Drawing the line

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame who set their mind on earthly things. Philippians 3v18-19


So much of Philippians talks about unity. It is obvious that Paul wants us to learn that lesson from this letter. Unity in fact is the over riding theme of the book. And yet, as a friend asked yesterday, ‘With all these unity how do you know when to draw the line?’ For one thing a place to draw the line is when men try to hold believers to the Law. Paul, like Christ, uses very harsh words for them and doesn’t hold back at all. His word for them borders on crudeness as he refers to them as ‘mutilators of the flesh.’

Here Paul talks about some folks, but before we look at them notice his spirit – ‘I told you before, and now I tell you, even with weeping…’ Paul did not rejoice or take glory in dividing. He knew that unity was God’s will – but there does come a time when we have to draw the line. I was talking to some friends yesterday about Paul and Philippians. We talked about his stress on unity and rejoicing that Christ is preached even by those who disagreed with Paul. He asked, ‘Okay, where do you draw the line?’ That is actually an excellent question, because we know there has to be a line someplace.

I think Paul addresses that here – the enemies of the cross of Christ. Who are they? The ones whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, whose glory is there shame, and who set their mind on earthly things. I think he is referring here back to the Judaizers who made themselves the enemies of the cross by their behaviour. Rather than focused on the spirit their focus was on the flesh and fleshly adherence to a legalised system of living. Those who focus on the Law are indeed the enemies of the cross, for they make the death of Christ unnecessary and useless. If we could be saved by keeping the Law then Christ died for nothing.

Even for this group we see Paul’s spirit. It broke his heart to see this kind of behaviour as he warned us not to follow them. It is easy to stand in the pulpit, ranting and raving and spewing out venom against false teachers. It makes us look good and we get plenty of ‘amens.’

But where are the tears of compassion? Where is the attitude that weeps in exposing error? It has to be done, but to be biblical it must be done with a broken heart.