Philippians 3:18-21

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. (3:18-20) Paul warned his friends at Philippi repeatedly about those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ, harshly rebuking those who boast in religious accomplishments (3:2) These were the Judaizers, who relentlessly imposed the Mosaic law on the Christian church Here you see Pauls heart of compassion for his Jewish adversaries, for he writes with tears In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul explains the special role God had for the nation of Israel (Romans 9-11), and again expressed his love by saying: For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race (9:3) Paul describes these enemies, whom he loved, in three ways: o Their destiny is destruction this attempt of righteousness by the law guarantees failure due to the weakness of our sinful nature, with the end result being death (Romans 6:23) o Their god is their stomach though appearing righteous superficially, Paul describes them as being ruled by sensuality of all kinds (food, sex, comfort); much as Jesus described them: You hypocrites, you are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outsid e but on the inside full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean! (Matthew 23:27) o Their glory is in their shame our failure in achieving Gods righteousness should be a matter of shame leading to repentance, but those who display religious acts of righteousness in a prideful way (Matthew 6:2-16) glory in what should be their shame; this certainly would apply as well to those who flaunt their blatant spiritual rebellion for the world to see

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body. (3:20-21) Philippi was a Roman colony, and so any citizen of Philippi was automatically a citizen of Rome sharing in all rights and privileges of Roman citizenship, though most had never been there The Philippians knew what it meant to be a citizen of a supreme city, and many Roman deities (such as the emperor) were often called saviors So Paul writes: our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there When Paul speaks of the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, this is consistent with Johns description of Jesus as the eternal Logos (or Word) who was with God and was God. . . by whom all things were made and apart from Him nothing was made (1:1-3) This power to whom Paul refers is Gods Holy Spirit by whom creation took place (Genesis 1:2), this is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead who now lives in you (Rom 8:11) This unique and incomprehensible description of God the Father, His Son, and Holy Spirit leads us to glorious doctrine of the Trinity Jesus will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body Jesus in a resurrected form was recognizable to Mary (after some help, John 20:16) and also to the disciples, but He was clearly different and was not limited by time or space (John 21, Luke 24) Paul knows his time on earth is short (2:17), he longs to know Christ more fully and experience this power of the resurrection (3:10), and anticipates this transformation of which John spoke: We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is! (I John 3:2)