Ver. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.—They will never be able to say he “speaks evil of that which he knows not.” “If there is any profit in that direction,” he might say, “I will set my foot as far as who goes farthest.” An argumentum ad hominem.
Ver. 5. Circumcised the eighth day.—Beginning with this he works his way, though this and the following verses, to the climax of the straitest sect. The items of this verse have to do with the birth and education of the apostle.
Ver. 6. Concerning zeal.—“An expression of intense irony, condemning while he seems to exalt his former self” (Lightfoot). Righteousness which is in the law.—Legal righteousness. Exact attention to all its manifold commands and prohibitions.
Ver. 7. What things were gain.—The various points in which I had considered myself fortunate, giving me an advantage over others. Those I counted loss for Christ.—The tense of the verb “counted” denotes an action the result of which continues. It leaves no place for after-regrets, like those of the woman who stopped to look back on Sodom. St. Paul counts his Judaism, with its emoluments, well lost. “Having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matt. xiii. 46).
Ver. 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count, etc.—A more explicit statement of the abiding satisfaction with the chosen lot. “I still do count.” All things.—Whatever they may be—not simply those named above. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.—“The eminent quality of a possession attained is the ground for estimating other possessions according to their relation to that one” (Meyer). For whom I have suffered the loss of all things.—The words “gain” and “loss” are the same in these verses as in our Lord’s memorable saying “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” [R.V., “soul” A.V.] (Mark viii. 36). And do count them but dung.—So R.V. text, “refuse,” margin. If we accept the meaning “that which is thrown to the dogs,” we have an apt interpretation, but we need to guard against attributing to the apostle subtleties of expression born in a lexicographer’s brain.
Ver. 9. Through the faith of Christ.—Better without the article as R.V. Faith is the medium by which righteousness comes. The righteousness which is of God.—Which originates from God as the fount of all righteousness. By faith.—R.V. margin, “upon”; that is, resting upon faith as its condition; above it was the medium.
Ver. 10. The power of His resurrection.—The wide-reaching and conquering force and efficacy which render death inert (2 Tim. 1. 10) and draw “the sting of death” (1 Cor. xv.). And the fellowship of His sufferings.—The apostle has no desire to go by any other way to his glory than that by which his Lord went—per crucem ad lucem. Being made conformable unto His death.—R.V. “becoming conformed.” The original is one word where we have three, “being made conformable,” taking that lowly guise which will agree with the bearing of Him who “took the form of a servant.” “The agony of Gethsemane, not less than the agony of Calvary, will be reproduced, however faintly, in the faithful servant of Christ” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 11. If by any means I might attain.—How little is there here of the spirit of those who profess themselves “as sure of heaven as though they were there.” Meyer thinks the expression excludes moral security, but not the certitudo salutis in itself. Unto the resurrection of the dead.—By a very slight change “from the dead” instead of “of the dead” the R.V. indicates rather too feebly the only use of the term in the New Testament. “From amongst” would have been more likely to arrest attention. Whilst Meyer says the compound word for resurretion in no way differs from the ordinary one, LIghtfoot thinks the form of expression implies and the context requires the meaning “the final resurrection of the righteous to a new and glorified life.”
Ver. 12. Not as though I had already attained.—The word for “attained” may possibly refer to the turning-point in St. Paul’s history, and so the phrase would mean, “not as though by my conversion I did at once attain.” This interpretation, which is Bishop Lightfoot’s, is challenged by Dr. Beet. It seems preferable, on other than grammatical grounds, because the following phrase, if we refer the former to conversion, is an advance of thought. Either were already perfect.—Describing a present state which is the consequence of past processes. He has not reached the condition where nothing else can be added. He is most blessed who, as he mounts ever higher, sees perfection, like Abraham’s mount of sacrifice, “afar off.”
Ver. 13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.—Some think a reference to the opinion of others lies in the words; but St. Paul seems to be denying of himself what others asserted (in various ways) of themselves. But this one thing I do.—Lit. “but one thing”; the words “I do” in A.V. and R.V. are a supplement. Meyer thinks it better to supply “think.” It does not seem necessary to supply anything. “One thing” the apostle never loses sight of; all the threads of life are gathered up into it. Forgetting the things that are behind.—The thought of how much of the course had been covered, and how it was done, sinks in the consideration of what has yet to be achieved. And reaching forth.—“Like one of those eager charioteers . . . of the Circus Maximus . . . leaning forward in his flying car, bending over the shaken rein and the goaded steed” (Farrar). St. Paul usually employs the figure of the foot-race; and the “not looking back, which showed a right temper in a runner, would be fatal to the charioteer” (Lightfoot).