¹⁷ Brothers, join in following my example, and observe those who live according to the pattern you have in us. ¹⁸ For many live, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who have their minds on earthly things. ²⁰ For our citizenship is in the heavens, from where we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹ who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself  (Phil3:17-21).

Contrary to many Evangelical commentaries I have observed, Paul is not here referring to those outside the Church and weeping for the souls of the unsaved. This is a pastoral letter to Christian converts in Philippi, it would hardly be necessary to counsel them not to follow the ways of gentile unbelievers. There was a more insidious danger within, for which reason they should “follow my example and observe those who live according to the pattern you have in us (leaders)”. For clearly there were many in the church who had their mind on earthly things – as surely applies today and has always been the case.

Gentiles outside the Church in first century Greece were not so much enemies of the cross, most were ignorant of it or its significance. And as Paul made clear often enough in his several references to predestination, unless God had called and enabled them they could never have “been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Heb6:4-5). It is such of these who fall away who face the condemnation to which Paul is referring here, as the writer to the Hebrews (to Luther’s chagrin) goes on to affirm (6:6-8). As for those outside the Church, their eternal fate was dependant on criteria Jesus set in His sheep/goat parable (Mt25), being the definitive New Testament passage on final judgement, in which religion or religious faith are neither mentioned nor implied. An earlier post explains why.

The individuals Paul was concerned about were those within the church who were likely to lead others astray by their manner of life (“walk”). These people who will have understood themselves to have been saved, having (effectively) “made a decision for Jesus” by being baptized and incorporated within the Church. But they also believed they could otherwise continue much as before. No, teaches Paul, they needed to “put off the old self which is corrupt being governed by deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Eph4:22-23)”.

They were no longer to “mind earthly things”, by which Paul did not mean they should be so spiritually minded as to be of no earthly use, but that they should in Jesus’ words “not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal; store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt6:19-21).

Finally, having said that the Christian’s citizenship is in heaven, Paul rarely if ever expresses the believer’s hope in terms of “going to heaven when you die” but rather to await the coming of Christ from heaven (v20). For it is at that point that the Christian, be they alive or deceased at the time, the Lord shall “transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body” (v21). That is the apotheosis of gospel salvation for Paul rather than the repose of the soul in heaven, still less the frankly unbiblical concept of “requiem aeternum“.

Blissful as it surely must be for disembodied spirits to be at rest whilst observing the heavenly mysteries, Paul describes such a condition as “being asleep” (1Cor15:6,18; 1Thes4:13). And when you or I fall asleep at night, what do we wish for? – pleasant dreams for sure, but hopefully to awake in the morning. As Paul expresses it elsewhere: “We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, being the redemption of our body! (Rom8:23)

The LITTLE BOOK OF PROVIDENCE: a seven-part synopsis of the bible: – available as a paperback from Amazon or FREELY as a PDF file.

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