Paul again urges them to rejoice in the Lord. Many things, many troubles, seek to grab our attention. In all circumstances we should rejoice in the Lord.
Paul is now going to write to them about circumcision. This will not be the first time he has spoken to them about this, and it is something that crops up in many of his letters, especially Romans and Galatians. Wherever the gospel spread there were those who were insisting that to really be right with God they needed to be circumcised. This may seem silly to us, but circumcision was something that all Jewish males had to have. They had come to see it as essential to righteousness. The gospel teaches that only Christ is essential to righteousness, this is why Paul so vehemently argued against these people.
He speaks of the Christians as "the circumcision", ie those who are the covenant people of God. Now being good evangelicals we might think that he would put being forgiven in Christ first here, but instead he puts serving God by His spirit first. Paul was talking about a whole way of life. We serve God by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the Law. We boast of Christ, not of any ritual, not of any "sign in the flesh". We put no confidence in anything we have done, or anything about our heritage.
Now see here the importance of rejoicing. There are times when theological or other arguments arise. Sometimes these arguments are just silly and childish, but at others they are very serious and do indeed need to be addressed. In the midst of these arguments we need to make sure that we do not become so absorbed in the argument that we lose sight of Christ. We need to maintain our joy in Christ at all times.
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