Philippians 3:21

Verse 17 comes straight after Paul’s account of pressing on toward the goal in Philippians 3:12–16, where he admits he is still on the way and asks all who are mature to think the same. Having shown how he lives, he now asks the church to live that way with him.

He opens with “Brethren”, adelphós, the word for a brother, which Paul uses again and again for fellow believers. What follows is the appeal of one member of a family to the rest. “Be followers together of me” is one Greek word, symmimētḗs, a fellow imitator, built from syn, “together with”, and the word for an imitator. The whole church is to imitate Paul as one body, and the word also carries the sense of joining Paul as he follows Christ, so that they walk the road beside him. Imitation, mimēsis, was a familiar idea to Greeks and Jews alike. Students in the schools of philosophy copied their teachers’ lives as well as their teaching, and in Israel disciples followed the pattern set by respected rabbis and by the prophets.

“Mark” is skopéō, to take aim at something, and so to look at it closely and regard it. Paul is asking for careful, deliberate attention, the kind that fixes the eye on a thing in order to understand it and copy it. The people to watch are “them which walk so”, those whose lives follow the pattern Paul has set: the pursuit of Christ, humility, self-sacrifice and obedience to the gospel. Watching closely matters because some who claim to follow Christ live another way, as the next verse says. John gives the same charge, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1), and Peter warns of false teachers who will rise among God’s people and lead many after them (2 Peter 2:1–3). The letter to the Hebrews tells believers to remember the leaders who spoke God’s word to them and to follow their faith (Hebrews 13:7).

“Ensample” translates týpos, first the mark left by a blow, like the image a die stamps into metal, and from there a shape, a pattern and a model to copy. The “us” is plural. It takes in Paul and his fellow workers, likely Timothy and Epaphroditus, whom the Philippians knew. Their lives give the church a pattern it can see, so the call to be like Christ has living examples in front of it.

“For many walk” uses the verb of verse 17 again. Peripatéō means to walk or walk about, and figuratively to live and conduct oneself. Paul has just told the church to mark those who walk as he does, and he now gives the reason: many walk another way. Their walk is the opposite of the life he has already asked of the Philippians: “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27). The word “many” shows that this was a widespread danger.

He has warned them about these people “often”, so the threat kept coming back, and now he writes of them “even weeping”. The verb klaíō is to weep aloud, to sob. Paul gives this warning out of grief and love, and his tears show both how serious their condition is and how much he cares for the church they could harm. He grieved in the same way over other churches, over the Galatians who were turning to another gospel (Galatians 1) and over the immorality allowed at Corinth (1 Corinthians 5).

Echthrós means hated or hostile, and as a noun an enemy or adversary. These people are “the enemies of the cross of Christ”. Their way of life stands against everything the cross means: Christ’s death for sin, and the call to self-denial, humility and new life that comes with it. Paul himself says, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14), and “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). A life ruled by the flesh is at war with God, for “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7).

“Whose end is destruction.” Apṓleia means ruin and loss, the opposite of salvation and eternal life, a ruin that cuts a person off from God’s presence and blessing. It is where their whole road leads, and Peter uses the same picture for false teachers who bring swift destruction on themselves (2 Peter 2:1–3).

“Whose God is their belly.” Koilía is the belly, the hollow of the body. Here it stands for appetite, the craving for food, pleasure and comfort that has taken God’s place as the thing a person serves. Paul says something very close about troublemakers in Rome: “they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly” (Romans 16:18). He tells the Colossians to put to death the earthly desires in them, including covetousness, “which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).

“Whose glory is in their shame.” Glory, dóxa, is honour and praise, and shame, aischýnē, is disgrace. These people boast of what God calls disgraceful, so their sense of honour is turned upside down.

“Who mind earthly things.” To mind, phronéō, is to set one’s thoughts and affections on something. Epígeios, from epí, “upon”, and gē, “earth”, means earthly, belonging to this world. Their whole outlook ends at what this world can give, its comfort, status and passing pleasure. Paul writes, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:5–6). He gives the Colossians the opposite aim: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1–2).

“For” is gár, the word that gives the reason for what came before. Believers live differently from those who mind earthly things because they belong to heaven.

“Conversation” translates políteuma, a community or body of citizens, and so citizenship. In the English of 1611, “conversation” meant a person’s conduct and manner of life, and it could also mean where one lives as a citizen. The Philippians knew all about citizenship. Philippi was a Roman colony, and its people were proud of their Roman citizenship, with its rights, its privileges and its identity. When Paul first preached there, he was accused of teaching customs “which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans” (Acts 16:21). Roman citizens in Philippi lived by Rome’s laws and looked to Rome as their homeland, and in the same way believers live on earth by heaven’s ways and look to heaven as home. Our final loyalty belongs to Christ and his kingdom.

