Phil. 3:1-6; Col. 2:11-14, Dogs and Hogs

No, this isn’t a post about a game between the Universities of Georgia and Arkansas.  We are making a transition in Phil. 3:1.  Let me be perfectly clear: was are NOT transitioning away from Phil. 1:21.  In fact in Ch. 3 we will only get deeper into the fact that Christ is all-in-all to the believer.  But we are transitioning from a subject that was on Paul’s heart to a subject that was on the heart of the Philippian believers.  Paul was joyful while in prison and he dearly wanted his brothers and sisters to know this and to experience the same joy in their own fellowship.  But now he is writing to them about things he has told them before but which they have apparently asked him to give them a repeat lesson.  Repetition is good and safe as Paul says.


The subject is what we call “dogs and hogs.”  The “hogs” will come up near the end of the chapter (v19).  They are those whose god is their belly and who set their mind on earthly things.  The “dogs” refer to people of Jewish background who thought the Church should be keeping the OT law.  He refers to them by three names:

·        Dogs: This likely comes from Isa. 55:9-10 where the shepherds of Israel (the religious leaders) were likened to dumb dogs that can’t bark, that love to slumber.  In other words it is a way of saying they are useless leaders by God’s estimation.

·        Workers of iniquity:  This is terminology that also comes from the OT (e.g. Psalm 92:7,9; 94:4,16).  It refers to people who are not simply sinners; they are leaders in or instigators of sin.  They get others to sin and make life difficult for those who seek to live in righteousness.

·        The mutilation:  This refers to those who insisted that Christians had to be circumcised to be Christians.  Paul calls them mutilation because circumcision had lost its religious connotation in the Church.  Paul wished that these people would just mutilate themselves (Gal. 5:12).    

For clarity on this subject let me remind you that Paul had Timothy circumcised when he joined the team (Ac. 16:3), not because it was necessary for his salvation but so as to remove an unnecessary obstacle as they often had to be in the synagogues as part of the ministry.  We know this to be the case because Titus, another one of Paul’s Gentile fellow-laborers, was not required to be circumcised (Gal. 2:3).

We should also be clear that even in the OT God did not promote the thought that a mere physical act was somehow the kind of worship He called for from His people.  More than once God called His people to “circumcise the foreskins of your hearts” (Dt. 10:16; Jer. 4:3-4).  Furthermore God promised that the day would come when His people would be circumcised in the heart (Deut. 30:5-6), a promised that was to be fulfilled through the New Covenant (Jer. 32:38-40).  God promised to give them one heart, put a new spirit within them, and to take their hearts of stone and give them life (Ezek. 11:19-20).  This is the experience of the Body of Christ now (Col. 2:11-14) as well as the promised experience for the nation.