Look Out!

(Philippians 3:2)

This verse today is a warning. We need to watch out for those around us and also to put no confidence in the flesh.

2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evil-workers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. (Philippians 3:2)

Let us look deeper into this warning to understand what it is saying and why we must beware of the groups of people to whom Paul is referring.

Look out for the dogs

The first thing we must realise in this statement is that the dogs Paul is referring to are not the furry four-footed kind. He is speaking about a certain type of people who he referred to as “dogs.”

If we consider what a dog is, they were considered an unclean animal under the laws of Moses. There were animals under the law that could be killed and eaten, such as cattle, sheep and goats. In fact any animal that chewed the cud and had a hard hood that parted into two sections could be eaten. And of course a dog does not chew the cud and it has soft paws, thus it was considered an unclean animal.

So when Paul calls a person a “dog” he is referring to a person who is likewise unclean. They are living in an unclean manner in opposition to the ways of the Lord.

Anyone living in a sinful state could be considered a “dog,” but Paul is warning us about the dogs. Why?

Because these people are not just living a sinful life, they are promoting it and revelling in it. They would seek for others to join them in their filthy lifestyle and so drag them down into the depths of sinfulness.

So we need to beware of the dogs because they have power. They make it seem a good thing to live in sinful ways. They promote and highlight their evil lifestyle and call it good so as to justify themselves and draw others into the same evil ways.

Look out for the evil-workers

Just as there are those who are living unclean, there are those who are workers of evil. Their desires and designs are to do evil all of the time.

They undermine truth, honesty and integrity through lies and evil to get their own way. Their desires are not pure and they actively work at doing wrong. They work their evil both out in the open for all to see, and in clandestine ways to undermine the truth.

They teach people that evil is good and good is evil. And people blindly accept their ways and so fall into a snare and a trap of sin.

Many of the things condemned in scripture fall into this category. Fortune tellers, witches, wizards, harlotry, prostitution, substance abuse and so on, are all forms of evil that are promoted as good. Gambling is one that comes to mind that is heavily promoted in advertising and yet leads to poverty and destruction in society. One only needs to look at the casinos and gambling houses to see who gets the money. It is not the average punter who makes money gambling, it’s the house of ill-repute who fleeces the gamblers.

Workers of evil are everywhere and their desire is driven by the desires of their master, the devil. The devil wants to ruin all people, but especially the people of the Lord.

Consider how the devil worked his insidious ways in the Garden of Eden as he deceived Eve into eating of the forbidden fruit. He made evil and wrongdoing seem to be an acceptable thing, and so Eve and then Adam fell to the devils cunning.

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh

This third category of people to beware of is different to the others. The others are basically people in the world who have not accepted the Lord. But this group are what is referred to in other places as the “circumcision party.”

The circumcision party were those people who came into the church claiming or even demanding that the new converts to Christianity should be circumcised and instructed to keep the laws of Moses. Basically they are those who wish to put the people of the Lord under the law.

But we know that in Christ we have been set free from the law. When Christ died and we took His death as our own by faith, we were set free from the law and the law was taken away from us.

But those who wish to put Christians under the law put up a very convincing argument. The law is good. The law is the words of God given to Moses. The law shows good from evil, and so on. And these are all good things.

But…you cannot be justified or made righteous by works of the law. We can only achieve a place of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. And in fact the scripture tells us that if we pursue a righteousness based upon the law, then we will be separated from Christ and Christ will be of no advantage to us.

2 Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. (Galatians 5:2-5)

Seeking to be righteous under the law is impossible because no man can keep the fullness of the law. And perfection will be unattainable under the law because the law defines and magnifies our imperfection by showing sin up for what it is.

In the broad church today there are many who preach and teach saying you must be under the law. They teach different parts or tenets of the law, and if we accept just one law, then we are told we must accept them all, as verse 3 in the scripture above tells us. You can’t pick and choose your laws.

If you consider the laws that are often placed on the members of the church today, you begin to see the sneaky ways in which the devil has caused great swathes of the church to be deceived. Things like tithing, which was part of the Mosaic law, bring people under the law and by it they are deceived. And to make it worse, these modern preachers then mix law with parts of Christianity and make essentially a new religion that is neither based fully on the law, nor fully on Christ. And these two covenants cannot be mixed.

Even though the Old and the New Covenants are not in conflict with one another, since they are both from the same source…God, they should not be mixed. In fact when you stop for a moment and consider it, even logic tells us they cannot be mixed.

Let me give just one small example, and there are others.

Under the Old Covenant, the people were confined under the law and to break the law was sin. Forgiveness was attainable by the sacrificial blood offerings on the altar in the Temple. But under the New Covenant, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have been set free from sin and set free from the law and are no longer under condemnation in the grace of God.

So in the first covenant we are bound under the law, and in the second covenant we are set free from that same law.

So how can we be under both at the same time? How can modern ministers mix both and call it truth when it is not? It is like trying to mix oil and water in a bottle. They splash around together in great confusion until you stop shaking them together when they start to separate from one another. But if you keep shaking the bottle they may have the appearance of cohesion. And that is what the modern preachers do. Keep shaking so it seems OK and don’t allow anyone to settle and work out that these things do not mix.

So we must heed the warnings Paul gave to the Philippians today. Look out for all of these different types and groups of people because their designs are not for the good of you as a Christian, but they want to tear you down and take you away from Christ and the truth that is in Him.

Seek Christ. Seek the truth that comes from Him and He has promised that you will find it.

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