Scripture Reading(s)
Philippians 3:4b-14
3:4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
3:5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
3:7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
3:8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
3:11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
3:13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Reflections
Whenever you wake up in the morning to start off a brand new day, what is that drives you and gives you hope for a new day?
Paul’s ultimate goal in life was not to live day to day without a purpose. He was pursuing putting Christ above and beyond all that he did. Christ was at the core of all that he lived for and even more so Paul’s major gains in life were considered to be worthless compared to the joy he found in Christ. He suffered many things and endured many hardships to which he would attest to being worth the pain because He was living for Christ. Nothing in this world could compare to spreading the good news of Christ. Christ was His everything!
Life is completely void and empty to him without Christ. Christ gives him full satisfaction and when he looks at this world He is able to detach himself from what it has to offer. There is nothing wrong with being thankful for the many blessings that God provides for you. However, the en goal is not to look to these things for joy. Christ wants to be a part of your everyday joy. When you wake up in the morning Christ longs to be your true reason for why you live.
“If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.”-Charles Spurgeon.
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. (Philippians 3:7)
How easy it is to be puffed up with pride and ego. Here Paul admits his own arrogance and details how he rights himself. Those things that come before knowing Christ were all losses in comparison.
I am reminded of a moving song performed by Johnny Cash called “Hurt.” The late Cash refers to his own empire as “dirt.” In the end, everything here that we build for ourselves will be a loss compared to running the race for Christ. Let us do as Paul instructs us.
Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)