The Mature Mind – Philippians
The Mature Mind
Together Church | Pastor Jerry Wells
March 8, 2026 | Series: Philippians
Philippians 3:1-16
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. 2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
NKJV
Body
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.
When Paul said finally, he wrote two more chapters.
Application: Never believe a preacher when we say finally😊
Paul was in prison when he wrote this exhortation. Paul used the word “rejoice” 10 times in this letter.
He is not happy about his circumstances. (Acts 26:29-Cesearea) But even in these circumstances he could rejoice in the Lord because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Application: Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can rejoice in the Lord despite our circumstances.
Paul then pivoted to a new warning or threat to the unity of the church in their gospel partnership. Apparently, they heard this warning before from Him when he was with them or in another letter that was not preserved because he said, to write the same things to you is not tedious or a strain on him because he is protecting them.
Application: We can be very slow to learn when it comes to serious warnings.
You may recall that in chapter two he has already addressed two threats to their partnership, persecution and selfish ambition. And now he addresses a third threat, false teachers, whom he called enemies of the cross of Christ. (Philippians 3:18)
The words he used in verse 2 to describe these enemies of the gospel are as harsh as any words that Paul used in any of his letters.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!
Perhaps he used these words because he felt the church was not taking his previous warning as serious as they should, so he used these words to elevate their concern.
Background: The threat of false teachers to gospel partnerships was a common threat to all the churches in the first century.
There have been different versions of this threat throughout church history.
The specific threat to the gospel from these false teachers was that faith in Jesus to be saved or accepted by God was not enough. They were teaching that to be accepted by God requires faith in Jesus plus works.
The works that these false teachers were adding to faith in Jesus were…
- Keep the Mosaic Law
- Adopt Jewish identity markers
…in order to be fully accepted by God.
This specific group of false teachers was different names. They were called Judaizers (which means to live like a Jew). They were also called the concision or the circumcision.
The effects of their false teaching on the church were devastating. They were…
- Discrediting Christ’s finished work in salvation and sanctification
- Dividing the church between those Christians that followed their teaching and those that did not.
- Developing a new wall between Jew and Gentile Christians.
It was like these false teachers were sewing together the veil in the temple that Jesus had torn apart when He was crucified.
Paul first calls them dogs in verse 2.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!
Paul called them “dogs” in Philippians 3:2 because he was making a sharp, deliberate reversal of a term Jews commonly used for Gentiles.
Paul’s choice of “dogs” carried this meaning in the first‑century Jewish world: Dogs were not household pets. They were scavengers. They roamed streets, ate garbage, and were unclean. So the Jews often used “dogs” to describe Gentiles, whom they viewed as outside their covenant with God and spiritually unclean.
Paul flips the term back on these false teachers, saying in effect:
“You think Gentiles are unclean? You are the unclean dogs who are unacceptable to God.”
Calling these Judaizers dogs would have landed with enormous force on these false teachers.
It would have caused the slow to learn gentile disciples of Jesus to take note that these false teachers were a serious threat that they should reject.
After calling them dogs, he calls them evil workers in verse 2.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!
He called them evil workers because their teaching did not produce good works. Their teaching produced evil and destructive works which we have already mentioned.
Then Paul says….
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!
This word mutilation is a derogatory term for physical circumcision. He is saying that with regards to any spiritual benefit, circumcision is harmful to your walk with God if it is done because you think that it will make you acceptable to God.
Each word Paul used, dog-evil workers-mutilation, escalates the seriousness of the warning and the seriousness of the threat of the Judaizers.
Paul’s strong language was pastoral, not petty—he was protecting the church from spiritual harm by using the strongest words he could use to get their attention and warn the church.
Paul then makes one the the most controversial statements he ever made to the Jews.
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,
He claimed that we, meaning Jewish and Gentile disciples of Jesus, the church of Jesus Christ, are the true circumcision. Circumcision represented the visible, physical sign of Israel’s covenant relationship with God, rooted in God’s command to Abraham. It functioned as a marker of identity, obedience, and belonging to the people whom God set apart. So Paul was saying to the Jews, we are the covenant people of God now and you are not.
