Reading for February 23rd

 Read Philippians 3.1b--4.1. In 3.1b-4.1: The example of Paul. A transition (v. 1) and warning (v. 2) lead into Paul's renunciation of his advantages to counter any tendencies to arrogance (vv. 3-11). He commends perfection but notes, in a play on words, how perfect people (relatively speaking) know they have not reached perfection (vv. 12-16). Finally while enemies of the cross have an earthly orientation, Paul commends a heavenly citizenship in which the believers await glorification in the future (3.17-4.1). In verse 1: To write the same things. probably about disunity; Paul positions the words he writes about his own life as a safeguard for the community's problems. In verse 2: beware, repeated three times, or "watch out for" warns about a possibility, not what already exists. Verses 2 and 18-19 likely refer to practices in the community, rather than actual opponents, that breed disunity. dogs in ancient writing were examples of shameless greed. In verse 3: Circumcision, metaphorically, God's people. In verse 7: Regard echoes 2.3, which commends church-members "to regard others better then themselves," and 2.6 which asserts that Jesus did not "regard equality with God as something to be exploited." In verse 10: becoming like ("symmorphizomennos") Jesus, a link to 2.7, in which Jesus took on the "forms ("morphen") of a slave. In verses 13-14: The image is of running a race. in verse 17: Imitation, see 1 Cor 4.16; 11.1; 1 Thess 1.6. In verse 20: Citizenship, not political but heavenly. See Gal 4.26. Comments or Questions..