Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the circumcision. For we are the circumcision, which follow God in the flesh and rejoice in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians 3:2-3.
This is not the apostle saying, 'there are dogs out there, i know who they are, but i'm not saying,' this is Paul saying beware of the dogs. But in order to be aware of them, you have to be able to identify them. How do you do that? It's not by putting on hyper-spiritual glasses which allow you to see the essential dogginess at the core of their heart. You see it on the basis of their evil works, their demand for circumcision and so on. You read the story.
Can such judgement ever be wrong? Well of course they can. That does not mean we are warned away from making them. The straight line we use to keep ourselves from wronging others in such things is to be steeped in the narrative of Scripture. We test drive our responses with novels and movies. Practice reading stories, because that's what your life is. So the end of the whole endeavor is to live our lives to the fullest, reading our own story rightly. And there is no way to do this without making conclusions about the internal, spiritual conditions of others.
Douglas Wilson, Against The Church. P128