He then explains why. We worship God in the Spirit, our hope is in the work of Jesus Christ for our righteousness, and we have no confidence in the flesh.
In Romans 2:28-29, Paul wrote this to the church at Rome.
Romans 2:28-29
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
NKJV
Paul called spiritual new birth a spiritual circumcision. He did this because when this new birth occurs in you through Jesus Christ, your flesh no longer defines who you are. Your flesh is crucified with Christ.
This spiritual circumcision makes believers in Jesus Christ the covenant people of God; not physical circumcision.
For this reason, Paul said, we have no confidence in the flesh.
Then Paul shared why he, more than any Jew, had earned the right to conclude that was made right with God by who he was in his flesh. Listen to what he says….
4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
If there was any Jew in the first century who had every reason to have confidence in their flesh for who they were, it was Paul. He was trained by Gamaliel, the leading rabbi in Israel. He was passionate about obeying God’s law and meticulous in his keeping of God’s law. He even obeyed every fence law that the pharisees created to keep themselves from violating the law. And they had a ever growing list of them. There was no one who could rightly accuse him of being disobedient to even the smallest jot of the law of God. If a character award was given annually to Jews for their self-righteousness in their flesh, Paul would win it.
But even though Paul had earned this right, he does not claim this right. In fact, he considered his self-righteousness to be like garbage that he gladly discarded for the righteousness he had received through faith in Jesus Christ.
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Then Paul goes on to talk about how this change from being confident in his flesh to being confident in Christ had transformed his personal ambition.
9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
His view of His future was that when Christ returns, he will be raised with Christ and found righteous because of Christ, not because of the righteousness of his works but because of the righteousness he had obtained by faith alone in the work of Christ.
His greatest aspiration based on what Christ has done for him was to know the one who had made Him righteous by His work and to be conformed into His image. And for that aspiration he pressed forward.
Paul wanted to know Christ and be like Christ for the glory of Christ. It was His greatest aspiration.
He ended this section in verses 15-16 with an appeal that everyone in the church who would ever read this letter, would have this mind and think like he thinks.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
He calls this mind or way of thinking, the mature mind.
Conclusion
Do you have this mature mind?
- Have you considered your self-righteousness to be garbage and discarded it for the righteousness of Christ?
If you have done this you will live without fear of being eternally punished by God for your sins.
If you have done this you will stop striving to make yourself acceptable to God.
If you have done this you will have a spiritual mind rather than a religious mind.
A religious mind says do to become righteous – Jesus says done.
A religious mind says our performance makes us righteous – Jesus says His performance makes us righteous.
A religious mind says earn righteousness – Jesus says I already paid for it.
A religious mind says work to be accepted by God – Jesus says my work makes you acceptable to God.
- Do you believe that in your inner man your have received a spiritual circumcision by the Holy Spirit and that you have a new identity in Christ?
If you believe this is true, you will no longer find your identity in your flesh. You will no longer depend upon your flesh for security, for significance, or for what gives your life meaning. You will depend upon who you are in the spirit for what makes you lovable, what makes you important, and for what gives your life meaning.
If you believe this is true, you will no longer try to put off sin with religious works. You will put off sin by walking in the spirit.
If you believe this is true, you will stop judging other believers based on who they are in the flesh.
If you believe this is true, you will stop measuring the maturity of other believers by their personal preferences.
- Is it your greatest personal ambition to know Christ and to be like Him in character, obedience, and intimacy with God?
If this is true of you than spending time alone with God reading His Word and talking to God will not be just a discipline for you. It will be a delight. It will be what you most look forward to each day.
The mature disciple of Jesus thinks this way.
Do you have this mature mind?
Invitation
This morning, I want to give you the opportunity to discard your self-righteousness for the righteousness of Christ. If you are willing to do that, please pray this with me. (Salvation prayer)
This morning, I want to give you the opportunity to exchange who you are in the flesh, for who you are in Christ.(Sanctification prayer)
This morning, I want to give you the opportunity to make your greatest ambition to know Jesus Christ and be conformed into His image. (Dedication prayer)