Who's Really On The Throne of Your Heart? You or Jesus

Commentary

These harsh terms were typically used toward the pagan Gentiles by Jews. But in this verse, Paul is using "dogs", "evil workers" and "mutilators of flesh", to refer to the religious Jews of his day. Their behavior was not unlike the pagans. They would stumble Gentile men into physical circumcision as a requirement to become believers. This was a practice that moved beyond God's command for Jewish men to be circumcised and very much mimicked pagan religious requirements, which often include piercings, scarring, and tattooing — some level of body mutilation. These are all works of mankind, and none of those things are required nor will they bring a person closer to Jesus.

Cutting off skin, tattooing, scarring, piercings, and other forms of body mutilation have no power to save a person's soul. Those Jews under the Law of Moses weren't saved because they were circumcised; those who were saved were saved by faith, as it's always been.

The legalistic religious have placed themselves upon the thrones of their hearts. As a result, they force others to jump through hoops, so to speak, in order to be a part of their religion. Stay clear of any of this; the power of Christ to save comes by faith, and in that faith comes a one-to-one relationship with God, through Christ Jesus alone.

Commentary

Paul calls Christians "the circumcision", meaning that spiritually, God has cut away the dead flesh of our hearts. Cutting away physical flesh is meaningless; it's the transformation of your heart that God wants, and He will transform it in your faith.

Scripture teaches that God cannot be worshipped in any other way except for in the Spirit. It's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit inside the believer that gives you and me the ability to truly worship our Creator. No longer should there be any confidence in what you do or have done; it's all about allowing Christ to sit on the throne of your heart, to be the master of your soul. It's all about what He has done.

Commentary

Paul shut down the boasters instantly with his "stats". In his day, he was someone who had all the right attributes to be "somebody" among his peers. In the flesh, there would not have been many other Jews who could hold a candle to that. It would've been exactly what a Pharisee would hope to be in his life.

In that regard, Paul had it all. Perhaps you're moral, have money, status, things, a desirable set of attributes that many would love to have. But if you don't have Christ, you have nothing. God does not care about your "good deeds", your beauty, your great hair, your money, your job title, your expensive car, your new house, any of that; He cares about your soul and the salvation of it.

Commentary

In Paul's Christ-driven transformation from Saul the Pharisee to Paul the Saint, he lost everything that he had. He went from a respected practitioner of the Law of Moses to a hated follower of Christ.

The price of following after Jesus is huge when summed up in this world. Those TV preachers that promise a life of health and wealth are foolish — prophets of evil even. We can't retain all of those past worldly attributes if we want to be true disciples of our Lord. Though He may bless each of us immensely in various ways, our mindset should be like that of Paul; we count every worldly aspect of our previous lives as dung.

Understand, there is not even an ounce of righteousness in us, but with Christ we have His righteousness applied to our lives. The value of knowing Him and living for Him surpasses even the best this world has to offer; there literally is no comparison. And allowing Him to take over the direction of your life is the best choice you will ever make.

Commentary

It's not the pursuit of things, money, status, etc. It's the pursuit of knowing Jesus that one finds true fulfillment in. When you choose to sit on the throne of your heart, you decide to push Jesus off. You sacrifice His will for your own. Don't think that it will go well for you in that case.

Instead, you should be eager to live for Christ, to crucify your flesh each day, so as to fellowship with Him in His suffering for you on the cross. Jesus bought you with His blood. The day that you accepted His gift of life became the day that you transferred the reigns of your life from yourself to Him.

Listen, none of us will be perfect in our walk with Christ, but each day is a chance to allow Him to keep perfecting us for eternity. Each day should be a day where you wake up, ready and willing to draw closer to Jesus and follow His lead.

As Paul would go on to teach in subsequent verses, we should no longer be looking back to our old lives, but only forward, with the goal of reaching the promise that God has given us, that is, the resurrection to eternal life.