For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who set their mind on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18, 19, NKJV).
As a counterpart to Paul's concise summary of the true Christian walk in Philippians 3:3, in these 2 verses he provides the contrasting summation of the false Christian; those who profess Christ insincerely. With the same quatrain pattern of rapid-fire bullet points, the Apostle describes the grievous hallmarks of those who say they believe, but whose life bears no fruit (Mt 7:15-20).
First, their end: destruction, just as any and all unbelievers - eternal perdition in the Lake of Fire “where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’" (Mark 9:44, NKJV). This an unthinkable destiny, beyond comprehension. It is an inexpressible existence of perpetual agony and regret. Imagine your worst nightmare scenario. Is it life-long paralysis? Being buried alive? Not being able to breathe? However horrendous these might be, the torments they picture end eventually in death. But there is no end to the torments of Hell. After a trillion trillion years, the only prospect is another trillion, trillion years, and then more of the same after that; each millisecond of agony as excruciating as the first.
Next, Christ enemies are enslaved by their fleshly lusts for food or sex or comfort or pleasure. They worship at the altar of their own craven desires, bowing down in devoted self-love and delusions of worthiness.
In turn, this inevitably leads to transparent self-justification of their own entrenched wickedness, and they engage in endless, pathetic and delusional declarations of how proud they are of this or that vice, how bold and courageous they are for daring to have the freedom to live in such a manner; how liberated; how enlightened.
And finally, they focus only on what they can perceive with their senses, on those earthly, material things right in front of their faces, like brute beasts with no perception or consciousness beyond a smell, or a touch, or something seen.
I have no choice but to agree with Paul on these aspects of life without Christ, or Christ falsely claimed. I know. I lived them until that day he condescended to make Himself known to me as my Lord and Savior. Then I became a new Creation, and as the Apostle wrote earlier in the same chapter of this epistle:
"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13, 14, NKJV).
