Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Philippians 3:7
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
7. what things ] The Greek might almost be paraphrased, “the kind or class of things which”; including anything and everything, as ground of reliance, other than Christ. So more fully, Php 3:8.
gain ] Lit. and better, gains. The plural suggests the proud and jealous care with which the religionist would count over the items of his merit and hope. One by one he had found them, or had won them; each with its separate value in the eyes of the old self.
those ] There is emphasis and deliberation in the pronoun.
I counted ] Lit. and better, I have counted. The perfect tense indicates not only the decisive conviction, but its lifelong permanence.
loss ] A singular noun. The separate and carefully counted gains are heaped now into one ruthless estimate of loss. From the new point of view, they all sink together.
He does not mean that he discovered his circumcision, ancestry, energy, diligence, exactness, to be in themselves evil things. But he found them evil in respect of his having used them to shut out the true Messiah from his obedience, faith, and love. As substitutes for Him they were not only worthless, but positive loss. Every day of reliance on them had been a day of delay and deprivation in regard of the supreme blessing.
Wyclif’s word here is “apeiryngis,” and just below “peirement”; i.e. impairings, losses.
for Christ ] Lit. and better, on account of the Christ; because of the discovery of Jesus as the true Messiah, and of the true Messiah as no mere supreme supernatural Jewish Deliverer, but as Son of God, Lamb of God, Lord of Life. He cast away entirely all the old reliance, but, observe, for something infinitely more than equivalent.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But what things were gain to me – The advantages of birth, of education, and of external conformity to the law. I thought these to be gain – that is, to be of vast advantage in the matter of salvation. I valued myself on these things, and supposed that I was rich in all that pertained to moral character and to religion. Perhaps, also, he refers to these things as laying the foundation of a hope of future advancement in honor and in wealth in this world. They commended him to the rulers of the nation; they opened before him a brilliant prospect of distinction; they made it certain that he could rise to posts of honor and of office, and could easily gratify all the aspirings of his ambition.
Those I counted loss – I now regard them all as so much loss. They were really a disadvantage – a hindrance – an injury. I look upon them, not as gain or an advantage, but as an obstacle to my salvation. He had relied on them. He had been led by these things to an improper estimate of his own character, and he had been thus hindered from embracing the true religion. He says, therefore, that he now renounced all dependence on them; that he esteemed them not as contributing to his salvation, but, so far as any reliance should be placed on them, as in fact so much loss.
For Christ – Greek, On account of Christ. That is, so far as Christ and his religion were concerned, they were to be regarded as worthless. In order to obtain salvation by him, it was necessary to renounce all dependence on these things.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Php 3:7-9
What things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ
The Christians accounts
The Christian keeps an accurate account book.
He reckons up with an enlightened judgment his gains and losses. And most important is it that he should: for the question of questions is, What is gain to me and what is loss?
I. The answer given by the world. Examine the accounts of nine-tenths and you will find–
1. Health and money entered as clear gains, comfort, ease, tranquillity, prosperity, carried to the side of profit.
2. Sickness, disappointment, contraction of the means of pleasure, decay of trade, sorrow, bereavement, entered as unmixed loss.
3. And when we come to matters bearing on the interest of the soul we find that the natural heart has entered on the side of eternal gain, good character, punctuality of attendance at Christian ordinances, a conscience silent as to definite injuries against neighbours. And gain it is in a sense, for it is better to have a good conscience than a bad one, to be moral than immoral. St. Paul says no word about morality being a loss, or that he would have valued Christ more had he been a greater sinner.
II. The Christians answer. For Christs sake Paul now accounts as loss all that he had once accounted gain. He was an Israelite of direct descent. Would he have been a better man had he been born a Gentile and an idolater? He had been blameless in his observance of the ceremonial, and, as he understood it, of the moral law–does he regret that he had not habitually broken it? None of these things. The loss was that he had trusted in these things, and looked to them for salvation. He thought that God must be satisfied with so unexceptionable a genealogy, so diligent a worshipper.
2. In this point of view many of us need instruction and warning. What are we trusting in?
(1) Some of us are putting off the question altogether and saying, I will live while I can and die when I must; I will not torment myself before the time–many years hence I hope.
(2) But this childish and suicidal infatuation is not in all of us. There are those who have religion. What is it? Is it more than a moral life, a Sunday worship, a trusting in Gods mercy? But where is Christ in all this? What know you of the thought, What things were gain to me, etc? What of your own are you discarding in order to rest in Christ alone? Where are your transfers from one side of your reckoning to the other because of Christ? And many of us die in the strength of a gospel which has no Christ in it; no demolition of self, either of self-confidence or seeking, and no exaltation of Christ on the ruins of self, either as Saviour or Lord. We are at best what St. Paul was before his conversion–alas, without his good conscience or scrupulous obedience. (Dean Vaughan.)
A business-like account
Our Saviours advice to those who wished to be His servants was to count the cost. He did not wish to enlist any one by keeping him in ignorance of the requirements of His service. The exercise of our judgments in the gospel is required. Do not imagine that religion consists in wild fanaticism which never considers. The apostle here gives us the word count three times over. He was skilled in spiritual arithmetic and very careful in his reckoning. He seems here to be in a mercantile frame of mind, adding and subtracting and balancing.
I. The apostles calculations.
1. His counting at the outset of his Christian life What things were gain, etc.
(1) He dwelt on the several items, noting each with great distinctness. The list reads like a catalogue. His Jewish advantages had been as precious pearls to him once.
(2) What is there per contra. Nothing on the other side but one item; but that one outweighed the many. That one was not Christianity, the Church, or the orthodox faith, but Christ.
(3) Not only after putting the one under the other and making a subtraction did he find that his earthly advantages were less than Christ; he found these gains transformed into a loss. There was not a plus on that side to stand in proportion to a plus on this; they were turned into a minus of actual deficit. Not that he meant that to be a Hebrew of the Hebrews, etc., was in itself a loss–the advantage was much every way; but he meant that with respect to Christ those things became a disadvantage, because their tendency had been to keep him from trusting Christ. It is a grand thing to have led a virtuous life; but this blessing may, by our own folly, become a curse, if we place it in opposition to the righteousness of Christ, and dream that we have no need of a Saviour.
2. His estimate for the time then present. We are always anxious to hear what a man has to say about a thing after he has tried it. After twenty years of experience Paul had an opportunity of revising his balance sheet; and makes the strong affirmation–Yea, doubtless I count, etc. He has made the original summary even more comprehensive, but he stands to the same estimate and uses not barely the word Christ, but the fuller expression, the excellency of the knowledge, etc. Now he has come to know the Christ in whom before he had trusted. Christ is better loved as he is better known.
(1) The words show the points upon which he had fullest knowledge. He knew the Lord as–
(a) Christ, the Messiah anointed and sent of the Father.
(b) Jesus, the anointed and actual Saviour.
(c) My Lord. His was an appropriating knowledge.
(2) The text implies that he knew Christ by faith. He believed, and hence he knew.
(3) He knew Him by experience, and the power of His resurrection. This is excellent knowledge when the power of a fact is realized within and shown in the life.
(4) More than that Paul aimed to know more by a growing likeness to Him.
(5) There is no knowledge in this world comparable to this, for it concerns the highest conceivable object, and no man hath it but by the Holy Ghost.
(6) If you would see its excellency look at its effects–it makes us humble, delivers us from the power of sin, elevates the motives, sweetens the feelings, gives nobility to the life, and will continue to progress when every other knowledge is laid aside.
3. His third counting may be regarded as his life estimate. For whom I have, etc. Here his estimate sets out with actual test and practical proof. He is a prisoner, with nothing in the world; he has lost caste, has no longer his own righteousness: Christ is his all and nothing else. Does he regret the loss of all things? No, he counts it an actual deliverance to have lost them.
(1) In his first and second countings these things were loss, now they are dung.
(2) In his second estimate he spoke of knowing Christ, but now he speaks of winning Him, or rather gaining, for he keeps to the mercantile figure all through.
(3) Further, his aim is to be found in Him, as a bird in the air, a fish in the sea, a member in the body–as a fugitive shelters himself in his hiding place; so in Christ as never to come out of Him, so that whenever any one looks for him he may find him in Jesus.
(4) Notice how Paul keeps to what he began with, viz., his unrobing himself of his boastings in the flesh, and his arraying himself with Christ–not having mine own righteousness, etc.
II. our own calculations.
1. Do we join in Pauls earlier estimate. You will never be saved till you lose all your legal hopes.
2. After many years of profession do you still continue in the same mind and make the same estimate? Not if you have settled down on something other than Christ.
3. You cannot join Paul in the last calculation–I have suffered the loss of all things, but do you think you could have done so if required for Christs sake? Your forefathers did so.
4. Seeing God has left you your worldly comforts have you used all things for His sake.
5. If Christ be to you so that all things are dung and dross in comparison, do you not want Him for your children, your friends, etc. What a man values for himself he values for others. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ is true gain
Earthly good–
I. Brings no peace, Christ does.
II. Can give no satisfaction, Christ can.
III. Loses its power to gratify, Christ never.
IV. Is attended with care and trouble. Christ is full of consolation.
V. At best of the earth earthly. Christ opens heaven.
VI. Has its limit. In Christ all fulness dwells.
VII. Must have its period. Christ lives forever. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Life for Christ
The life which we owe to Christ and hold in Christ we are bound by the strongest claims to use for Christ. Life is a thing to be used. And if you admit that it was once forfeited, but that Christ has bought it back for you by His death, and that you keep it only by your connection with Him, then you hold it on false pretences if you use it in any other way but for Him. There are two ways in which life for Christ may be understood.
(1) In order to obtain Him–that I may win Christ, i.e., finally enjoy Him; or
(2) as the Master puts it, for My sake. We take it in the latter sense. A man may live a very good life–he may have a natural tendency towards it, or a conscientious feeling may lead him to it; but all the while he may fall short of this–that it is not for Christ. The motive is diluted by worldly motives and is very feeble, while God measures everything by the loving standard of the one motive–was it for Christ? This life for Christ–
I. Must not be an uncertain thing. Taken up and laid down at pleasure, by fits and starts, remembered and forgotten, but must be the result of deep conviction. To this end–
1. Consecrate your life to Christ in the most express and solemn way you can, on your knees. Lay the sacrifice upon the altar. Invest it with the sacredness of an irrevocable pledge.
2. Renew that act of self-dedication at not very long intervals.
3. Write it on everything you have and are, body, soul, time, talents, business, family, etc.
II. Must enter into your trials. When you are in bodily or mental distress, and when you are going through the discipline of bitter daily friction, think thus–I will sanctify and ennoble this suffering by bearing it for Christ. He bore much more for me, and these are the marks of the Lord Jesus now laid upon me.
III. Must eater into your happiness. Christ is happy in your happiness and for His sake you must be happy: and your happiness must not fail to make others happy.
IV. Must be a life of ministry.
1. In defence of Christ.
2. In the extension of His cause.
3. In having some positive work to do for Him. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The importance of spiritual accounts
Turning to the mercantile figure we are reminded of the paramount importance of having the record books of our inner life rightly kept. The great German satirist, Heinrich Heine, has scornfully depicted the mere worldling thus: Business men have the same religion throughout the whole world. They find in their office their church, in their desk their prayer cushion, in their ledger their Bible. The warehouse is their inner sanctuary; the exchange bell is their summons to prayer; their God is their gold; their faith is their credit. The apostle was never so low in the scale as these words represent justly the mere worldling to be. He was, even as Saul the persecutor, of a very different and a far higher type. None the less these scathing words describe too closely the character and conduct of countless thousands, who all the time are not ashamed and not afraid to bear the name of Christian. But in contrast to such a picture we have the new man, renewed in heart and life; he, too, has his all-engrossing concerns. He, too, has his books, recording the transactions which take place in his inmost soul. He keeps them rightly. No false entries are seen there. The things of the world, whatever their value in themselves may be, are, as related to the souls interests, entered as loss. The things of the kingdom alone appear as gain. True wealth–that which alone can claim the name of sub stance–is summed up in righteousness: life in Christ Jesus–life which in Him is everlasting. (J. Hutchison, D. D.)
