Philippians 3:2

“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision”

“Beware”: To look at and thus to take heed. Notice the emphasis, “Beware..beware..beware. Three times for urgency” (Robertson p. 451). “Paul's pen almost shouts” (Jackson p. 62). " Dogs, evil workers and concision refers to one common type of false teacher or enemy and not three different forms of opposition. The threat is real. Christians cannot be gullible. There is some debate concerning exactly who Paul is condemning in these verses. Basically two views exist: (a) Jewish teachers. (b) Judaizing teachers in the church, that is Jews who had become Christians and who were trying to bind various aspects of the Law of Moses upon Christians (Acts 15:1). It seems to me that Paul has Judaizing teachers in mind because this was the same threat faced by other congregations. Zealous advocates of the Jewish faith did persecute the church, but such was really only an external danger. In contrast, the Judaizers were within the church already (Galatians 2:4). Christians already knew that unconverted zealous Jews were lost, by contrast the Judaizers had become Christians and were members of the Church. “Dogs”: Compare with Matthew 7:6 and Revelation 22:15. The Jews often referred to Gentiles as such. Possibly the Judaizers had used this term when referring to those who did not support their doctrine. Paul now “hurls this term of contempt back on the heads of its authors” (Hawthorne p. 125).

The word "dog" was. term of reproach in the Middle East, because the "dogs" they often encountered were wild and roamed in packs. “The dogs were the pariah dogs, roaming the streets, sometimes in packs, hunting amidst the garbage dumps and snapping and snarling at all whom they met...feeding on the refuse and filth of the streets, quarrelling among themselves, and attacking the passer-by” (Barclay pp. 53-54). “Paul insists that these false teachers are the real ‘dogs'. They have followed Paul, growling, barking, snapping at his heels” (Erdman p. 109). False teaching is serious business. “Yes, Paul called errorists rather harsh names. He followed Jesus in this respect (Matthew 7:15; Acts 20:29). These are not wrong, passionate names but terribly true ones. They are. little unpopular today” (Lenski p. 828).

“Evil workers”: Compare with 2 Corinthians 11:13 “deceitful workers”, “mischievous workers” (Rhm), “the evil workmen”(Con). More is necessary than being "religiously busy". These false teachers were not lazy. They were workers. Teaching error with effort does not impress God (Romans 10:1; Matthew 23:15). “When one commences. pursuit of his own ‘works', rather than those of God, he has become an evil worker” (Jackson p. 62). Compare with 2 John 1:9 and Galatians 1:6. In addition, such men probably taught “some” truth, but teaching some truth does not make up for teaching “some” error (Matthew 7:21). “Concision”: “The noun here is. play upon the word circumcision. It means mutilation” (Vincent p. 444). “There is. pun in the Greek which is not transferable to English. ‘Peritemnein' means to circumcise. ‘Kataemnein' means to mutilate. 'You Jews think that you are circumcised; in point of fact, you are only mutilated'” (Barclay p. 55).

The Judaizers prided themselves on being "circumcised" (Acts 15:1; Acts 15:5; Galatians 2:3; Galatians 5:1). Paul brings them back down to earth. This phrase infers that the Judaizers are not part of the true circumcision (1 Peter 3:3; Romans 2:28). This section also suggests that requiring circumcision as. means of securing salvation (Acts 15:1; Acts 15:5), is not only vain, it is worse than useless. It is actually practicing mutilation. “Some have charged that Paul was too harsh and that his language was not becoming of an apostle of Christ. Such criticisms are born out of sheer ignorance. (1) If there is. criticism to be offered, then level it at the Lord Himself, for He, not Paul, is the ultimate author of the apostle's writings (1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 14:37)” (Jackson p. 63). Compare the language of the prophets (Jeremiah 2:8); John the Baptist (Matthew 3:7), and the Lord Himself (Matthew 23:1). While we must preach the truth with the right motives and attitude (Ephesians 4:15; 2 Timothy 2:25), it is also just as important to preach it just as strongly and plainly as Jesus and the apostles preached it. To be and remain the true Church, our pulpit needs to always be open to the kind of preaching practiced by Jesus and His disciples. We need to be careful of being too caustic, that is, just plain cruel, but we also need to be careful of becoming "too polite".. have found that the critics of strong preaching, do not seem to have the same criticisms when false doctrine is strongly presented.