PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT?

Philippians 3:1-3
Bob Bonner
June 29, 2008

Down through the ages, throughout all societies and cultures, it can be said that we human beings are obsessed with being high achievers. Some cultures are more obvious or noted for their drivenness as revealed by their work ethic, but all societies place great importance and value upon one’s ability to perform well. If you perform well, you are not just to be admired; you are to be highly regarded as worthwhile. On the other hand, if you don’t perform well, you are devalued or to be disregarded as unimportant to your world.

Children quickly learn that to be recognized, praised, and rewarded they have to perform well. Of this fact, author, preacher, father, grandfather, and great grandfather Chuck Swindoll writes of children:

    “They cut their teeth on the hard fact that this world assigns value to

    people based on their success. Self-worth is something that has to be

    earned. And you do that by achieving more than many so that you can

    be recognized as being better than most. . . . It’s in our blood to believe

    that accomplishments will bring us recognition and lasting joy.”

This measuring one’s worth based on performance is made even more vain when we consider the reality that not all children are created equal. Some children are born multi-talented physically or mentally or both, and others are not gifted in the same way. Knowing this as parents, both Becky and I tried to teach our children early on that their value and worth was not based upon their ability to perform well, nor was it founded upon what they could accomplish during their years on earth. And yet, at the same time, we didn’t want them to misunderstand and think that there was no value to hard work or personal discipline and allow them to slip into laziness and not be positively productive for Christ. Hence as Christian parents, there was this consistent tension to train our children to be responsible, hard workers, but yet not lead them down the path of self-righteousness and personal glory seeking by basing their sense of value or identity upon their accomplishments.

Having said that, you might understand how both Becky and I were surprised by the effect just one little child’s song had on shaping our daughter’s thinking for the first nineteen years of her life. Admittedly, she misunderstood the message of the song; nonetheless, it shaped her thinking. What she thought the song was promoting led her down the path of being a typical first-born perfectionist, who was driven to prove her sense of worth and to gain approval from what she could do. Unknowing the effect the message of this song would have on her, we played it over and over again in the car when we would travel with the kids. The song came from one of the four albums entitled Bull Frogs and Butterflies. The song was “Practice Makes Perfect.” As I remember, it was during my daughter’s first year as a college student at Stanford, and during a time when she was studying the Word, that God showed her that her worth, her value, and her identity had nothing to do with her ability to perform well in her studies or any other area of her life. Instead, she finally realized that her personal value came to her as a gift because of her having placed her faith in One Who had performed well in her place, that being Jesus Christ. It was her faith in His performance on the cross on her behalf that gained her forgiveness, approval, value, and worth before God. It was Christ’s finished work on the cross and nothing more that guaranteed her that she would forever be one of His beloved children. Once she recognized this, she was immediately freed from the tyranny of having to perform for God to earn his approval. Now she can work unto the Lord, such that it brings Him honor and glory, knowing that she will never be rejected or disapproved by Him should she fail to meet her goals.

The lesson of learning to rejoice over what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us, rather than basking in the glory of our own accomplishments, I find, is a continual challenge for me. There is this thing in me and in all of us that the Bible calls the “flesh” that will remain with us until we go to be with Jesus in heaven. The “flesh” is this drivenness to prove that, independent of God, we can do anything; and on our own, we can even please or earn or maintain God’s approval of us all by ourselves, if we just try hard enough to do good and stay out of trouble. I find that often times it is my “flesh” that leads me into trying to do good, even for God’s glory. Daily I am being reminded not to count on my flesh, but to rely upon Christ and to abide in Him and to trust in what He will do in and through me, as I consciously yield myself to Him.

It is this very ongoing challenge that the Apostle Paul addresses rather vehemently in our passage of study for this morning, because, as he has witnessed throughout his ministry, there will always be someone like the Judaizers out there who want you to believe that there is something that you can add to the work of Christ on the cross that will make you more accepted or approved of by God.