The gain of loss
He who loses anything and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the toss. (LEstrange.)
Loss for gain
When the captain leaves the harbour he has a cargo on board of which he takes great care, but when a tremendous wind is blowing and the ship labours, being too heavily laden, and there is great fear that she will not outride the storm, see how eagerly the sailors lighten the ship. They bring up from the hold with all diligence the very things which before they prized, and they seem rejoiced to heave them into the sea. Never men more eager to get than these are to throw away. There go the casks of flour, the bars of iron, the manufactured goods: overboard go valuable bales of merchandise; nothing seems to be worth keeping. How is this? Are not these things good? Yes, but nor good to a sinking ship. Anything must go to save life, anything to outride the storm. And so the apostle says that in order to win Christ and to be found in Him he flung the whole cargo of his beloved confidences over, and was as glad to get rid of them as if they were only dung. This he did to win Christ, and that fact suggests another picture: an English war ship of the olden times is cruising the ocean, and she spies a Spanish galleon in the distance laden with gold from the Indies. Captain and men are determined to overtake and capture her, for they have a relish for prize money; but their vessel sails heavily. What then? If she will not move because of her load they fling into the sea everything they can lay their hands on, knowing that if they can capture the Spanish vessel the booty will make amends for all they lose and vastly more. Do you wonder at their eagerness to lose the little to gain the great? Sailor, why cast overboard those useful things? Oh, says he, they are nothing compared with that prize over yonder. If we can but get side by side and board her we will soon make up for all that we now throw into the sea. And so it is with the man who is in earnest to win Christ and to be found in Him. Overboard go circumcision and Phariseeism, and the blamelessness touching the law, and all that, for he knows that he will find a better righteousness in Christ than any which he foregoes, yea, find everything in Christ which he now, for his Lords sake, counts but as the slag of the furnace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Self-renunciation for Christ not to be regretted
The poet George Herbert was so highly connected, and in such favour at court, that at one time a secretaryship of state seemed to him not unattainable. But he gave up all such prospects for the work of a humble clergy man, and in looking back upon the time he made his choice, he could say, I think myself more happy than if I had attained what then I had so ambitiously thirsted for. And I can now behold the court with an impartial eye, and see plainly that it is made up of frauds and bitters, and flattery, and many other such empty imaginary and painted pleasures–pleasures which are so empty as not to satisfy when they are enjoyed. But in God and His service is a fulness of all joy and pleasure and no satiety. (J. F. B. Tinling.)
Raymond Lully, or Lullius, to whom the Arabic professorship at Oxford owes its origin, was the first Christian missionary to the Moslems. When shipwrecked near Pisa, after many years of missionary labour, though upwards of seventy, his ardour was unabated. Once, he wrote, I was fairly rich; once I had a wife and children; once I tasted freely of the pleasures of this life. But all these things I gladly resigned that I might spread abroad a knowledge of the truth. I studied Arabic, and several times went forth to preach the gospel to the Saracens. I have been in prison, I have been scourged, for years I have striven to persuade the princes of Christendom to befriend the common cause of converting the Mohammedans. Now, though old and poor, I do not despair; I am ready, if it be Gods will, to persevere unto death. And he did so, being stoned to death at Bergia, in Africa, in 1314, after gathering a little flock of converts. (Sunday at Home.)
Worldly honour consecrated to Christ
T.A. Ragland, an eminent mathematician, and a devoted Christian, gained the silver cup at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, four years in succession. One of these was dedicated to God for the communion service of a small native Church, mainly gathered by him in Southern India, and all were set apart for the same purpose in connection with his itinerating missionary service. (J. F. B. Tinling.)
Diverse estimates of Pauls sacrifices
Porphyry, the philosopher, said that it was a pity that such a man as Paul was thrown away upon our religion. And the monarch of Morocco told the English ambassador in King Johns time that he had lately read Pauls Epistles, which he liked so well that were he now to choose his religion, he would before any other embrace Christianity. But every one ought, said he, to die in his own religion; and the leaving of the faith in which he was born was the only thing he disliked in that apostle. (J. Trapp.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. But what things were gain] The credit and respect which I had, as being zealously attached to the law, and to the traditions of the elders, I counted loss for Christ – I saw that this could stand me in no stead; that all my acts of righteousness were nothing on which I could depend for salvation; and that Christ crucified could alone profit me; for I found that it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Having argued how he might have had as great a plea for confidence of his acceptance with God as any, if it would have held from the recited particulars, he now shows, how advantageous soever they had, in the judgment of others as well as himself, been reckoned to be, before he was effectually called, yet, since the scales fell off his eyes, that he could discern the truth, he was so far from accounting them profitable, that indeed he accounted them prejudicial; so far from an advantage, that they were a damage to him, looking for salvation by Christ alone, Mat 21:31; Rom 9:30. They were but as pebbles that hide the Pearl of price, Mat 13:46; as ciphers to this figure, that can make any thing valuable, therefore by Paul preferred to all before.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. gainrather as Greek,“gains”; including all possible advantages of outwardstatus, which he had heretofore enjoyed.
I countedGreek,“I have counted for Christ’s sake loss.” He nolonger uses the plural as in “gains”; for he counts themall but one great “loss” (Mat 16:26;Luk 9:25).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But what things were gain to me,…. As circumcision, and the observance of the ceremonial law, which he thought were necessary to salvation; and his natural and lineal descent from Abraham, which he supposed entitled him to the favour of God, and eternal life, as well as to outward privileges; and his being of that strict sect of religion, a Pharisee, which he doubted not, being brought up and continued in, would secure to him everlasting happiness; and his zeal in persecuting the church of Christ, in which he thought he did God good service, and merited heaven for himself; and his legal righteousness, which he fancied was perfect, and so justified him in the sight of God, and rendered him acceptable to him: for the apostle’s meaning is, not only that these things were judged by him, while in an unconverted state, good in themselves, and in some respects useful, but that they were really gainful, and meritorious of happiness in another world. But being converted, he saw all those things in a different light, and had a different opinion of them:
those I counted loss for Christ; circumcision he saw was now abolished, and was nothing, and that the circumcision of the heart was the main thing; and that the other was so far from being useful and necessary to salvation, that it was hurtful, was a yoke of bondage, bound men over to keep the whole law, and made Christ of none effect to them; and the same opinion he had of the whole ceremonial law: as for natural descent, which he once valued and trusted in, he now rejected it, well knowing it signified not whether a man was a Greek, or a Jew, a Barbarian, or Scythian, provided he was but a believer in Christ, Col 3:11; and as for any outward form or sect of religion, he knew there was no salvation in it, nor in any other name but that of Christ, Ac 4:12; and he was so far from thinking, that on account of his zeal in persecuting the church he was deserving of heaven, that for that reason he was not worthy to be called an apostle of Christ; and as for his legal righteousness, he now saw it to be as filthy rags, Isa 64:6; that many things in it were really evil in themselves, such as his observance of the traditions of the elders, whereby the commands of God were transgressed, and his mad zeal in persecuting the followers of Christ; and other things, which had the appearance of good works, were not truly so, did not spring from love, were not done in faith, and with a view to the glory of God; and that the best of them were very imperfect, and exceeding blamable; yea, that if they had been perfect, they could not have been meritorious of eternal life, as he once thought them to be; he saw now they were of no use in justification and salvation; nay, that they were hurtful and pernicious, being trusted to, as keeping persons off from Christ, and his righteousness: wherefore, he gladly suffered the loss of all his legal righteousness, and renounced and disclaimed it, and all pretensions to justification and salvation by it, for the sake of Christ; of life and salvation by him, and in comparison of him; of the knowledge of him, and of his justifying righteousness, as the following verses show. Hence, what before he pleased himself much with, and promised himself much from, he could not now reflect upon with any pleasure and satisfaction of mind; which is the sense of this phrase with Jewish writers x: so it is observed of a drunken man, when he comes to himself; and it is told him what he did when in liquor, he grieves at it, , “and counts all loss and not gain”; i.e. can take no pleasure in a reflection on it.
x Sepher Cosri, p. 3, sect. 16. fol. 152. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Were gain to me ( ). “Were gains (plural, see on 1:21) to me (ethical dative).” Paul had natural pride in his Jewish attainments. He was the star of hope for Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin.
Have I counted (). Perfect middle indicative, state of completion and still true.
Loss (). Old word for damage, loss. In N.T. only in Phil. and Acts 27:10; Acts 27:21. Debit side of the ledger, not credit.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
What things [] . The double relative classifies; things which came under the category of gain. Compare Gal 4:24; Col 2:23. Gain [] . Lit., gains. So Rev., in margin, and better. The various items of privilege are regarded separately.
I counted loss [ ] . Better, as Rev., have counted. The perfect tense implies that he still counts them as loss. See on ver. 8. Notice the singular number loss, and the plural gains. The various gains are all counted as one loss.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
CHRIST THE OBJECT OF THE BELIEVER’S FAITH
1) “But what things were gain to me” (alla hatina en moi kerde) But what things were gain to me,” in the flesh in important Jewish prerogatives, positions of honor, and advantages.
2) “Those I counted loss for Christ” (tauta hegemai diaton Christon zemian) “I have deemed (as) loss on account of Christ;” Paul would not mix worldly advantages, worldly gain, and worldly fame, but laid all aside for the honor of serving Jesus Christ and his Church, Luk 9:23; Mat 6:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. What things were gain to me He says, that those things were gain to him, for ignorance of Christ is the sole reason why we are puffed up with a vain confidence. Hence, where we see a false estimate of one’s own excellence, where we see arrogance, where we see pride, there let us be assured that Christ is not known. On the other hand, so soon as Christ shines forth all those things that formerly dazzled our eyes with a false splendor instantly vanish, or at least are disesteemed. Those things, accordingly, which had been gain to Paul when he was as yet blind, or rather had imposed upon him under an appearance of gain, he acknowledges to have been loss to him, when he has been enlightened. Why loss? Because they were hinderances in the way of his coming to Christ. What is more hurtful than anything that keeps us back from drawing near to Christ? Now he speaks chiefly of his own righteousness, for we are not received by Christ, except as naked and emptied of our own righteousness. Paul, accordingly, acknowledges that nothing was so injurious to him as his own righteousness, inasmuch as he was by means of it shut out from Christ.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
7. Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Translation and Paraphrase
7. Nevertheless (in spite of all the Jewish distinctions which I can legitimately claim), whatever things had been gain to me (that is, sources of honor and distinction) I have come to regard (these things) as (just so much) loss because of Christ (Jesus).
Notes
1.
When did Paul count all those things which had appeared to be gain to him as loss?
(1)
at his conversion (Php. 3:7)
(2)
continuously thereafter (Php. 3:8)
2.
Note what all Paul counted loss:
(1)
Fleshly honor (his noble ancestry); (Php. 3:5)
(2)
Education (Ph.D. equivalent!); (Php. 3:5)
(3)
His office (Pharisee); (Php. 3:5)
(4)
His social respectability (blameless); (Php. 3:6)
3.
Observe the past tense (Gr. perfect) of I counted in this verse, which contrasts with the present I count in Php. 3:8. (The Gr. Perfect tense indicates a past action with present effects.)
