Reconstituted in the likeness of Christ: Philippians 3:12-21
Translation
12 Not that I already grasp this, or have already been made perfect; [1] but I press on [2] to make it my own because it was also made my own by means of Jesus Christ. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have made it my own; but one thing - on the one hand, forgetting the things that are behind, on the other hand, straining towards the things that are before, 14 straining according to the goal for the prize of God’s calling from above in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore, as many as are perfect, let us think this way and if someone thinks otherwise even this God will reveal to you; 16 nevertheless, to that which we attained, be consistent [3] with it.
17 In following my example, brothers and sisters, also watch [4] for those who walk in this manner according to the example [5] you have from us. 18 For many walk, about whom I have frequently spoken to you, but now also weeping I say, these are enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their perfection [6] is destruction. Their God is their appetite [7] and their glory in that which is shameful. Their thinking set on earthly things. 20 For our commonwealth is presently in heaven, from it we eagerly await a savior - the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will reconstitute [8] our humiliated body [9] to be like [10] his glorious body according to the power [11] that empowers him event to subject all things to himself.
Commentary
[1] τελειόω is the same word used by Jesus in describing our destination in the Father, Matthew 5:48.
[2] διώκω to hasten, press on.
[3] στοιχεῖν battle-order, walk by rule or principle (IGEL, 747).
[4] σκοπεῖτε connects back to the noun form (σκοπὸν) in 3:14. It is not merely the idea of placing one’s gaze upon another but looking for those who are also pressing towards that common goal. The pressing on bit includes the communion of those on the same quest.
[5] τύπον the direct impression, type, exact imprint (c.f., Hebrews 1:1-6).
[6] The word τἐλος runs throughout this passage. There is an antithesis that this one word is running through. There are those who are moving towards a perfection (purposed goal) that is life, spawning from the cross of Christ. There are others whose appetite is other than Christ and consequently they are part of the antithetical group. Choosing enmity with the only means of salvation, the cross of Christ, they impale themselves upon destruction. They swallow whole all that seems right in their own eyes only to puke their very shame in chunks upon the canvas of their lives. In living in the inverse, their very thinking is obscured.
[7] κοιλία is a most interesting word, ranging in meaning from the physiological organs of uterus and stomach to the more figurative use of heart, innermost recesses of the human being, and appetite (BAGD, 437).
[8] Some have rendered μετασχηματίσει as change or transform. While this is good as far as it goes, it does not underscore the nature of the change that is being described here in the Greek. This is not a change in form or appearance, which would employ μεταμορφόω. Rather, the change in view is far more radical. It is a reconstitution on the schematic level, in our most basic composition.
[9] It should be noted that the Greek does not read, our humiliated bodies (pl), but our humiliated body (sg). There is a solidarity in view that circumscribes (makes sense of) individual faith.
[10] σύμμορφον here describes like form. In other words our body will be reconstituted in the same form as Christ’s glorious body. It is a transformation from the inside out, from the core to the extremities.
[11] ἐνέργειαν working, power, operation (BAGD, 265). It is not raw power (though it is supremely powerful), but rather, the manner in which Christ orchestrates that power such that the cosmic order is subject to him.
