February 10
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COUNTING LOSSES AS GAINS FOR CHRIST
7 But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.- Philippians 3:7-11
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In the previous verses 3-6, Paul claims the many things that qualifies him to boast about all the legitimacy of his zest to know God’s law and being a Hebrew of Hebrews, in the following verses, he claims that they are not useful for him anymore because of Christ. Though he used to value all his knowledge of the law, he doesn’t consider it that important anymore because he has gained Christ already. He now thinks all these things that used to matter much to him, is no longer of value to him anymore. In verse 9, he rejects any form of self-righteousness he may have gained from knowing and following the law. The Holy Spirit must have changed Paul entirely because in verse 9, he now sees how faith in Christ is the only way he will have the righteousness of God.
Spurgeon says “He was skilled in spiritual arithmetic, and very careful in his reckoning. He cast up his accounts with caution, and observed with a diligent eye his losses and his gains.” We can say that Paul’s attitude was the same that Jesus described in the parable of the pearl of great price in Matthew 13:45-46 which says 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
David Guzik comments that Paul did not only count his religious pedigree as a loss; he counted all things loss – but he counted them as a loss in view of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. It wasn’t so much that those things were worthless in themselves, but compared to the greatness of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, they really were nothing. This counting loss was not merely an internal spiritual exercise. Paul had indeed suffered the loss of all things that he might gain Christ.
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REFLECTION
• What have you given up and counted as losses in order to gain Christ?