4.
Paul counted his past honors as loss. If a modern businessman should unintentionally buy a load of merchandise that he could neither sell nor send back, he would write it off as so much loss. Thus Paul wrote off as loss his past beliefs, and in his case with no regrets.
5.
Paul had found the pearl of great price. (Mat. 13:45-46). It was Christ. For Christs sake he was willing to give up all else he ever had or gloried in. For Christ count everything but loss.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(7) I counted loss . . .Not merely worthless, but worse than worthless; because preventing the sense of spiritual need and helplessness which should bring to Christ, and so, while gaining all the world, tending to the loss of his own soul. St. Paul first applies this declaration to the Jewish privilege and dignity of which he had spoken. Then, not content with this, he extends it to all things which were his to sacrifice for Christ.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. What things were gain The whole class of things above-mentioned, which he had once deemed of great advantage, and upon which he had relied for acceptance with God, he had come to consider as of no real worth in that respect, but rather as injurious, for they shut him off from Christ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Howbeit what things were gains to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.’
The things that he has described were the things that he had treasured and relied on. They had been his life. They had meant everything to him, and he had hoped that eventually they might result in him finding eternal life. He saw them as his great assets, his ‘gains’, assiduously built up bit by bit. But then he had faced up to Jesus Christ and had recognised their folly. From then on he had seen all his gains as simply one great loss. In the face of Jesus Christ all else fell away as dross. He had recognised that all that his actions could do before God was leave him bankrupt, and that his only hope of eternal life was through Jesus Christ (Rom 6:23). And so he had turned from all that he had treasured in the past, to Christ. He had counted his past activities to be what they were, fictitious and worthless assets. As a result of responding to Christ he had looked on them as a ‘loss’.
This language of ‘gain’ and ‘loss’ was typically Rabbinic and so would be recognised by his opponents. It was also typical of the teaching of Jesus Christ. ‘He who will save his life will lose it. He who will lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s (by yielding all to Christ) will gain it’ (Mar 8:35; Mat 16:25; Luk 9:24; Joh 12:24-25). ‘For what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his life?’ (Mar 8:36; Mat 16:26; Luk 9:25). Paul had taken Jesus at His word. He had forfeited his whole religious world for Christ’s sake, and had thereby found eternal life.
The verb for ‘counted’ is in the perfect tense indicating something done in the past the effect of which continued to the present time. He had renounced his past once and for all.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul’s Pursuit of Salvation In Php 3:7-11 Paul the apostle describes his daily pursuit of Christ in light of his salvation. This passage of Scripture makes a clear reference to the spiritual journey that every believer is to work out. Paul first describes the priceless value of every man’s divine calling of salvation in comparison to this world’s corruptible good (Php 3:7-8), which reminds us of the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price (Mat 13:44-46). He then explains his justification in Christ Jesus (Php 3:9). The phrase “that I may know him” reflects the process of indoctrination, the phrase “knowthe power of his resurrection” reflects divine service, and “knowingthe fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” reflects perseverance (Php 3:10). Paul then mentions his future glorification in his attainment of “the resurrection of the dead” (Php 3:11). However, he describes his spiritual journey from the perspective of our role in God the Father’s plan of redemption for mankind, which is the underlying theme of the epistle of Philippians. We, too, are to follow Paul’s example and pursue Jesus first, or put Jesus first each day.
Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Php 3:8
[73] Strabo writes, “The inhabitants of this city apply to the study of philosophy and to the whole encyclical compass of learning with so much ardour, that they surpass Athens, Alexandreia, and every other place which can be named where there are schools and lectures of philosophers.” See The Geography of Strabo, vol. 3, trans. H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer (London: George Bell and Sons, 1889), 57.
In his quest for education, he found himself seeking a meaning in life that went beyond his reasoning. Because of his Jewish heritage, he was later trained in the strictest of sect of the Jews, that of a Pharisee, and in this training, he sat under the most well known Hebrew teacher of his day, a man called Gamaliel (Act 22:3).
Act 22:3, “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.”
In these two educational environments, Paul was yet to find a purpose in life. Yes, he came closer to discovering the truth at the feet of Gamaliel than at the University of Tarsus, but it did not answer the most important question in life, “What is the meaning of life and why am I here?” He had seen man’s wisdom at its best as he studied Greek philosophy. He had seen man’s religion at its best as he studied under Gamaliel. Both failed to explain the meaning of life.
In addition to his educational achievements, Paul’s claim to be a Roman citizen from Tarsus tells us that his family was one of wealth and standing (Act 22:28). One commentator says that Paul was a Roman citizen because Tarsus was a Roman colony, and all those born in such a city were Roman citizens by birth. However, his Christian faith took him away from the prestige wealth that he could have enjoyed by his father’s heritage, and it removed him from the recognition of the Pharisees that he had worked so hard to achieve. Becoming a Christian cost Paul his career, his wealth and his respect among his family and colleagues.
Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:9 Comments The phrase “the righteousness which is of God” literally means, “a righteousness which proceeds out of God.”
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:10
As I was praying late one morning, after singing to the Lord, I told Him that I did not know what I wanted, but that I wanted(then I began to speak what my spirit longed for) to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death (Php 3:10). Paul spoke these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This was his inner man revealing what all of us long for inside:
In Gen 4:1, Adam knew Eve. This describes the closeness that is involved when the husband and wife love each other. The Song of Songs expresses this type of love.
Php 3:10 does not say Paul wants to just know about God, or to know about resurrection power, or to know about suffering with Christ, or to know about being made conformable into His death, but to experience God in his life, His power, His suffering and His death.
Php 3:10 Comments Paul’s statement in Php 3:10 reflects the theme of the Song of Songs. Perhaps the most important Old Testament passage to the Jews in revealing God’s redemptive plan for mankind can be found in Deu 6:4-6, which they called “the Shema,” ( ), a name derived from the first Hebrew word in this biblical text.
Deu 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
S. R. Driver calls this passage “the fundamental truth of Israel’s religion.” [74] Because of its historical importance to the Old Testament Jews this passage of Scripture appears numerous times in the New Testament writings (Mat 22:37, Mar 12:29-32; Mar 12:37, Luk 10:27). For example, when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees what was the greatest commandment, He quoted the Shema, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord…” (Mar 12:29) In other words, Jesus considered the Shema the single most important text of the Old Testament, revealing to Israel that there is only one true God whom the Jews were to serve with all of their heart, soul and strength. The three-fold aspect of serving the Lord with all of our heart, soul and strength is the fundamental theme of Solomon’s three writings, reflects God’s commandment in Deu 6:4-6. The foundational theme of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon is how to serve the Lord with all our hearts. The secondary theme of this three-fold series of writings is what gives these books their structure:
[74] S. R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy, in The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, eds. Charles A. Briggs, Samuel R. Driver, and Alfred Plummer (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903), 89; Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1 21:9, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 6a, second edition, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), notes on Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Form, Structure, Setting.
1. Proverbs Wisdom Calls Mankind to Understand His Ways (Mind)
2. Ecclesiastes God Gives Mankind a Purpose in Life When We Serve Him (Body)
3. Song of Solomon God Calls Mankind to Walk With Him in the Cool of the Day (Heart)
The third theme of this three-fold series of writings reveals the results of applying the book’s message to our daily lives:
1. Proverbs – The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom. The virtuous woman is a reflection of a person walking in wisdom and the fear of God.
2. Ecclesiastes Fear God and Keep His Commandments. The man who keeps God’s commandments has a purpose and destiny in Christ.
3. Song of Solomon Loving God is Mature as We Abide in Christ & Labour in His Vineyard. The man who abides in Christ and produces fruit that remains.
Combining these three themes to see how they flow together in each of Solomon’s writings, we see that Proverbs teaches us to serve the Lord with all of our mind as the fear of the Lord moves us to wise choices above foolishness. The outcome of this journey is the development of a person who is strong in character, symbolized by the virtuous woman. This is illustrated in the story of Job. In Ecclesiastes the believer serves the Lord with all of his strength by obeying God’s commandments because of his fear of the Lord. The outcome of this journey is the development of a person who walks in his purpose and destiny, rather than in the vanities of this world. This is illustrated in the book of Lamentations. The Song of Solomon reveals the most mature level of serving the Lord with all of one’s heart. This person yields to God’s love being poured into him by learning to abide in constant holy communion with the Lord. The outcome of this journey is the development of a person who overflows in the fruits and gifts of the Spirit. This is illustrated in the book of Psalms.
Paul reflects the theme of Songs when he says, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” (Php 3:10) He did not say, “That I might know His Word, His Wisdom, His Ways,” which reflects the theme of Proverbs; neither did he says, “That I might know God’s plan for my life, finishing my course and fulfill my ministry,” which he says to Timothy, reflecting the theme of Ecclesiastes; rather, Paul says, “that I may know Him.” This reflects the theme of Songs.
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:11
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The result of Paul’s conversion:
v. 7. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
v. 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ,
v. 9. and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,
v. 10. that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death;
v. 11. if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. All these external advantages of which the apostle might have boasted with much greater right than his opponents, the entire class of things which, including anything and everything, as ground of reliance other than Christ, he now disregards: But what was to me gain, this I hold, for the sake of Christ, a detriment. Formerly he had held it a great gain to be high in the councils of the Pharisees, to have honor before men. But he had now learned the relation of true values, he had found that there was no true gain, no lasting worth in these external things. When he learned to know Christ, everything else was relegated to its proper place in his estimation; he knew now that all Pharisaical holiness resulted in detriment, in harm, to him. It was useless ballast, literally, what one throws overboard to save his life. It was worse than worthless when compared with things of real value, since it stood in the way when the gaining of lasting blessings was under consideration.
And so Paul emphasizes: Yea, altogether also I hold all things to be a detriment for the sake of the superabundance of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have counted all as loss, and hold it to be excrement, in order that I may gain Christ. It is a sweeping, emphatic statement, gushing forth with triumphant fervor. Everything in the wide world, no matter what it may offer and result in, so far as the present life is concerned, Paul regards as worse than useless, as a hindrance, an obstruction in the way of salvation and sanctification. For he has now learned to know Christ. The superabundance, the excellence, the exceeding greatness of the knowledge of Jesus has filled his whole heart and mind. He has cheerfully cast everything else away from him for the sake of Christ. He regards as dung, as refuse, whatever is not associated with Christ. For Christ’s sake he has counted all losses in things of this world as gain, that he might win Christ. This object he has now attained to; he has received the full, the thorough knowledge of Christ, he has gained Christ Himself, his Savior is his most precious possession,
No wonder that Paul’s exultant voice rises in praise of this glorious possession: And be found in Him, not having my righteousness, which is out of the Law, but that through faith in Christ, the righteousness out of God upon faith. To attain to this blessed state, that was Paul’s object when he turned to Christ through the power of God in conversion. His own righteousness no longer satisfied him, the righteousness of the Law could not measure up to the standard of God’s holiness; he must have a better righteousness and glory. If any believer is found in Christ, if he has accepted Christ in true faith, then he also has Christ’s righteousness. Christ and true righteousness are inseparably connected. He who gains Christ by faith has true, complete, perfect righteousness. This has been earned by the Redeemer through His work of atonement and is lying ready to be taken by faith, to be gained in and with Christ, who is received by faith. It is not a righteousness which is prepared and brought into existence by faith, nor one that is earned by faith, but one that is taken by faith. It is the righteousness out of God, on the basis of faith. It is not a righteousness which God simply gives or donates to man, not an absolute gift. No, it is a forensic righteousness, one which has been earned and therefore may be urged before the judgment-throne of God. God admits the believer’s right to this righteousness, He declares the believer to be righteous. Because faith accepts the righteousness of Jesus, God looks upon faith as the means of justifying. God gives to the believer the righteousness of Christ and looks upon him as just, while the unbeliever goes forth empty, having despised God’s gift of faith and righteousness.
