Paul's Experience Explained
(3:1-16)
Excerpt
Some commentators suggest that in this section Paul addressed his opponents. They say that he consciously countered a [perfectionist] group, sometimes called “divine men,” who claimed their own completeness.
Others suggest that Paul produced this section because the Jewish opponents of 3:2 taught that perfection could be achieved by keeping the law. Still others see Paul continuing the logic of 3:4–11, issuing a warning because of a tendency to misunderstand his teaching. His introduction of 3:15 with the words “all of us who are mature,” (lit., “perfect”), however, suggests that there may have been some irony in his tone. The context does not require an opponent, and it is unlikely that he envisioned one. A group within the church may have misunderstood his teaching on justification and taken it to their own “logical” conclusions, which were theologically unacceptable.
Melick, Richard R. Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. Vol. 32. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991. Print. The New American Commentary.
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