The citizenship is en ouranós, “in heaven”. Ouranós means the sky and heaven, here the place where God dwells and reigns, and it is ours because Christ our Head is there, raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand (Ephesians 1:20–22). God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood” (Colossians 1:13–14). The faithful of old confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth: “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13–16). Peter speaks of an inheritance “reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–5).

“From whence” is ek, “out of” or “from”, with hós, “which”: from heaven itself. “We look for” is apekdéchomai, to expect fully, an eager and patient waiting for someone who is certainly coming. The one we wait for is “the Saviour”, sōtḗr, the deliverer, and Paul gives him his full name. Kýrios is Lord and master, Iēsoûs is the name Jesus, and Christós is the Anointed One. The one who saves us is the one who rules us. He will come down from heaven himself and gather his people to himself (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). This hope gives believers strength in present suffering and a reason to live holy lives now.

“Who” is the Lord Jesus Christ of verse 20, and his coming brings the fullest result of our heavenly citizenship. “Change” is metaschēmatízō, to change the form of something, a true transformation. “Our vile body” is, in Greek, “the body of our humiliation”. Tapeínōsis means lowness, a humbled or low estate.

“That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” uses sýmmorphos, sharing the same form, conformed to. The pattern is “his glorious body”, literally “the body of his glory”, the risen body of Jesus. Dóxa here is glory as splendour and majesty, everything the present body lacks. Paul describes that change at length in 1 Corinthians 15: “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42–44). John writes, “when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Christ’s own resurrection is the first of the harvest and the guarantee of ours: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). The same God who raised him will raise us: “he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11).

“According to the working” is enérgeia, active, effective power. “To subdue” is hypotássō, to put under, to bring into subjection. The power that will remake our bodies is the same power by which Christ brings all things under himself, including the decay, sin and death that now weigh on our bodies. The same verb appears where God “hath put all things under his feet” after raising Christ and seating him at his right hand (Ephesians 1:20–22). Because the promise rests on that power, it is certain.

This was bold news in a Greek city. Greeks often thought of the body as lower than the spirit, even as something evil, and when Paul spoke of the resurrection of the dead at Athens, some mocked (Acts 17:32). Paul promises a glorified body, and so God’s redemption reaches the whole person, body as well as spirit.

“Therefore”, hṓste, ties this command to everything in Philippians 3, from Paul’s pursuit of Christ to our citizenship in heaven and the change of our bodies. “So”, hoútō, means “in this way”, in the light of these truths.

Paul surrounds the command with love. He calls the Philippians “dearly beloved”, agapētós, an adjective meaning beloved or dear, one who is loved, and he says it at both the start and the end of the verse, so his affection frames what he asks. “Longed for” is epipóthētos, from epipothéō, to long for or yearn after. Paul was writing from prison, probably in Rome, and the separation made the longing sharper. This church had stood with him more than any other, sending him gifts again and again (Philippians 4:15–16).

“My joy and crown” uses chará, joy and gladness, and stéphanos, a crown in the sense of the victor’s wreath given in the games, or a mark of honour. The Philippians, by coming to faith and continuing in it, are the fruit of Paul’s labour and his honour before the Lord. He has already said he hopes to rejoice in the day of Christ that he did not run in vain (Philippians 2:16), and he asks the Thessalonians, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19–20).

“Stand fast” is stḗkō, to stand still and firm, and figuratively to persevere. In a Roman colony, the picture of soldiers holding their ground would have been easy to see. Paul uses the same call elsewhere: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13), and he tells the Ephesians to put on the whole armour of God and stand (Ephesians 6:10–14). To the Colossians he writes, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith” (Colossians 2:6–7).

Every example in this passage points past itself to Jesus. Paul counted all things loss “for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8), and the Lord had called his first disciples with “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Jesus showed the greatest love by laying down his life for his friends (John 15:13). God’s purpose is that we be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29), and “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6).

The enemies of the cross stand against the very humility of Christ, who though he was in the form of God made himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant, and became obedient to death on a cross (Philippians 2:5–8). They glory in their shame, while Jesus “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2) and so made the cross the source of our true glory. They mind earthly things, while he tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). The cross they oppose is the great proof of God’s love (John 3:16), the means by which God reconciled us to himself (2 Corinthians 5:18–19), and Christ’s triumph over every power set against us (Colossians 2:14–15). The destruction that waits at the end of their road is what Christ came to save us from.

This passage asks us to look in two directions. We look around us, at whose example we are following and at the example we set, because our own walk is a pattern someone else will copy. And we look up, to heaven, where our citizenship is and from where our Saviour will come.

Paul’s tears show how to warn those who drift from the cross. He grieves for them, tells them the truth plainly, and keeps on loving the church. When our bodies weaken through sickness or age, verse 21 tells us where they are going: the Lord who brings all things under himself will make them like his own glorious body. Until he comes, we stand fast in him, loved by him and by the brothers and sisters who long to see us finish well.