Faith thus also becomes a means to an end: To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the communion of His sufferings, being brought into the like form with His death, if possibly I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. These are the results of faith, these are the gifts which are given to him that believes. He knows Christ, the Savior, is revealed before his wondering eyes. Day after day the beauty of the Redeemer is unrolled before him with greater clearness. He knows also the power of His resurrection, he experiences the divine power of Him who rose from the dead, who proved by His resurrection that salvation was truly and fully gained, and that God’s wrath was fully appeased, that He was completely satisfied with the vicarious work of Christ. This power of Christ’s resurrection is shown also in the influence it has upon the new man, in giving him strength to live in newness of life. The resurrection of Christ lives in the Christians, He is the Strength of their whole life. At the same time, however, the believers also understand the fellowship of His sufferings. They experience the power of His death, they become like Him in His sufferings and in His death. They undergo all manner of tribulation for Christ’s sake. They crucify their flesh with its affections and lusts, whereby they also gain a very valuable asset. And this spiritual life, manifesting itself in so many ways, has its object, finds its fulfillment, its completion, in the life after the final resurrection. After the great Day of Judgment, when all the dead will appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, the true life of the believers will begin. Toward this life all the longing of the believers is directed. It is toward this goal that we strive. It serves as an argument to the Christian himself, urging him to regard all else as worthless. All Judaizing influences endanger this gain, this faith. Note: If all Christians could learn to repeat these words after the apostle in the fullness of their faith, all complaints of lukewarmness in individual and congregational life would soon become unnecessary.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Php 3:7. Those I counted loss for Christ. That is, “I threw them away, as mariners do their goods, on which they before set a value, lest they should endanger their lives:” in which sensethe word is used, Act 27:21. We may observe, that St. Paul in this and the following verses carries on an agreeable allegory; in which all the metaphors are taken from traders or merchants. The first metaphors that he uses are profit and loss. The next lies in the words cast away; and the last in the word arrive or attain.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Phi 3:7 . Now, with the antithetic , the apostle comes again to his real standpoint, far transcending any , and says: No! everything that was gain to me , etc.
] quaecunque , the category of the matters specified in Phi 3:5-6 . [157] The emphasis is to be placed on this word; comp. subsequently.
] is not the dative of opinion (Erasmus, Beza, and many others, including Heinrichs, Rheinwald, Hoelemann, Matthies, de Wette, Hofmann; comp. van Hengel, who takes as lucra opinata ); but such things were to the apostle in his pre-Christian state really gain ( ). By means of them he was within the old theocracy put upon a path which had already brought him repute and influence, and promised to him yet far greater honours, power, and wealth in the future; a career rich in gain was opened up to him. The plural denotes the various advantages dependent on such things as have been mentioned. Frequently used also in the classical writers.
] emphatically: these very things .
.] for the sake of Christ , who had become the highest interest of my life. Paul explains himself more particularly in Phi 3:8-9 , explanations which are not to be here anticipated.
] as harm , that is, as disadvantageous (the contrast to ; comp. Plat, de lucri cup . p. 226 E, Leg . viii. p. 835 B), because, namely, they had been impediments to the conversion to Christ, and that owing to the false moral judgment and confidence attaching to them. Comp. Form. Conc . p. 708; Calvin on Phi 3:8 . This one disadvantage he has seen in everything of which he is speaking; hence the plural is not again used here as previously in . The ( perfect ), however, has occurred, and is an accomplished fact since his conversion , to which the apostle here glances back. On , comp. Sturz, Lex. Xen . II. p. 454; Lucian, Lexiph . 24; on the relation of the singular to the plural , Eur. Cycl . 311: .
[157] The later heretical enemies of the law appealed to this passage, in which also, in their view, the law was meant to be included. On the other hand, Chrysostom and his successors asserted that the law was meant only in comparison with Christ. Estius, however, justly observes: “non de ipsa lege loquitur, sed de justitia, quae in lege est.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2152
THE EXCELLENCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST
Php 3:7-8. What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but toss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
MANKIND in general are agitated by various and contending passions, while the true Christian enjoys serenity and composure: he is indeed tempted like others to gratify his corrupt nature; but he has one supreme desire which overcomes and regulates all the rest. He is compared to a wise merchant, who having found a pearl of great price, sells all that he has and buys it. Whatever stands in competition with the welfare of his soul will be renounced by him; and, with the Apostle, he will count all things but loss for Christ. To impress this truth more deeply on our minds, we shall consider,
I.
What things Paul had which were gain to him
Amongst all the sons of men there never was any in whom so many and so great excellencies combined, as in the Apostle Paul
[In respect of civil distinctions, he was highly dignified by birth, being an Hebrew of the Hebrews [Note: Php 3:5.]. He was also eminent for learning, having been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and profited above many his equals [Note: Act 22:3. Gal 1:14.].
Nor was he less distinguished in respect of moral qualities. Such was the strictness of his principles, that he joined himself to the Pharisees, the strictest sect among the Jews [Note: Act 26:5.]. His probity of conduct was irreproachable; for he had lived in all good conscience before God from his very youth [Note: Act 23:1.]. His zeal also, though not according to knowledge, was peculiarly carnest; insomuch that, touching the righteousness of the law, he was blameless; and he opposed the Gospel to the uttermost, because he thought it subverted the law of Moses [Note: Php 3:6. Act 26:9-10.].
But however illustrious he was as a Jew, he was still more so as a Christian and an Apostle. His religious attainments were never equalled by any mere man. His exertions in the cause of Christ surpassed those of all the other Apostles [Note: 1Co 15:10.]. He also suffered more than any for the sake of the Gospel [Note: 2Co 11:23-28.]; yea, he was in deaths oft, not counting his life dear to him, so that he might finish his course with joy.]
These things might well be accounted gain to him
[His civil distinctions might recommend him to his countrymen, and augment his influence [Note: 2Co 11:21-22. Act 22:25-29.]. And though he would not make a parade of his learning, he found it useful on some occasions [Note: Thrice he quoted the Greek poets in confirmation of the truth: and took advantage of his knowledge of the Greek language to oppose more successfully the heathen idolatry. Act 17:23.]. His moral qualities also might well be valuable in his sight: for though no strictness of principles, probity of conduct, or zeal for religion, could recommend him God, yet they were ample testimonies of the integrity of his heart. His religious attainments were still more deserving estimation; for though not meritorious in the sight of God, they tended greatly to the glory of God, and the edification of the church, and were undoubted evidences of his meetness for heaven. Well therefore might he rejoice, as he did, in the testimony of a good conscience [Note: 2Co 1:12.].]
But he possessed something of incomparably greater value than these things, as will appear, if we inquire,
II.
What that was which he preferred before them
The Apostle had happily attained the knowledge of Christ
[A mere general uninteresting knowledge of Christ would not have been very high in his esteem: that, which he possessed, was distinct and experimental. He saw Christ as God, equal with the Father, though appearing in the form of a servant [Note: Php 2:6-7.]: he beheld him sustaining various offices in the economy of redemption, and executing them for his peoples good. He beheld him as the Christ, anointed by the Spirit to preach glad tidings to the meek; as Jesus the person commissioned to save men from their sins; and as the Lord who was constituted the living Head, the Supreme Governor, and the righteous Judge of his redeemed people.
But not even this distinct knowledge would have been valued by him, if it had not also been experimental. The expressions following the text respecting his winning Christ, and being found in him, and knowing him in the power of his resurrection, evidently imply that he tasted a sweetness, and felt a peculiar efficacy, in this knowledge. He found by happy experience that he had communion with Christ in his offices [Note: 1Jn 1:3.]. He saw Christ not merely as a Prophet, a Priest, or a King, but as that very Teacher who had opened his eyes; that very Lamb that had taken away his sins; that very Head, to whom he himself was vitally united, and from whom he derived all his supplies of grace and strength. Hence in speaking of Christ he calls him, Christ Jesus my Lord.]
This it was which he esteemed beyond all other things
[In comparison of this, his civil distinctions, his moral qualities, and even his religions attainments, appeared to him as dung and dross. He clearly perceived that none of those things could ever justify him at the tribunal of God; and that, if ever he were saved, he must be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ: hence he accounted his former gain to be not only dung, but loss, that is, not only useless, but prejudicial, if it diverted his eyes from Christ, or weakened his dependence upon him. Nor did he entertain the smallest doubt respecting the justness of his views; but repeated his assertions in the strongest and most decisive terms, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss. Nor did his confidence proceed from inexperience; for repeating the same thing a third time, he adds, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung.]
The propriety of his judgment will be seen by considering,
III.
The grounds of his preference
There was an excellency in that knowledge that far surpassed every thing else
The object of it was truly wonderful
[Who can think of an incarnate God, bearing the sins of his rebellious creatures, and not stand amazed? Who can view the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, as exhibited in the face of a dying Saviour, and not confess, that great is the mystery of godliness? The consideration of this alone had been a very sufficient ground for his declaration in the text.]
The effects of it transcend all that eye hath seen, or ear heard, or heart conceived
[The knowledge of this adorable Saviour will comfort us under all troubles. None ever endured greater bodily trials than Paul; yet none of them could move him; and he was exceeding joyful in all his tribulation [Note: Act 20:24. 2Co 7:4.]. The trials of his soul were far greater; yet while he was groaning under their utmost weight, a view of Christ instantly turned his mourning into thanksgivings and the voice of melody [Note: Rom 7:24-25.]: and, on another occasion, while he was cruelly buffeted by Satan, an answer of peace from Christ enabled him to glory in his infirmities, and even to take pleasure in the most complicated distresses [Note: 2Co 12:7-10.].
Moreover, this knowledge will transform the soul into the image of God. Before his conversion, his zeal shewed itself in persecuting unto death the greatest friends both of God and man: how unlike the conduct of Jesus, who died for his very enemies! But when converted to the faith, he had continual sorrow in his heart on account of his brethrens obstinacy, and wished himself even accursed from Christ for their sake [Note: Rom 9:2-3.]. He, like his Divine Master, was willing to die for his enemies, and rejoiced exceedingly in the prospect of being sacrificed for the good of the Church [Note: Php 2:17-18.]. To what can we ascribe this change, but to the knowledge of Christ [Note: 2Co 5:14; 2Co 3:18.]? And if to that, what reason had he to prize it!
Lastly, this knowledge will avail for the salvation of all who possess it. Paul, though he thought himself alive before his conversion, found at last that he was really dead [Note: Rom 7:9.]: but after his conversion, he was no longer dead, either in reality, or in his own apprehension: he frequently speaks with the fullest assurance respecting the safety of his state [Note: 2Co 5:1-4.]; and teaches all who know Christ to expect with confidence a crown of righteousness in the day of judgment [Note: 2Ti 4:8.].
On such grounds we must not only approve the Apostles judgment, but account it madness to differ from him.]
