Vers. 18, 19.-The walk of mere worldly professors. "For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross :of ChrisL." The allusion is not to errorists merely, but to the antinomian formalists in the visible communion of the Church. I. MAl-'"Y PERSONS ARE FOUND IN THE COlDHJNIO!i OF THE Cmrnca WHO A.RE THE E:!.'EMIES OF THE CROSS OF CmnsT. They were there even in apostolic days, in spite of gifts of cfucemment and the power of discipline. It is an altogether ,chimerical idea to think of a perfectly pure Church. There was no such Church in the days of Christ or the apostles. The persons here described appear to be of the same class :i.s those referred to elsewhere as "they who serve not our Lord JesUB Christ, but their own belly" (Rom. xvi. 18); persons who caused" divisions and offences," whose life was a practical denial of the 1irinciple that they who are Christ's " have crucified the flesh witu its affections and lusts" (Gal v. 24). II. MOB.AT, CHARA.CTEnISTICS OF THESE l"ORMALISTS AND THE DOOM THAT AWAITS THEM. 1. The real, object of their worship. " Whose god is their belly." Like those r1-ferred to at Rome, they "served not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly" /Rom. xvi 18). '!'hey were sensual and self-indulgent, forgetting that "the kingdom uf Gc-d is not eating and drinking" (Rom. xiv. 17). 2. 'l.'he gross perversion of their moral .fudgments. " Whose glory is in their shame." They gloried, under the name of liberty, in what ought to have inspired feelings of sham~, so as t.o bring upou them tLc retriuution, "I will turn thr:ir glory into shame" (Hos. 1v. 7). 3. The earthly cast of their life. "WLo mind earthly things." (1) The apostle does not encourage .the n,:,glect of earthly tLiags, much less cast any discredit on those nntural feelings which link us to the realities of earthly life. (2) But be censures the living for this present VLsibk world to the neglect of the invisible kingdom by which we are surrounded. The eai:tbly tbinge n,ay be pleasures, riches, honours, power, place. "Sceltcst thou great tl,mg.; f•Jr thyself r seek them not" (Jer. xlv. 6). 'l'o mind them is (a) to desire them on. m. 1-21.J THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 127
(Col. iii. 2; Ps. lxxiii. 25); (b) to admire them (Luke xxi. 5, 6); (c) to In.hour after them (John vi. 27; Matt.. vi. 33); (d) to concentrate thought and interest upon thcrn. (3) Reasons for not minding earthly things. (a) They are beneath the considera1ion of Christiane; (b) we have higher things to mind (Phil. iii. 20); (c) the minding of heavon and earth ie an inconsistent service (Matt. vi. 24); (d) earthly thin as are e,sen- tially uncertain, unsatisfying, inconstant, and momentary (Eccles. i. 8; Pr"civ. xxiii. 5; Luke xii. 20). 4. The doom of these formalists. "Whose end is destruction." Not- withstanding their high professions and their ecclesiastical privileges, their end is eternal death. 'l'hcre is but one end of such a life: "The end of those things is death " (Rom. vi. 21); "Whose end is to be burned" (Heb. vi. 8); "Whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Cor. xi. 15). !If. THE EMOTION OF THE APOSTJ.E AT TIIE CONTEMPLATION OF SUCH A CLASS OF SINNERS. " I tell you even weeping." He wept at their wickedness as much as at the thought of their deserved doom. IV. 'l'HE NE0ESBITY OF REPEATED WARNINGS AGAINST EVIL IN T!lE Cnuacrr. "Of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping." It was needful that thu apostle should lift the voice of warning against a tendency as fatal in its ultimate results as the deadliest heresy.-'l'. C. Vers. 20; 21.-.77ie heavenly citizenship and its blessed expectaticm. The apostle seems to say that these souls, with their earthly instincts, can have no fellowship with us; for we are citizens of a heavenly state. "For our citizenship is even now iu heaven." I. THE HEAVEh'LY CITIZENSHIP. L Consider its s011rce. lt comes, not by birth or manumission, but by the ransom-price of Jesus Christ. It is in Christ we become "fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God" (Eph. ii. l!l). 2. Consider the duties this citizenship involves. We are to obey its laws and watch over the interests of Christ's kingdom. 3. Consider its privileges. We receive protection, guidance, and comfort. II. ITS BLESSED EXPECTATIONS. "From whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." 1. Believers are always looking/or the second coming of the Lord to judgment. (Titus ii. 13; Acts x.xiv. 15; xxvi. 6, 7; 1 'l'hess. i. 10.) It is the "blessed hope" of the saints ('l'itus ii. 13). 2. .77iere is the expectation of a trans- figuration of our bodies by Chrisfs power. " Who shall fashion anew our vile body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working whereby be is able even to subdue all things to himself." This allusion to the glorious destiny of our bodies may have been due to the thought of the sensuality of the formalists just cou<lemned. (1) Consider the vileness of our bodies. Though foarfnlly and woudmully made, and though temples of the Holy Ghost in case of all saints, our bodies are vile (a) as to the materials of which they are composed-we are mere dust an,l ashes; (b) as to tbe diseases and infirmities that often darken the soul's life; ( c) as to sinful desires which find their principal seat or instigation in the body. (2) Consider the transformatio1i of our bodies. They are to be fashioned according to the likeness of Christ's glorious body. 'l'he change will be (a) necessary, that the body may be a fitting dwelling-place for the glorified soul; (b) amazing, for we cannot imagine its nature or extent; (c) Divine, for it is to be conformed to Christ's glorious body. (3) Consider the powel" which effects the change. "According to the working whereby he is able even to sub- due all things to himself." (a) It is not according to his power merely, but by its exercise, that the transl"ormation will come. (b) He who is able to subdue all things, even death itself (1 Cor. xv. 26), will subdue our bodies into their finally glorified coudition.-•r. C. Vers. 1-3.-Spiritual Judaism. Having called upon the Philippians for public spirit, he now speaks, as if about to close the Epistle, about joy in the Lord. Inasmuch, however, as tho Judaizers were abroad, he deems it best to insert a parenthesis, which the world could ill spare, about the true people of God and the progress towards the "citizenship'' of heaven. '!'his third chapter is a magnificent parenthtsis, in which the spiritual life is laid bare from its inception to its glorious close. lu the verses now hcforo ue we have folso and trno Judaism contrasted. 128 THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. [cu. w. 1-21,