As we turn our attention to Philippians 3:1-3, allow me to establish the bigger picture of Philippians and how this next section fits into it.  Beginning with 3:1 and carrying on through 4:9, we have the next major section of the text. In this passage, Paul returns to “The Philippians’ affairs” again, and their “progress and joy in the faith.” Within this section, the largest single block of material is Paul’s personal testimony as it regards the gospel, which covers 3:4-14. This is followed by no less than three different appeals to “imitate me” in 3:15 and 17 and 4:9. But this whole section begins with 3:1-3, in which Paul emotionally explodes, not at the Philippians, but at the Judaizers who are knocking at the Philippians’ door as they have in the past at other churches, trying to entrap these believers into believing a false gospel. Between verses 2-3 alone, Paul uses six different figures of speech to drive home his point about the dangerous teachings of the Judaizers. He vents his feelings. Unfortunately, translators either cannot preserve or are unwilling to express these gruff figures in translation. As a consequence, the vigor of the apostle’s emotions is toned down to the English reader.

The reason that Paul is so hot lies more with Paul than with the Judaizers. Such people have been “dogging” him and the churches he has planted for over a decade. Notice the strong language Paul uses in his other letters that makes it very clear that he has had a belly full of these people. Paul says this about the Judaizers in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”

Notice, Paul calls these individuals “servants of Satan.” Keep in mind, they weren’t ugly or necessarily mean-spirited false teachers. In fact, they were probably very moral, likeable, upstanding, sincere people. But nonetheless, when it comes to the most important message in history, the gospel, you don’t twist it, change it, or add anything to it. If you do, Paul says, you are considered a “servant of Satan.” These Judaizers may have been sincere, but they were sincerely wrong!

Over in Galatians 5:12, Paul is so upset with these false teachers who teach that one must trust Christ and then become a Jew through the practice of circumcision in order to be saved, that he states, “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.” Paul’s literal wording here in the Greek states that he wishes these Judaizers would not just practice circumcision but that they would actually take it a step further and castrate themselves. That’s pretty strong language that reflects the seriousness of their error of tampering with the truth of the Gospel. Because the gospel is at stake, Paul, as we will see in 3:1, doesn’t mind repeating himself in verses 4-14 about the whole truth of the gospel. What he tells them between verse 4 and the end of the letter is not something they have not heard before, but he wants to remind them about the truth of the cross of Christ and what it is that Jesus accomplished for us. However, before he gets there, one can’t ignore that this Apostle is vexed in verses 2-3!

So different is the tone of our passage for this morning from the previous subject matter of Paul’s proposed itinerary, which was filled with warmth and affection, that I get the feeling that when Paul finished writing 2:30, he must have put his quill down and quit writing this letter for the moment. He probably spent some time talking more with Epaphroditus, and their discussion brought up the problem of the Judaizers. Paul must have then returned to the letter, red hot about these Judaizers, and passionately gone about warning the Philippians concerning these false teachers. 

As we read these three verses, note that we are going to stop in mid-sentence at the end of verse 3, only to pick up the rest of the sentence in verse 4 next time. Follow along as I read. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, [meaning the genuine believers] who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

As we look closely at these three verses, you will notice that there is one command in verse 1, three warnings in verse 2, and in verse 3 three identifying marks of one who truly understands the gospel of Christ and is thus a genuine believer.

The command in verse 1 is pretty obvious. “Rejoice in the Lord.” This command has nothing to do with a feeling but everything to do with an activity and focus. It is a call to verbalize with praise and singing what Jesus has accomplished for them, in contrast to what the Judaizers are doing and boasting in their ability to follow the law of circumcision.

Sixteen different times Paul uses some form of the word for “joy” in this letter. Often it does refer to the feeling of joy. Only twice does he command the Philippians to rejoice, and the first time is here. In both commands, Paul is telling them that if they are going to boast about anything, if there is anything worthy of praise, it is recalling what the Lord Jesus accomplished on our behalf by his death and resurrection. Based upon his work on our behalf, there is nothing we can add that will make us any more acceptable before God. Jesus’ work on the cross did it all. 