Application
[All of us possess something which we account gain. Some are more elevated by birth or fortune, others by education and learning: some value themselves on their moral qualities; others on their religious attainments: let us freely acknowledge the gain which may be found in these things [Note: If this be the subject of a Commemoration Sermon, the advantages arising from the institution may be stated, together with just acknowledgments both to God and the benefactors.]: but let us never forget that there is one thing of infinitely greater value than all those together, and for which our gain must be accounted loss. To have a distinct experimental knowledge of Christ, to be able to say, He has loved me, and given himself for me is of more value than ten thousand worlds: it is that, and that alone, which can ever comfort, sanctify, or save the soul. Let us then seek to know Christ and him crucified, and to grow in the knowledge of him, till we see him as we are seen, and know him as we are known.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Ver. 7. Loss for Christ ] Christ is to be sought and bought at any hand, at any rate. This is to play the wise merchant, Mat 13:44-46 . See Trapp on “ Mat 13:44 “ See Trapp on “ Mat 13:45 “ See Trapp on “ Mat 13:46 “ Esteem we Christ, as the people did David, 2Sa 18:3 , more worth than ten thousand; as Naomi did Ruth, better than seven sons, Rth 4:15 ; as Pharaoh did Joseph, There is none so wise and worthy as thou, said he, Gen 41:39 . Let burning, hanging, all the torments of hell befall me, tantummodo ut Iesum nansciscar, so that I may get my Jesus, said Ignatius. None but Christ, none but Christ, said Lambert, lifting up such hands as he had, and his fingers’ ends flaming. We cannot buy this gold too dear. Paul is well content to part with a sky full of stars for one Sun of righteousness. Nazianzen put this price upon his Athenian learning (wherein he was very famous), that he had something of value to part with for Christ. So did Galeacius Caraeciolus abandon all to enjoy the pure ordinances of Christ at Geneva. See that famous epistle written to him by Mr Calvin, prefixed before his Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7 .] But whatsoever things (emphatic (cf. below) and general: these above mentioned, and all others. The law itself is not included among them, but only his from this and other sources) were to me gains (different kinds of gain: cf. Herod. iii. 71, , these (emphatic) I have esteemed, for Christ’s sake (see it explained below, Php 3:8-9 ), as loss (“ this one LOSS he saw in all of which he speaks: hence no longer the plural, as before .” Meyer. Ellicott remarks that the singular is regularly used in this formula, referring to Kypke and Elsner in loc. But the reason of this usage in analogous to that given above, and not surely lest should be mistaken to mean “punishments.” Thus, in the instance from Xen. in Kypke, , the separate deaths of the servants are all massed together, and the loss thought of as one ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Phi 3:7-9 . EARTHLY GAINS COUNTED LOSS THAT HE MIGHT WIN CHRIST.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Phi 3:7 . . Although in later Greek had lost almost all its peculiar force and become simply = ( e.g. , Mat 22:2 , etc. Cf. Jebb in Vincent and Dickson’s Handbook , p. 302), one feels that something of that force is present here. “But these things, although they were of a class that was really gain to me.” Non de ipsa lege loquitur, sed de justitia quae in lege est (Estius). The prerogatives mentioned above were real privileges viewed from his old Jewish standpoint, might even be justly regarded as paving the way to salvation. . In the plural it usually refers to money (see Jebb on Soph., Antig. , 1326). Perhaps the idea of separate items of profit is before the Apostle’s mind (so also Vaughan). For the antithesis between and cf. Aristotle, Eth. Nicom. , 5, 4, 6, , . . “I have considered and still consider.” Tersely, Thdrt [40] . , , .
[40] drt. Theodoret.
On Phi 3:8-11 see Rainy’s admirable exposition in Expos. Bible , pp. 200 256.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Php 3:7-11
7But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8More 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 but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9and 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, 10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Php 3:7 “I have counted as loss” This is a perfect middle (deponent) indicative. Paul came to see how useless ritual and rules were as a means of obtaining and maintaining true righteousness (cf. Col 2:16-23). This was a major theological shift of emphasis from Paul’s previous religious training and lifestyle which occurred at his Damascus road conversion (cf. Act 9:1-22; Act 23:3-16; Act 26:9-18).
Php 3:8-11 These verses are one sentence in Greek.
Php 3:8 “I count” This is a present middle (deponent) indicative. This term is used three times in Php 3:7-8. This is a business term for “forfeit.” All Paul previously trusted in for righteousness (his race and religious performance) he now was counting as “loss.”
NASB, NRSV”in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”
NKJV”for the excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”
TEV”for the sake of what is much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”
NJB”because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”
The key to Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus. In Hebrew “know” implies intimate personal relationship, not facts about something or someone (cf. Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5).
The gospel is (1) a person to welcome; (2) a content to believe; and (3) a life to be lived! For “the surpassing value” (huperech) see Special Topic: Paul’s Use of Huper Compounds at Eph 1:19. This same word is used in Php 2:3; Php 3:8; and Php 4:7.
“I have suffered the loss of all things” This is an aorist passive indicative. This could refer to his family, his inheritance, his religious merit and/or his rabbinical training. Everything he had previously considered valuable suddenly lost all its value! Everything changed on the Damascus road (cf. Acts 9; Act 22:3-16; Act 26:9-18).
NASB, NKJV”count them but rubbish”
NRSV”regard them as rubbish”
TEV”I consider it all as mere garbage”
NJB”and look on them all as filth”
This is literally the term for “dung” or possibly a popular abbreviation of the phrase “thrown to the dogs” (cf. Php 3:2). Metaphorically it meant “of no value.”
“that I may gain Christ” This is an aorist active subjunctive. Paul uses this commercial term metaphorically, “to gain” or “to win” Christ or the gospel as in Php 1:21; Php 3:7-8; and 1Co 9:19-22 [five times]. In Tit 1:11 he uses it in a literal sense.
Php 3:9 “and may be found in Him” This is an aorist passive subjunctive. It expresses Paul’s deepest prayer. “In Him” or “in Christ” was Paul’s favorite grammatical construction for believers (for a good example notice Eph 1:3-4; Eph 1:6-7; Eph 1:9-10 [three times], 12, 13 [twice]).
“not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law” This is the key issue (cf. Rom 3:9-18; Rom 3:21-31). How is a mankind right with God? Performance or grace? This was once and for all answered for Paul on the Damascus road (cf. Acts 9; Act 22:3-16; Act 26:9-18). See Special Topic at Eph 4:24.
“but that which is through faith in Christ” Faith is how individuals receive the gift of the grace of God in Christ (cf. Rom 3:24; Rom 6:23; Eph 2:8-9). Faith and repentance are two necessary aspects of mankind’s response to the new covenant (cf. Mar 1:15; Act 3:16; Act 3:19; Act 20:21).
“The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” Righteousness is a gift from God (cf. drea, Rom 5:15; 2Co 9:15; Eph 3:7; drma, Rom 5:16; dron, Eph 2:8; charisma, Rom 6:23). He always takes the initiative (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65). God desires that all humans be saved (cf. Eze 18:23; Eze 18:32; 1Ti 2:4; 2Pe 3:9); He has provided a way for all humans to be saved! They must respond and continue to respond to God’s offer by
1. repentance
2. faith
3. obedience
4. service
5. perseverance
See Special Topic at Eph 4:24.
Php 3:10 “the power of His resurrection” This must refer to believers’ new life in Christ. This series of phrases in Php 3:10 may reflect Paul’s sufferings for the gospel (cf. 2Co 4:7-12; 2Co 4:16; 2Co 6:4-10; 2Co 11:23-28) which included his current imprisonment.
Others see all these phrases in Php 3:10 as aspects of believers’ mystical union with Christ or their Christlike maturity. As Jesus was perfected by the things He suffered (cf. Heb 5:8) so believers are matured by suffering (cf. Rom 5:1-5).
“the fellowship of His sufferings” Suffering is a common theme of the Christian experience of the first several centuries as it is in many societies in the world today (cf. Rom 8:17; 1Th 3:3; 2Ti 3:12; 1Pe 3:14; 1Pe 4:12-19). As believers share Jesus’ victory, they also share His ministry (cf. Mat 10:24; Luk 6:40; Joh 13:14-16; Joh 15:20; Joh 17:18; Joh 20:21; 2Ti 3:12). See Special Topic: Koinnia at Php 2:1.
“being conformed to His death” This is a present passive participle. Believers must be dead to sin and self and alive to God (cf. Mat 16:24-26; Rom 6:1-11; Gal 2:20; Col 3:3). True life is preceded by death to the old life!
Php 3:11 This is a third class conditional sentence which meant probable future action. Php 3:11 must be interpreted in light of Php 3:10. This phrase does not express doubt about salvation, but humility!
“I may attain” Here again is the dialectical or paradoxical model of Paul’s theology. Paul knew he was a Christian and that as Christ was raised by the Spirit so he would also be raised (cf. Rom 8:9-11). However, Paul saw salvation not only as a past completed event (cf. Act 15:11; Rom 8:24; 2Ti 1:9; Tit 3:5), but also an ongoing process (cf. 1Co 1:18; 1Co 15:2; 2Co 2:15) and ultimately in a future consummation (cf. Rom 5:9-10; Rom 10:9; 1Co 3:15; Php 1:28; 1Th 5:8-9; Heb 1:14; Heb 9:28). Christianity is resting in the character and gift of God in Christ and an aggressive, constant, vigorous life of grateful service to God (cf. Eph 2:8-10). George E. Ladd’s A Theology of the New Testament, pp. 521-522, has a good discussion on this subject.
“resurrection” This is an unusual compound term. It is found only here in the NT. It is literally “out of the dead into resurrection life.” Paul has been discussing the intimate personal relationship between himself and the resurrected Christ. He longed for the end-time day when he, too, would experience physical resurrection as he already had experienced spiritual resurrection (cf Rom 6:4-11; 2Co 5:17; 1Jn 3:2). This is part of the “already but not yet” tension of the Kingdom of God, the overlapping of the two Jewish ages.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
gain. Greek. kerdos. See Php 1:21. Note the seven gains in verses: Php 3:5, Php 3:6
counted. Same as “esteem”, Php 2:3.
loss. Greek. zemia. See Act 27:10.
for. App-104. Php 3:2.
Christ. App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7.] But whatsoever things (emphatic (cf. below) and general: these above mentioned, and all others. The law itself is not included among them, but only his from this and other sources) were to me gains (different kinds of gain: cf. Herod. iii. 71, , these (emphatic) I have esteemed, for Christs sake (see it explained below, Php 3:8-9), as loss (this one LOSS he saw in all of which he speaks: hence no longer the plural, as before . Meyer. Ellicott remarks that the singular is regularly used in this formula, referring to Kypke and Elsner in loc. But the reason of this usage in analogous to that given above, and not surely lest should be mistaken to mean punishments. Thus, in the instance from Xen. in Kypke, , the separate deaths of the servants are all massed together, and the loss thought of as one).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Php 3:7. , those things which) Referring to the things just now enumerated.-, gains) A very comprehensive plural.-, I counted) A most Christian profession respecting the past, present, and future; extending as far as the 14th verse.- , for the sake of Christ) To these words are to be referred the words following in Php 3:8-9, , …, that, etc.-) loss.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Php 3:7
Php 3:7
Howbeit what things were gain to me,-Paul was honored because of his blamelessness and zeal in the Jews religion, of which he was very proud. In these like the rest of his nation, he had rested his hope.
these have I counted loss for Christ.-All the profits and honors gained in the observance of the Jewish law, and in maintaining the traditions of the fathers, he counted loss-worse than nought for the sake of Christ. Instead of service to be recorded, and regarded worthy of honors, they were sins and crimes condemned, and sorrowed for through life. All gains out of Christ are losses for Christ.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The Excellent Exchange
Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.Php 3:7-9.
