The Lord is speaking that we draw up our battle lines against Babylon and spare no arrows against her (Jeremiah 50:14). This message is one of those arrows.
Philippians chapter 3 is one of the great chapters of the New Testament. In verse 1 we 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. Paul must have repeated the same truths of this chapter many times, and likewise we too may have read them many times; yet each time we read them they always have a fresh input to our lives.
The next two verses are particularly important. They show us the vicious and vindictive attitude that “religious” dogs have. Beware of the dogs (the dogs that would bite you as you walk down the street? no), beware of the evil workers (the great complicity of evil in the world? no), beware of the false circumcision (something that was a surgical error? no); for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
As we move through the course of this walk with God into the Kingdom, we become well aware that these words have great significance. Perhaps we need, as Paul said, to hear them several times because that is a safeguard for us.
Paul warns us, “Beware of the dogs.” When you think of the vicious dog-nature, you have the epitome of the religious spirit. A dog may seem to be a good watchdog; but if a thief were to slip him some meat, he could turn and bite his owner and defend the man who gave him the meat. Beware of the dogs, for they can be trained to be very vicious. Beware of the dogs, because they are ready to snap at the heels of everyone who walks by them. They wait, ready to attack even a car. But what would they do with a car if they caught one? The dog depicts the futile, petty, shallow thinking of the religious spirit. Beware of the dogs!
Verse 2 also cautions us, “Beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.” The dogs, the evil workers, and the false circumcision are all tied in together in a religious spirit. You may protest, “But evil workers are not religious!” Who plotted to crucify Jesus? Who pushed Pilate and moved the Romans? Who manipulated, stirred up, and shoved a whole nation until they cried, “Crucify Him!”? It was the religious people—the scribes, the Pharisees, the rulers of the Jews (Matthew 26:4, 59–66; 27:1–2; Mark 15:11–15). Do not misunderstand this and think that the whole thing rests on the Jews and not on the Gentiles. Put it on commercial and organized religion.
Who are the evil workers? They are those who meet behind closed doors and plot how they can crucify the Christ (Luke 22:2). After all, He upsets the money changers in the Temple, and those religious leaders receive a great rake-off from that (Matthew 21:12). Do not doubt that religion can be a racket.
The atheistic ideology of communism says that religion is the opiate of the people. This is partially true. Religion puts people to sleep with a religious spirit so that they do not walk with God. We must realize that it is difficult to even evaluate this in our minds, for religion can be the chloroform which dulls our sensitivity to reality. In contrast, a Word from the Lord comes to say, “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ will give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14). The truth awakens men, but religion puts them to sleep because they come to trust in a religious positioning of their life which has no spiritual reality before God. How can they do anything else? They have not been born again; they cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3).
We are also warned, “Beware of the false circumcision.” The circumcision of the flesh, Paul warns us, is not what is valid or important. It is the circumcision of the heart which is really important (Romans 2:28–29). Circumcision of the heart means that God cuts away that part of your heart which has been cold, which has been dead and insensitive and rebellious toward Him. Are you thinking, “My heart has not been that way”? How do you know? Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deep and desperately wicked; who can know it?” If you do not even know your own heart, don’t be so defensive about it. Why be so defensive about every criticism, about every Word from the Lord which causes you to search what is deep in your heart? Do you want to slam the door on it, put chains on it, and padlock it? But God is a God of knowledge and by Him actions are weighed (I Samuel 2:3). He knows you. He knows what you are thinking. He knows what is in your heart. And it is out of the heart that all the desperate, deadly, evil things proceed (Matthew 15:19).
Beware of the false circumcision. What is a false circumcision? It is that which cuts away the externals without ever dealing with the internal matters. It is that which changes habits, ways, attitudes and expressions, or even patterns of behavior, but which never reaches into the inner nature. That is a false circumcision.
True circumcision reaches right down to what you are. A Living Word from God comes as a sharp two-edged sword, … piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12. Don’t wonder whether this process will hurt. You had better believe that it will hurt! You may not like it; you may not even want to hear this Living Word, because there is nothing that you will ever hear by a Word from the Lord that will not hurt. There is no anesthetic for the sword of the Spirit. Do you want to run from it? If you love God you will submit to it! Your “ouches” will be your “amens” as you say, “Search me, O God. Try me and know my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the path everlasting” (Psalm 139:23–24).
We are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:3. Nor do we defend the flesh, for we know that all the rebellion of Adam and all the evil that Satan has ever worked with us in deception has become a part of that heart of flesh. Take Your sharp two-edged sword, O God, and pierce our heart of flesh. Cut it away! We will be the true circumcision of God when You have circumcised our heart. We may bleed a little, but we will walk with You, Lord.