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"God forbid that I should glory (kauchomai) save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (Gal. 6: 14).
The student of Scripture will need no argument to prove that these references in
Galatians can all be matched in Philippians, of which indeed they form the spiritual
background. The true circumcision, says the Apostle are they which "worship God in the
spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus (kauchomai), and have no confidence in the flesh"
(Phil. 3: 3). Again Galatians and Philippians are the only epistles where the Apostle
speaks of walking according to a "rule" (Kanon). So also the question of being made
"perfect" raised in Galatians, recurs in Phil. 3: 15.
Coming to the near context and allowing the remote context to decide the Apostle's
meaning, we can see that the words "Concerning zeal, persecuting the church" represent
an example of his "profiting in the Jew's religion" just as much as it was in Gal. 1: All
this and more would have to be discredited or set aside before it would be possible to
agree that in Phil. 3:, Paul used the word dioko in a good sense.
No interpretation of Scripture can be accepted if it does not stand the test of being
examined in the light of both the "near" and "remote" contexts.