1. The Apostle indulges here in spiritual paradox. He speaks of losses that were gains, and of gains that were losses. And we shall understand him only if we remember that life is to be considered from two sidesfrom the outside and the inside, from the external and the internal, from the visible and the invisible, from the physical and the spiritual. He who comes to the Bible, more particularly the later portion of it, in order to understand it must see life as it does, must climb to its vantage ground, and breathe its bracing air. It is characteristic of the Word of God that it is always looking at life from the inside and not the outside, from the interior and not the exterior, from the invisible and not the visible, from the eternal and not the temporal, from the spiritual and not the physical. He, therefore, who would come to an adequate comprehension of the genius of the Word of God, and who would possess himself of the clues by which its spiritual paradoxes are to be rendered clear, must look at life through its eyes, and from its heights.
2. Notice, then, that this is not the utterance of youth, impassioned, and therefore hasty; sanguine of imagined good, and pouring out its prodigal applause. It is Paul, the man, who speaks, with ripened wisdom on his brow, and gathering around him the experience of years. It is Paul, the aged, who speaks, who is not ignorant of what he says, who has rejoiced in the excellent knowledge through all the vicissitudes of a veterans life, alike amid the misgivings of a Church and the perils of his journeys, alike when first worshipped and then stoned at Lystra, in the prison at Philippi, and in the Areopagus at Athens; alike when in the early council it strengthened him, born out of due time, to withstand to the face Peter, the elder Apostle, because he was to be blamed, and when, melted into almost womanly tenderness on the seashore at Miletus, it nerved him for the heartbreaking of that sad farewell; alike when buffeting the wintry blasts of the Adriatic, and when standing, silver-haired and solitary, before the bar of Nero. It is he of amplest experience who has tried it under every conceivable circumstance of mortal lot, who, now that his eye has lost its early fire, and the spring and summer are gone from him, feels its genial glow in the kindly winter of his years. Where can we find testimony more conclusive and valuable?
I
What Paul Renounced
1. Paul gives a catalogue of the gains that once were his.
(1) They include, to begin with, inherited privileges. First: circumcised the eighth day. His parents were neither heathen nor sons of Ishmael. He was not a proselyte, but a born Jew. Second: of the stock of Israel. He was regularly descended from the founder of the race. Are they Israelites? so am I. Third: of the tribe of Benjamin. This was one of the most distinguished of the tribes. It was the tribe of the first king. It was the tribe which was alone faithful to Judah in the great division. Fourth: a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Lightfoot says: Many of those whose descent was unimpeachable and who inherited the faith of the Mosaic law, yet, as living among heathens, adopted the language and conformed to the customs of the people around them. Not so were the forefathers of Saul of Tarsus. There had been no Hellenist among them. They were all strict Hebrews from first to last. For Paul, therefore, to say that he was a strict Hebrew, or a Hebrew of Hebrews, was more than for him to say that he was an Israelite. The Hebrew was of the inner circle of the Israelites. These were the inherited privileges of the Apostle.
(2) He proceeds to enumerate certain other privileges which depended on his own personal choice and activity. First: as touching the law, a Pharisee. This was as much as to say that he attached himself to the party which was most scrupulous in its ritualistic observances. Possibly he meant to say more than this; but this much it is quite certain he intended to affirm. Second: as touching zeal, persecuting the Church. No man of the Jewish faith had been more determined and energetic in his opposition to the new way. Third: as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. There was nothing more for him to do than he had done to make his righteousness as prescribed by the law complete. But he was careful to insert the words which is in the law, for he had come to have a new view of righteousness, a view reaching down far deeper and rising far higher than any he had ever known till he found it in Christ. But according to his former standard and method of righteousness he was blameless.
It is with the Christian life as with the block of marble out of which the artist calls the statue. The first blow of the hammer and chisel will take off a rough, rude block of marble. The next will remove similar fragments; but as the image advances to perfection, only powdered dust flies with each stroke, which is shaping the perfect conception into actual form. At the beginning there are multitudes of things which the believer recognizes that he must count loss, but afterwards he discovers renewed evidences of dissimilarity and incongruity, which must be removed if he is to be brought into the likeness of his Lord.1 [Note: S. H. Tyng.]
Paul renounces not only sin, and all self-righteousness, but privileges, gifts and capacities, in order to possess himself of the supreme treasure. It is not enough that, when once you are truly converted, you have the earnest desire to have all these devoted to the service of the Lord. The desire is good, but can neither teach the way nor give the strength to do it acceptably. Incalculable harm has been done to the deeper spirituality of the Church by the idea that when once we are Gods children the using of our gifts in His service follows as a matter of course. No; for this there is indeed needed very special grace. And the way in which the grace comes is again that of sacrifice and surrender. When Christ has accepted them, and set His stamp upon them, we receive them back, to hold them as His property, to wait on Him for the grace to use them aright.1 [Note: A. Murray. Abide in Christ, 115.]
2. Now, the things that Paul renounced were not without intrinsic value. There is something remarkable in the way in which the Apostle refers to the past, and the respectful manner in which he speaks of the faith of his fathers, and of his youth. It is often a sign rather of servility than of independence, when men vilify their former selves. The Apostle had not renounced Judaism in any moment of passion, or in any prejudice of novelty. Strong convictions had forced him out of his old belief. He had emerged into a faith purer and far more satisfying. But there were memories connected with the fulfilled dispensation which he would not willingly let die. There were phases of his own inner life there. For long years Judaism had been to him his only interpreter of the Divine, the only thing that met a religious instinct active beyond that of ordinary men. The grounds of trust which he now found to be insufficient had been the halting places of his soul in its progress from the delusive to the abiding, from the shadowy to the true. He could not forget that there hung around the system he had abandoned an ancient and traditional glow. It was of Gods own architecture; the pattern and its gorgeous ceremonial had been given by Himself in the mount; all its furniture spoke of Him in sensuous manifestation and magnificent appeal. His breath had quivered upon the lips of its prophets, and had lashed its seers into their sacred frenzy. He was in its temple service, and in its holy of holies; amid shapes of heavenly sculpture, the light of His presence ever rested in merciful repose. How could the Apostle assail it with wanton outrage or flippant sarcasm? True, it had fulfilled its mission, and now that the age of spirituality and power had come, it was no longer needed; but the halo was yet upon its brow and, like the light which lingers above the horizon long after the setting of the sun, there shone about it a dim but heavenly splendour. While, however, the Apostle was not slow to confess that there was glory in that which was to be done away, he was equally bold in affirming its absolute worthlessness in comparison with the yet greater glory of that which remainedWhat things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
As the painter rubs off half of his gold leaf ere the letters which he is painting on the sign-board appear distinctlyso, much of what is precious in life has to be taken away ere Gods glory is fulfilled in us, and our title as Christs disciples is made manifest.1 [Note: Hugh Macmillan.]
Gregory Nazianzen, a foremost Father of the Christian Church, rejoiced that he was well versed in the Athenian philosophy; and why do you think he rejoiced in that? Because he had to give it all up when he became a Christian; and, said he, I thank God that I had a philosophy to throw away.2 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
3. The most precious things have no value compared with Christ. The things which Paul declares to be loss are the very things which, before he attained to the knowledge of Christ, he esteemed to be the most precious, and which were truly sorighteousness according to the Law, and the various things which constitute that righteousness. This righteousness, before Christ came into the world, was the most precious thing in the world; and could it ever have been true and perfect, it would have been precious, not only in the sight of man, but of God. Seeing, however, that it never had been perfect,seeing that from the frailty of human nature it never could be otherwise than very imperfect,seeing that the pursuit of it led men to magnify themselves, and drew them away from Him who alone could give them what they were seeking, a righteousness acceptable in the sight of God,this too is declared by the Apostle to be loss. So too is it still loss, when men strive after moral excellence by following the laws of their own reason, instead of seeking that excellence in the only way in which we can really attain to it, by a living communion with the Spirit of Christ. For this is the only way to real moral excellence. All other ways lead us far from it. For all other ways lead us to exalt ourselves, to glorify our own understanding, to magnify our own will; and here also it holds as a never-failing truth, that he who exalts himself shall be abased.
It would be a positive loss if a man were to shut up his windows and to go on working by candle-light when the sun is riding through the sky. It would be a loss if, instead of receiving good sterling money for the wages of your labour, you were to receive false money. It would be a loss if, when by going to the right you might have picked up a fine diamond, or other precious stone, you had unluckily turned to the left, and brought home nothing but dirt and frippery. So is it a loss if, when God has shown forth all His goodness and mercy in Christ, we turn away from Christ and give ourselves up to the pursuit and love of the creature. It is a loss if we persist in creeping and crawling along amid the things of the earth, when Christ has sent His spirit to bear our hearts and souls up to heaven.1 [Note: J. C. Hare.]
If we were truly to desire Christ to abide always with us, He would never go away. What a life of benediction and joy we should live if He were indeed always with us! Unbroken communion with Him would hold heaven close about us all the while, and thus these sordid earthly lives of ours would be permeated and struck through with the sweetness and fragrance of holiness, and transformed into the likeness of Christ Himself. Then all lifes experiences would be transfigured. Joy would be purer, and even sorrow would be illumined. All through life this should be our continual prayer; then in death our earthly communion shall brighten into heavenly glory.2 [Note: J. R. Miller.]
For us,whatevers undergone,
Thou knowest, willest what is done.
Grief may be joy misunderstood;
Only the Good discerns the good.
I trust Thee while my days go on.
Whatevers lost, it first was won;
We will not struggle nor impugn.
Perhaps the cup was broken here,
That Heavens new wine might show more clear.
I praise Thee while my days go on.
I praise Thee while my days go on;
I love Thee while my days go on:
Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost,
With emptied arms and treasure lost,
I thank Thee while my days go on.3 [Note: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, De Profundis.]
II
What Paul Gained
1. The Apostle sums up his gain in one wordChrist. But he would not have us suppose that his renunciation was such as to merit or purchase for him the one gain. Jesus Christ is Gods gift. He can never be bought. St. Paul was already a believer, and the Lord Jesus Christ was already his portion when he wrote these words. They are very ill-instructed in the mind of God, and only blind leaders of the blind, who urge souls to give up this, that, or the other as the price of receiving Christ. Such teaching reverses Gods order. The dropping off, the giving up, the counting as loss all the old gains, follows, but never precedes, the folding to the heart of the one gain.
In Wales and in Scotland, in the mining districts, winning the coal, or the mineral, is a common expression, by which is meant sinking a shaft deep down to get out the ore in richer abundance. Let us take that idea. Paul, on the day when he first discovered Christ, found himself to be the possessor of a large estate. He was standing, so to speak, at the opening of this mine, and he saw some of the precious ore. He could not take his eye off what he did see; but, the more he looked, the more he discovered of the inexhaustible riches there. He had only to dig down, to sink his shaft in all directions, and there was no end to what he might bring up out of this mine; and so it was his lifetimes wish, that I may win Christ. When he had got some of this ore, he was inflamed with a desire to get more. He would stand amid the heaps of his gold and say, That I may win Christ.1 [Note: Andrew Bonar.]
At Kurnalpi I took my lamp and went to the place of meeting. A gentleman had offered me his auctioneers box as a pulpit. I fixed my lamp beside me in the box so that I could read by its light. When I mounted the pulpit, there was not a soul about me that I could see in the darkness, so first lifting my heart for a moment to my Master, I next lifted my voice and shouted Gentlemen, the sale is about to commence! You should have seen the response. They came running out from everywhere, like ants from an ant-hill, and rushed to get a good place near the auctioneer. There was a billiard saloon not far away, and though it was crowded a little ago, it was emptied quicker than it takes me to tell about it. Soon I had between two hundred and three hundred men around me. In my travel during the day I had learnt something of the open, unblushing sin prevailing here, and as I reasoned of righteousness and judgment, the Power of God fell on those men. This was my pioneer gospel service. I had ridden hard and far to tell them of the Water for which they would not have to pay, but which they might have for the taking, and without which they would perish miserably. I was selling Gospel necessariesWater, and Gospel luxuriesWine and Milk, without money and without price. Many of them were incredulous, and not inclined to buy at my price. Herein lay the difference between the auctioneer who usually occupied that box, and myself, its present occupant. He has hard work to get you up to his price, I told them, But I have hard work to get you down to mine.1 [Note: John MacNeil, Evangelist in Australia, 272.]