Hence our standing before God rests solely upon our faith being placed only in what Christ has done for us, not what Christ has done for us and what we have done out of obedience or disobedience to Him. Paul’s antidote to their being taken in by the possible attractiveness of the Judaizers’ teachings (which was to rejoice in one’s own religious efforts to earn God’s approval, like through circumcision) was to “Rejoice in the Lord.”

Back in 1:18, Paul says twice that he will rejoice in the Christian preachers of the gospel in Rome, because even though their motives for preaching the truth were suspect, at least they were teaching truth and not falsehood like the Judaizers!

As we learn from Paul’s words and can see from Paul’s example, being a faithful preacher involves not only declaring truth but also exposing error. And that’s what Paul goes on to do, beginning with verse 2. Here he warns his readers about these Judaizers. His words in these two verses are harsh and filled with vexation. Three times he calls them names. Each name begins with the letter “k” in Greek and has attached to it the command “beware,” giving the reading of these words a staccato effect that reveals his words are highly emotional.

The first label he puts on these Judaizers is that of “dogs.” “The dogs” is a metaphor full of “bite.” Dogs in the Greco-Roman society were not your pampered household pets that were loved by family and friends. They were considered “low life” scavengers that roamed the streets in wild packs seeking something to eat. They were dirty and disease ridden, considered dangerous to anyone who got in their way. They were generally detested by most folks and considered unclean by Jews, who sometimes used the term “dog” to designate Gentiles. Paul thus reverses the epithet, making the Gentile Christian believers “clean” through the “true circumcision”, and making the Judaizers, who wanted to take these new believers back to false circumcision, “unclean.” These false teachers roamed about like disease-carrying dogs, looking for opportunities to spread their spiritually unhealthy teachings. Hence Paul says, “Beware of them!”

Secondly, Paul describes these Judaizers as “evil workers” who want others to believe that they are doing the works of righteousness when they are aren’t. In fact, because they are doing just the opposite by sowing their corrupt gospel, they were considered “evil.” They were a stumbling block to genuine faith in Christ. The fact that Paul calls them “workers” reminds us that they were not lazy or indolent slackers, but busy workers (like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses). While they advocated good works, they were, in fact, doing evil works, because they were teaching that salvation comes by putting their trust in Christ plus by becoming a Jew.

The signature “good work” these false teachers were pushing, that stood for one’s being committed to obeying the Torah, or Jewish Law, was the practice of circumcision.  Because of this practice of circumcision, Paul also warns the Philippians about these people being of the “false circumcision” which is really a play on words in the original Greek language used here. “False circumcision” is an ironic expression that actually means “mutilators,” which is reference to their attempts to mutilate the male anatomy of Gentiles in order to gain religious control over them. To these false teachers, salvation was faith in Jesus plus becoming a Jew. This eliminates salvation being a gift of God. It eliminates “grace” and replaces it with “boasting in the flesh” or one’s ability to make oneself acceptable to God. This is “false circumcision.”

In verse 3, Paul continues to remind them of what the marks of “true circumcision” or the marks of one who is a genuine believer are. Just to make this a little clearer, “true circumcision” was never considered to be at the core a physical outward act, but the action that takes place in one’s heart. Inward circumcision was the personal breaking away from sin with a truly repentant heart (Leviticus 26:41; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4), in the life of someone who genuinely wants to know and walk with God.

I remember clearly the first time I fully understood that which surrounds this idea of “true circumcision.” One afternoon, as a college student, I was in my dorm reading my Bible. I happened to be studying Romans 2:28-29. When I read these verses, I was stunned as their truth hit me. Paul writes: “For he is not a Jew [a true believer] who is one outwardly, [because of following Jewish laws like circumcision] nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh [meaning of the physical body]. But he is a Jew [a true believer] who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit [meaning something that God initiates], not by the letter [doesn’t come about because we as humans initiate a relationship or favor with God through our being good or religious]; and his praise [the believer’s approval] is not from men, but from God.

