For many walk
(tyaynrxa) , "otherwise",
as the Syriac version adds; and which truly explains the words,
and gives the sense; they walked not as the apostle and his
followers; they walked as men, as carnal men, ( 1
Corinthians 3:3 ) , according to the course of the world,
after their ungodly lusts, ( Ephesians
2:2 Ephesians
2:3 ) ; or according to the rites and ceremonies of the
Mosaic dispensation, and not uprightly, and according to the
truth of the Gospel: and there were many that walked so; the road
both of profaneness and error is a broad one, and many walk
therein, which makes it the more dangerous; the examples of many
have great force, though a multitude is not to be followed to do
evil; the conversation of a great part of professors is not to be
imitated; the few names in Sardis that have not defiled their
garments with error or immorality should be marked for ensamples,
( Revelation 3:4 ) , and
the majority shunned:
of whom I have told you often;
both when present among them by word of mouth, and when absent
from them by writing; for the apostle was a faithful watchman and
monitor to this church, and to all the churches, the care of
which lay upon him; and diligent he was to warn them against
false teachers, whose doctrines and practices he knew were of
pernicious consequence:
and now tell you even weeping;
partly on account of those evil men, whose state and condition,
notwithstanding their profession, was very bad; and partly on
account of the glory of God and Christ, and the honour of
religion, which suffered much through them; and also on account
of the Philippians, lest they should be drawn aside by them; and
because they had taken so little notice of his frequent cautions
and advice: and that they might the better know the men he spoke
of, and avoid them, he describes them by the following
characters,
[that they are] the enemies of the cross of
Christ;
not that, though they might be Jews, they were like the
unbelieving Jews, who were open and implacable enemies of a
crucified Christ, called Jesus accursed, and anathematized him
and his followers, and to whom the preaching of Christ crucified
was an offence and stumblingblock, ( 1
Corinthians 1:23 ) ; for these were professors of Christ, and
pretended to preach Christ, and him crucified: nor were they such
heretics that denied that Christ really assumed human nature, and
was really crucified and died; and affirmed that all this was
only in appearance, or that an image was hung upon the cross for
him, or Simon the Cyrenian was crucified in his room, as some
have thought, which was the heresy of Simon Magus, and his
disciple Basilides: nor is the sense that they were averse to the
crucifixion of the affections with the lusts, though this seems
to be their true character, since they were sensual, and minded
earthly things; but the meaning is, that they disliked the cross
of Christ; they were unwilling to take it up for his sake, and
follow him; they studied all ways and means to shun it; they
ingratiated themselves into the affections of the unbelieving
Jews, by complying with the ceremonies of the law, and bearing
hard upon the apostle and his ministry, that so they might not
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ; and besides, by
enjoining circumcision and an observance of the law as necessary
to salvation, they, as much as in them lay, made void the
efficacy of the cross and death of Christ, and made that and him
unprofitable, and of no effect to the souls of men; and were both
doctrinally and practically enemies of the cross of Christ: and
so all such professors of Christ, who walk not according to the
Gospel, though they are not open and direct enemies to the
Gospel, which is the preaching of the cross, yet they are secret
and indirect ones, and oftentimes do more mischief to it by their
lives, than the keenest adversaries of it can by their pens.