2. Paul specifies as among his gains the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. The phrase employed combines two ideas. In the first place, Paul felt Christ appealing to him as to a thinking, knowing being. Various influences were reaching him from Christ which bore on heart, will, conscience; but they all came primarily as a revelation, they came as light. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In the next place, this discovery came with a certain assuredness. It was felt to be not a dream, not a fair imagination only, not speculation, but knowledge. Here Paul felt himself face to face with the real, indeed with fundamental, reality. In this character, as luminous knowledge, the revelation of Christ challenged his decision, it demanded his appreciation and adherence. For since Christ claims so fundamental a place in the moral world, since He claims so intimate and fruitful a relation to the whole state and prospects of the believing man, acquaintance with Him (at least, if it be acquaintance in Pauls style) cannot pause at the stage of contemplation; it passes into appropriation and surrender. Christ is known as dealing with us, and must be dealt with by us. So this knowledge becomes, at the same time, experience.
Knowledge is often more valuable than temporal possessions. A man falling into the sea might find a knowledge of the art of swimming of more value to him than a good balance in his favour at the bank. So the knowledge of Christ is of more value to men than temporal possessions of any kind. The knowledge of Christ is saving knowledge. Sinners cannot know Him unless they know Him as their Saviour. This knowledge is, moreover, sanctifying knowledge. To know Christ is to know the experience of holiness. This knowledge affects the whole being of those who have it, and from such knowledge all that is best in history has sprung.1 [Note: H. Thorne, Notable Sayings of the Great Teacher, 216.]
3. The knowledge of Christ creates obedience, and evokes endurance.
(1) The knowledge of Christ creates obedience.Paul calls the Christ he knows so well my Lord. No man ever yet had a believing acquaintance with Christ, except as Lord. To trust Christ and to live Christ is to obey Christ. My Lord is a loved title by which the Christian believer designates Christ. They who know Christ ever obey Him. He becomes the Ruler of their life. And the more they know Him, they the more absolutely obey Him.
If we obey Christ, His commandments will soon shine in their own light. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. It is not by mere meditation that we come to see the real beauty and excellence of Christs commandments; we must obey them before we see how beautiful and noble they are. We must actually follow Christ if we desire to have the light of life; if we decline to follow Him till the light comes, we shall remain in darkness.2 [Note: R. W. Dale, Laws of Christ for Common Life, 276.]
(2) The knowledge of Christ evokes endurance.See how graphically this is exemplified in Pauls own case. It might be easy to affirm that all things pale before the knowledge of Christ. But Paul had given abundant proof of his faith. He had lived out his strong conviction. He had proved his creed by deed; his tremendous creed by sacrificial deed. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
The figure is a very striking one. It is an illustration from the Law Courts. It might be expressed, I was sentenced to the loss of all things. Paul was arraigned before the judge. He was charged with the high crime of being a follower of Christ. He pleaded guilty to the charge. He was fined right heavily. Exorbitant damages were extorted. All things were taken from him. Everything that he had reckoned dear and desirable. I have suffered the loss of all things. With Paul it is no case of boasting. He is not avowing what he might under given circumstances do. He has done it. He has endured to the ultimate point. So has he known Christ, that for Him he has paid down as damages all things.
Yet it was well, and Thou hast said in season
As is the master shall the servant be:
Let me not subtly slide into the treason,
Seeking an honour which they gave not Thee;
Never at even, pillowed on a pleasure,
Sleep with the wings of aspiration furled,
Hide the last mite of the forbidden treasure,
Keep for my joys a world within the world;
Nay but much rather let me late returning
Bruised of my brethren, wounded from within,
Stoop with sad countenance and blushes burning,
Bitter with weariness and sick with sin,
Then as I weary me and long and languish,
Nowise availing from that pain to part,
Desperate tides of the whole great worlds anguish
Forced thro the channels of a single heart,
Straight to Thy presence get me and reveal it,
Nothing ashamed of tears upon Thy feet,
Show the sore wound and beg Thine hand to heal it,
Pour Thee the bitter, pray Thee for the sweet.
Then with a ripple and a radiance thro me
Rise and be manifest, O Morning Star!
Flow on my soul, thou Spirit, and renew me,
Fill with Thyself, and let the rest be far.1 [Note: F. W. H. Myers, Saint Paul.]
There is a sentence in the biography of David Hillthat rare, gentle, refined spirit who moved like a fragrance in his little part of Chinaa sentence which has burned itself into the very marrow of my mind. Disorder had broken out, and one of the rioters seized a huge splinter of a smashed door and gave him a terrific blow on the wrist, almost breaking his arm. And how is it all referred to? There is a deep joy in actually suffering physical violence for Christs sake. That is all! It is a strange combination of wordssuffering, violence, joy! And yet I remember the evangel of the Apostle, If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]
Here, and here alone,
Is given thee to suffer for Gods sake.
In other worlds we shall more perfectly
Serve Him and love Him, praise Him, work for Him,
Grow near and nearer Him with all delight:
But then we shall not any more be called
To suffer, which is out appointment here.
Canst thou not suffer then one hour,or two?
If He should call thee from thy cross to-day,
Saying, It is finished!that hard cross of thine
From which thou prayest for deliverance,
Thinkest thou not some passion of regret
Would overcome thee? Thou wouldst say, So soon?
Let me go back, and suffer yet awhile
More patiently;I have not yet praised God.2 [Note: Mrs. Hamilton King, The Sermon in the Hospital.]
4. Paul aims at gaining Christ and being found in him. From what follows (not having a righteousness of mine own, R.V.) it would seem that by being found in him the Apostle meant being found in His righteousness. There was a period in the Apostles life when he expected that he would be able to stand before God in his own righteousness. Now all this is changed. He has discovered the worthlessness of his own righteousness, and therefore he has abandoned the idea of being accepted before God on the ground of it. He has come to know that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, and in that righteousness he desires to stand. Nothing less than a perfect righteousness can satisfy a perfect God, and there is no perfect righteousness to be found apart from Christ. Paul wished to be found as one taking shelter in this sure refuge.
A man found in Christ is as a bird is found in the airhis native element. Watch the little songster, as it wings its way through the ether far up towards the clouds, and then sends down to earth its shower of melody. It is at liberty because it is in its element. And the believer in Christ lives, moves, and has his being filled with the gladness of the life that is inspired by the love of his Lord.
Thy service, Lord, is freedom; yet it binds
With strongest chains; the heart around it winds
A self-imposed restraint; Thy freedmen, we
Still wear Thy badge, and joy that all should see
Our will, by firmest bands, in thrall to Thee.
So is our freedom perfect; or will grow
Such in Thy heaven; lacking some part below
Through earths remaining gyves,if once there be
A will with Thine in all things to agree,
Then, wholly bound, we shall be wholly free.1 [Note: Lord Kinloch.]
5. Paul sought a righteousness that would be acceptable to God.
(1) Righteousness we must have. We need to be right with God. Paul takes this for grantedthat, by one way or another, God and we must be on terms of peace, if not even of friendship. If we ourselves were truly right, we should be right with God. God desires all to be right between us and Him. It is not from His side that any disturbance of peace and friendship has come. Therefore, to be wrong with God is monstrous and criminal, as well as disastrous and terrible.
(2) There is a righteousness which has to be renouncedthe righteousness which is of the law. Paul had set himself to make his position right with God by strictly obeying those laws which Moses delivered, and which men of later times had multiplied. And he had believed himself largely successful in this bold endeavour. If any man ever deserved to win along this line of mortal effort it was Saul, the young and earnest Pharisee. He accepted those precepts as the utterance of the whole that God wanted at mens hands; he knew the great ten commandments to be the sum of the moral law of God; and he girded himself to the fulfilment of it all with an energy and a constancy that have never been surpassed. The task was no pastime; it was a matter of increasing earnestness with him as his young manhood ripened. But the light one day broke upon his heart, and lo! with all his proud and strenuous labour, he saw he had been failing all the while; his own righteousness, his righteousness of single-handed obedience to law, was but a toilsome mockery of a righteousness for sinful men. From that hour one of the mottoes of his great life was this: Not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law.
(3) We can secure a satisfying righteousness through faith in Christ. For He has in Himself a righteousness for us that abounds above all our need. That law which we cannot fulfil, He fulfilled. During all that human life of His among the men and women of Galilee and Juda, He was flooding it with fulfilment. Only one perfect life has been lived in our world, and it was a life in which infinite holiness itself found nothing but the purest, and loftiest, and truest human excellence. That life was the life of Jesus the Man, the Son of God, the Redeemer of men. Our faith in Him receives the merit of that life, which thereby takes the royal place of all our bootless strivings. And what of the past, with its already gathered guilt and doom? He died as well as lived, He suffered as well as obeyed, and all in our stead. Thus He bore away our curse, and cleared the whole length and breadth of our history from every atom of doom, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Through faith in Christthe righteousness which is of God by faith.
Pauls disownment of every rag of his own righteousness was like the man and the Christian that he was. He had never moved a ships-length nearer to everlasting good while he had this for his canvas, and himself in command; now, with Christ commanding, and all refitted aloft, he has begun making rapid way. The discarded righteousness is deck cargo there as the vessel glides on. His glance falls upon it, and he feels it is threatening to tamper with his heart. He drags it to the ships rail; his arms ache as he piles its many folds over the ships side; it now hangs by the rope that fastened it on deck, and trails heavily about on the sea. It must go. He lifts a hatchet; the rope is severed; the mass sinks out of sight; and ere it has soaked its way to the bottom, the ship has sped miles upon its courselighter, swifter, cheerier, as it wings onward in the growing lustre of the eternal harbour-land.1 [Note: J. A. Kerr Bain.]
A strong thinker of the past generation, Isaac Taylor, of Ongar, somewhere says that to the end of time a Vicarious Atonement (in the old evangelical sense of those words) will be assailed with objections; and that to the end of time the awakened, the thoroughly awakened, conscience will gravitate to the Vicarious Atonement as to its one possible rest. True witness; let me put my seal humbly to it in both its parts.
Another great Christian of a remoter past, Count Zinzendorf, has left on record a notice of a personal experience of his own which powerfully impressed me when I came on it a few years ago in a French memoir of his life. About this time I met with the work of Dippel, in which the doctrine of Imputed Righteousness is attacked. Its system seemed to aim at eliminating from the idea of God the notion of His wrath; and just so far as I sympathized with that view I liked the system. I was then in the attitude of the natural theologian; and the good God distressed me when His acts seemed to lack a sequence of mathematical precision. I sought to justify Him, at all costs, to men of reason. But when I came to think over my own conversion, I saw that in the death of Jesus, and in the word Ransom, there lay a profound mysterya mystery before which Philosophy stops short, but as regards which Revelation is immovably firm. This gave me a new intuition into the doctrine of Salvation. I found its blessing and benefit first in the instance of my own heart, then in that of my brethren and fellow-workers (in the Moravian Church). Since the year 1734 the doctrine of the expiatory Sacrifice of Jesus has been, and will for ever be, our treasure, our watchword, our all, our panacea against all evil, alike in doctrine and in practice. True witness, I say again, and again would humbly put my seal to its terms, in regard both of experience and of principle. And the principle of Taylors dictum and Zinzendorfs inner history is just as true for the progress as it is for the beginning of the believers life. It is in point, not only in connexion with conversion, but in connexion with the lifelong needs of the Christian, and his lifelong peace and standing before God.1 [Note: Bishop H. C. G. Moule, All in Christ, 163.]