What stunned me from these words is that what God really wants from me is not so much my actions, but me, my heart. He loved me and saved me and wanted me to love Him and submit my life to Him. Nothing I could do, religiously speaking, could make that happen between me and God. It was something He wanted to give me through faith in Christ. He even initiated the relationship by His Spirit to draw me to Himself. I was approved and accepted by Him, not because of what I could do, but because He changed my heart. He called me and began a work of changing me from the inside out. All of that really came into bloom when I put my confidence in Jesus as my Savior and gave my life over to Him as my Lord. In the end, it was all about God’s wanting me, loving me, and going to great extents to save me. And was I going to trash His love and move upon my life to say, “Here, let me help you save me, God, or make me more acceptable to you, beyond what you have already done through Christ’s sacrifice?” No way. Instead, I chose to love and honor Him out of a grateful heart. Out of a grateful heart I obey Him, not to earn or maintain His approval. I already possess His forever approval, thanks to Jesus. Now, I just want to honor Him. No need for false circumcision. True circumcision removes the sin of the heart, not the skin of the flesh. True circumcision permanently reconciles the believer to the greatest lover of his soul--His creator, the living God. 

In verse 3, Paul notes three characteristics of a genuine believer. First, he is one who worships in the Spirit of God. The term “worship” is a poor rendering of the Greek word used here, because it can be quite misleading. Its meaning points to that of “service;” not in the sense of what the congregation does together as a gathered people, but the “service” of God’s people in terms of their devotion to Him as evidenced in the way they live before Him. The Apostle Paul describes in Galatians 5 some of the evidence of a believer who lives a life devoted to the Lord--the “fruit of the Spirit”. Hence one mark of a genuine believer is one, who out of devotion to Christ, serves Him; and while he does so, the fruit of the Spirit is evident.

A second mark of a genuine believer is that he or she “glories in Christ Jesus.” The believer boasts not in himself, as the Judaizers did, or in what he has or has not done that is moral or immoral, but rather he boasts and puts his full confidence in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Finally, in total contrast to the Judaizers, Paul indicates that the genuine believer “puts no confidence in the flesh.” Hawthorne writes about the “Flesh,” stating: [It] pictures human kind at its highest and best, striving to achieve an adequate status before God, but without dependence upon God. It is this    self reliance, this confidence in his own capacity to please God and earn or maintain a favorable verdict from the Judge which vitiates the heart of the gospel.”

Take, for example, spiritual disciplines like memorizing Scripture or trying to read through the Bible in a year or having a disciplined time during the week to really study the Bible or pray. Although these things can be good, have you taken personal pride in your piety or your “fleshly accomplishments?” Piety can be good, but it also can be dangerous to think we are better or more acceptable before God because of how dedicated we are to the Lord and how successful we are at maintaining our outward spiritual disciplines.

To be fleshly is to deem oneself more worthy of God’s forgiveness, because as a Christian maybe you haven’t committed some heinous sin. Or it is fleshly when we look at another’s sin, and even though that person has truly repented of their sin, to reject that person or to treat him as though he or she has the plague and to avoid them, as though you are plague free. When we function that way, we are fleshly. We are counting ourselves better or more acceptable before God because we haven’t committed their sin. That’s pure arrogance, something which God hates above all things, according to Proverbs.

That’s the very Judaizers’ teaching of “practice makes perfect”. “Practice” does not make “perfect.” Practice does not make you more like Christ. Practice does not earn or maintain your approval before God. Jesus Christ’s work on the cross on your behalf makes you perfect in God’s sight. And if the Apostle Paul were standing here, he would say, “And don’t you forget it!” You have nothing for which you can boast for your approval and righteousness before God. You have only God to be thankful to for His act of mercy extended toward you through Jesus Christ.

 How do you treat fellow repentant Christians who fail? Like the Judaizers or like Christ? What contemporary religious groups or religions correspond to the ancient Judaizers? (Jesus plus works gets you saved.) How do they? What are some modern equivalents to the issue of circumcision? In what ways do people put confidence in the flesh? How would you suggest exposing such a practice to another so as to help them not to put confidence in their flesh?

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