Acerbic language is what Paul used to describe false teachers. But not just any false teachers. He had in mind a certain kind that was trying to mix the law with grace. They taught that faith in Jesus was important, but Gentile converts also needed to keep the law of Moses and its most celebrated symbol, circumcision. We call those people Judaizers. When he wrote to the Galatians, the apostle addressed them and that issue very pointedly.

With the Philippians he addressed this issue in passing, really as a segue into his own testimony. But he used the strongest possible pejoratives, the most cutting invectives to covey his contempt for people who teach such a false gospel. It is not that those men were ignorant. They knowingly determined to undermine the truth. The essence of their teaching still pervades the religions of the world, that God can only save people who become good enough by keeping the rules and thereby merit a favorable place before deity. Paul calls the purveyors of such teaching “dogs.” It is the height of arrogance, that somehow a mere mortal can act in such a way the God is somehow beholden to him.

In the ancient world, this kind of language was about as harsh as it could get. Even today, in the middle-east, calling someone a dog is the worst possible insult. Paul also called them “evil workers” and “the false circumcision.” This was not simply an intramural skirmish among like-minded theologians. The two views simply cannot co-exist. The core message is at issue.

The Jews of that day often referred to themselves as people of the circumcision, as in, “We are the circumcision.” Paul throws this back in their faces by saying they are in fact the “false circumcision.” They have completely missed the point of the Law of Moses. It was designed to show the absolute holiness of God and His requirement of holiness on the part of His people. What the Jews failed to realize was that the Law brought condemnation, because as Paul wrote in another place, “All fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). So Paul reminds the Philippians to beware of those false teachers.

Today, in the effort to reach the “unchurched,” the temptation is to not confront people with their sinfulness, but to simply present people “a better way to live, the way Jesus lived.” The reality is that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and salvation. Paul next shows that despite all his former efforts at keeping the law, he now considers that all worthless.