Barnes New Testament Notes

EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS - Chapter 3 - Verse 4

Verse 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. That is, though I had uncommon advantages of this kind; and if any one could have trusted in them I could have done it. The object of the apostle is to show that he did not despise those things because he did not possess them, but because he now saw that they were of no value in the great matter of salvation. Once he had confided in them; and if any one could find any ground of reliance on them, he could have found more than any of them. But he had seen that all these things were valueless in regard to the salvation of the soul. We may remark here, that Christians do not despise or disregard advantages of birth, or amiableness of manners, or external morality, because they do not possess them—but because they regard them as insufficient to secure their salvation. They who have been most amiable and moral, before their conversion, will speak in the most decided manner of the insufficiency of these things for salvation, and of the danger of relying on them. They have once tried it, and they now see that their feet were standing on a slippery rock. The Greek here is, literally, "although I [was] having confidence in the flesh." The meaning is, that he had every ground of confidence in the flesh which any one could have, and that if there was any advantage for salvation to be derived from such birth, and blood, and external conformity to the law, he possessed it. He had more to rely on than most other men had; nay, he could have boasted of advantages of this sort which could not be found united in any other individual. What these advantages were he proceeds to specify.