lord loves us and has redeemed us from death. Our sins are forgiven and we have been adopted as God's children. These things are always true. They will be true for eternity.
Philippians 3v1b
It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a
safeguard for you.
We can deduce from this that Paul must have spoken to the Philippians (and presumably all the churches he planted) about rejoicing in the Lord many times before. He's so convinced of the benefits of rejoicing in the Lord that he'll say it again, twice, in Chapter 4 verse 4. A church leader needs to tell us frequently about the Christian way of life and Christian attitudes, because it takes us time to un-learn worldly ways, worldly habits and worldly attitudes.
Paul says this reminder "is a safeguard for you". The Greek word here is asphales. It has the sense of "sure" or "definite". I think Paul means that rejoicing in the Lord is like a handrail, keeping us on the right path, or saving us from falling. Some translations, including the ESV, have "is safe for you" but I think the NIV is better here. Paul isn't merely saying that the idea of rejoicing is "safe" - of course it is. He's saying rejoicing in the Lord is a safeguard; it keeps them safe.
When we're under pressure, when the society around us, or the government, is treating us badly, punishing us for believing in Christ and for acting and speaking in accordance with the Bible, when our friends are imprisoned for believing or preaching the Gospel, or when we're distracted by worldly things, it can be tempting to neglect to rejoice in the Lord. When we make that mistake, we can easily slip back into worldly thinking, drift away from faith, from church, and even from God Himself. Remembering to rejoice in the Lord, even on the difficult days, safeguards us.
Paul now offers us another safeguard:
Philippians 3v2-4a
Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast
in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh —
though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
Many churches at that time had been infiltrated and damaged by a group of people whom most theologian call "Judaisers". They taught - wrongly - that to be a Christian, one must first convert to Judaism, and must thereafter keep all of the Law of Moses. Paul describes these people as "those mutilators of the flesh" because the Judaisers wanted Christian men to be circumcised, in order to be fully Jewish, as the Law of Moses demanded.
On the contrary, Paul says of Christians - Gentile as well as Jewish - "we are the circumcision". By this he means that we who are Christians have had our hearts circumcised (Colossians 2v11-12) not merely our flesh. We Christians - both Jewish and Gentile - boast in Christ Jesus not in our ancestry, nor in any ceremony in which our flesh was mutilated. We put no confidence in the flesh. We trust in the grace of God alone, not in anything we have done or in any ceremonial cutting.
A demand for any fleshly ceremony, based on a perceived need to obey the all the Law of Moses in order to be saved, is completely contrary to the Gospel of Christ, who died to pay the penalty for our sins, so that our salvation is dependant on faith in His redeeming sacrifice, not on our own efforts. See Paul's letter to the Galatians for more on this.
Paul's priority, in prison and out, is to maintain the pure truth of the Gospel of Christ, which is by faith alone, in Christ alone, through grace alone, according to the scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone. A mature church leader knowns this is the number 1 priority for his ministry.
The churches I know are not in danger from the heresy of the Judaisers, but some of them are in danger from one of two related heresies. The first is the idea that what we do determines our salvation, not what Jesus has done for us. This is often described as a "gospel of works", in contrast to the true Gospel of faith in Christ. The second heresy is the idea that Jews are somehow more important than Gentiles. This divides the body of Christ. There is no such thing as a first- or second-class Christian:
Romans 3v22-24
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus.
Thus Paul effectively offers us three safeguards: Rejoice in the Lord, do not slip into believing that our deeds as well as our faith have a part in our salvation, and do not divide the body of Christ by imagining that one racial group, or any other sort of group, is better or more important than another. To try to put that more succinctly: focus on God, focus on faith, focus on the Bible, and embrace the unity and equality of the universal church.
A good leader seeks to keep us safe in the faith. That safety is preserved through worship and sound doctrine.