III
Experience Approves the Exchange
1. When the Apostle writes this Epistle, he has had ample opportunity to review his life, to test his choice, to reckon up again the balance of life he once struck. He has seen life under many aspects,amid the rude tribes of the Galatian and Phrygian highlands, in philosophic Athens, in wealthy and luxurious Corinth, in Oriental and superstitious Ephesus, and now, at last, in imperial Rome, mistress of the world. He has learnt that over against the gains which life once possessed he must now place the hatred of his countrymen, the persecutions of the heathen, the perils of travel, the pangs of hunger and cold and nakedness, the exhaustion of manual labour; but with them the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. Yet now, when he may well have tested every item in the account of life, and revalued each; when, though prematurely aged and spent, he might well have desired the fulfilment of the dream of early life, and lamented that he was turned aside from the career at first marked out, he, on the contrary, reiterates his choice: I again renounce to-day, as of old: Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss. So, under the palace of the Csars, and within what seemed the shadow of death, the Apostle ratified the great renunciation he had made.
One might say that the whole life of Dives is wholly contrary to the cross of Christ. God predestinated us, St. Paul says. To what? To eternal life? This is the end of all. But to what first? God predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. What image? Well! Be it the image of His holiness, the image of His glory. Are there then no scars on that glorious Form, brighter than the sun, or than all created light, irradiant with His Godhead? If we would reign with Him, St. Paul tells us, we must first suffer with Him. If we would be conformed to the likeness of His glory, we must first be conformed to the likeness of His suffering. Too delicate art thou, my brother, if thou wiliest both here to rejoice with the world, and hereafter to reign with Christ. Was our Redeemer crowned with thorns that we might be refined sensualists? Did He come down from heaven that we might forget heaven and Him, steeped in all which we can get of this lifes fleeting pleasures of sense?1 [Note: E. B. Pusey.]
Depend upon it, said Carlyle, the brave man has somehow or other to give his life away. We are called upon to make an unconditional surrender. Unconditional, I say, because it cannot be on our own terms. We cannot reserve what we like, or choose what we prefer. It is a surrender to a great and awful Will, of whose workings we know little, but which means to triumph, whatever we may do to hinder or delay its purpose. We must work indeed by the best light that we have. We must do the next thing, and the kind thing, and the courageous thing, as it falls to us to do. But sooner or later we must yield our wills up, and not simply out of tame and fearful submission, but because we at last see that the Will behind all things is greater, purer, more beautiful, more holy than anything we can imagine or express. Some find this easier than othersand some never seem to achieve itwhich is the hardest problem of all. But there is no peace without that surrender, though it cannot be made at once; there is in most of us a fibre of self-will, of hardness, of stubbornness which we cannot break, but which God may be trusted to break for us, if we desire it to be broken.1 [Note: A. C. Benson, Ruskin: A Study in Personality, 224.]
2. Pauls estimate stood the final proof. The test of a true religion is that it meets all the legitimate demands of the soul; that in it our past, present, and future shall find their meaning. There must be rest at the centre if there is to be living movement all round. A man like Paul would have worn his spirit down by restless chafing, if he had not found a satisfactory relation to God and his fellow-men. He did find such reconciliation; and the rich result we see in his life. It was real life that he found, life with a large outlook and an undying hope. To know what is meant by winning Christ we must pass in review the many-sided statements of truth and the lofty ideals of conduct that he set before himself and his followers. It was not merely the forgiveness of past sins, though that was a proper subject for warmest gratitude; it was not simply the vision of future blessedness, though that was a consoling power in many a trying hour; it was a present satisfaction that linked these into living unity, and proved that faith in the unseen world is the mightiest force to equip a man for stern tasks and tender ministries.
I believe there is no means of preserving rectitude of conduct and nobleness of aim but the Grace of God obtained by daily, almost hourly, waiting upon Him, and continued faith in His immediate presence. Get into this habit of thought, and you need make no promises. Come short of this and you will break them, and be more discouraged than if you had made none. The great lesson we have to learn in this world is to give it all up. It is not so much resolution as renunciation, not so much courage as resignation, that we need. He that has once yielded thoroughly to God will yield to nothing but God.1 [Note: Ruskin, in Life by E. T. Cook, i. 387.]
Nearly half a century after Sartor Resartus was written, Carlyle addressed the students of Edinburgh University as their Lord Rector, and then again, after having tested its worth in a life of heroic labour, he deliberately referred to Goethes interpretation of the moral significance of Christianity and doctrine of the reverence due by man to his God, to his brethren, and to himself, as what he would rather have written than any other passage in recent literature. It is only with renunciation, says the great poet and philosopher, who is supposed to have been hewn from ice, and to have had no object in life but to polish himself up, so that the ice might show to advantage, it is only with renunciation that life, properly speaking, can be said to begin.2 [Note: P. Bayne, Lessons from My Masters, 24.]
Unveil, O Lord, and on us shine
In glory and in grace;
This gaudy world grows pale before
The beauty of Thy face.
Till Thou art seen, it seems to be
A sort of fairy ground,
Where suns unsetting light the sky,
And flowers and fruits abound.
But when Thy keener, purer beam
Is pourd upon our sight,
It loses all its power to charm,
And what was day is night.
Its noblest toils are then the scourge
Which made Thy blood to flow;
Its joys are but the treacherous thorns
Which circled round Thy brow.
And thus, when we renounce for Thee
Its restless aims and fears,
The tender memories of the past,
The hopes of coming years,
Poor is our sacrifice, whose eyes
Are lighted from above;
We offer what we cannot keep,
What we have ceased to love.1 [Note: Cardinal Newman.]
3. He says he has suffered the loss of all things. All things must include more than those old elements of fleshly confidence already enumerated. It must include everything which Paul still possessed, or might yet attain, that could be separated from Christ, weighed against Him, brought into competition with Himall that the flesh could even yet take hold of, and turn into a ground of separate confidence and boasting. So the phrase might cover much that was good in its place, much that the Apostle was glad to hold in Christ and from Christ, but which might yet present itself to the unwatchful heart as material of independent boasting, and which, in that case, must be met with energetic and resolute rejection. All things may include, for instance, many of those elements of Christian and Apostolic eminence which are enumerated in 2 Corinthians 11; for while he thankfully received many such things and lovingly prized them in Christ Jesus, yet as they might become occasions to flatter or seduce even an Apostlebetraying him into self-confidence, or into the assertion of some separate worth and glory for himselfthey must be rejected and counted to be loss.
All things. He made the statement just as broad and inclusive as possible. Not all his ill-grounded hopes merely; not the advantages merely which came to him from his conformity to the law, for what was gain to him in these respects he counted loss; but all thingspersonal comfort, personal ends, personal prospects, personal ambitions, the affection of friends, the joys of social life, the triumphs of competition, his own self-development, will, earthly hopes, each and all were to be held second and subordinate by him to obedience to Jesus.
Without Thy presence wealth is bags of cares;
Wisdom but folly; joy, disquiet, sadness;
Friendship is treason, and delights are snares;
Pleasures but pain, and mirth but pleasing madness.
Without Thee, Lord, things be not what they be,
Nor have their being, when compared with Thee.
In having all things, and not Thee, what have I?
Not having Thee, what have my labours got?
Let me enjoy but Thee, what further crave I?
And having Thee alone what have I not?
I wish nor sea, nor land, nor would I be
Possessed of heaven, heaven unpossessed of Thee.
4. What he set down at first as loss he now describes as dung or refuse. The word signifies that which is worthless, and is used to express the lees and dregs of wine, the sediment which a man finds in his cup, and drains out upon the ground when he has drunk his liquor, the refuse of fruit, the dross of metals, and the chaff and stubble of wheat. In fact, the root of the word signifies things cast to dogsdogs meat, bones from the plates, crumbs and stale pieces brushed from the table, and such things as one is anxious to be rid of.
You may remember Shakespeares wonderful story of the lady who was sought in marriage by many suitors. To test their manhood, her father had three caskets madeone of gold, one of silver, and one of leadand in one of the caskets the ladys picture was placed. Each casket had a motto. On the gold one, this
Who chooseth me shall get what many men desire.
On the silver one, this
Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.
But on the lead one, this
Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.
The gold and silver caskets spoke of getting; the lead casket spoke of giving. He who gave most gained most, for the ladys picture was in the casket that bade a man give and hazard all he had.
I, says Paul, for the image of my Lord, for the excellency of the knowledge of Him, will count all things but loss, will give and hazard all I have.1 [Note: C. Silvester Horne, The Souls Awakening, 191.]
I wanted wealth, and, at my dear request,
Earth lent a quick supply;
I wanted mirth to charm my sullen breast,
And who more brisk than I?
I wanted fame to glorify the rest,
My fame flew eagle-high;
My joy not fully ripe, but all decayed,
Wealth vanished like a shade;
My mirth began to flag, my fame began to fade.
My trust is in the Cross; let beauty flag
Her loose and wanton sail,
Let countnance-gilding honour cease to brag
In courtly terms, and vail;
False beautys conquest is but real loss,
And wealth but golden dross,
Best honours but a blast: my trust is in the Cross.
The Excellent Exchange
Literature
Bain (J. A. K.), in The Church on the Sea, 17.
Ballard (F.), Does it Matter what a Man Believes? 106.
Darlow (T. H.), The Upward Calling, 259.
Davies (T.), Exposition of St. Pauls Epistle to the Philippians, 176.
Hare (J. C.), Parish Sermons, 205.
Jordan (W. G.), The Philippian Gospel, 173.
Maggs (J. T. L.), The Spiritual Experience of St. Paul, 32.
Meyer (F. B.), Paul, 17.
Moule (H. C. G.), Christs Witness to the Life to Come, 107.
Murray (A.), Abide in Christ, 113.
Noble (F. A.), Discourses on the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, 169.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, i. 377.
Punshon (W. M.), Sermons, 2nd Ser., 384.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxiii. (1877), No. 1357; lvi. (1910), No. 3209.
Thomson (J. R.), Burden-Bearing, 71.
Wilson (J. M.), Truths New and Old, 10.
Yorke (H. L.), The Law of the Spirit, 207.
Young (D. T.), The Crimson Book, 35.
Cambridge Review, xii. Supplement No. 301.
Christian World Pulpit, l. 137 (Thomas); liii. 389 (Webb-Peploe).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Phi 3:4-6, Phi 3:8-10, Gen 19:17, Gen 19:26, Job 2:4, Pro 13:8, Pro 23:23, Mat 13:44-46, Mat 16:26, Luk 14:26, Luk 14:33, Luk 16:8, Luk 17:31-33, Act 27:18, Act 27:19, Act 27:38, Gal 2:15, Gal 2:16, Gal 5:2-5
Reciprocal: 2Ki 7:15 – had cast away Psa 40:16 – love Psa 45:16 – Instead Psa 145:7 – sing Ecc 3:6 – and a time to cast Son 8:1 – I would Isa 2:20 – cast Jer 41:8 – Slay Jon 1:5 – and cast Zec 3:4 – Take Mat 10:37 – that loveth father Mat 22:42 – What Mar 8:34 – Whosoever Mar 8:36 – what Mar 9:47 – thine Mar 10:28 – Lo Mar 10:50 – General Mar 13:15 – General Luk 5:11 – they forsook Luk 9:29 – General Luk 15:7 – which Luk 18:28 – General Joh 6:54 – eateth Joh 14:15 – General Joh 16:10 – righteousness Act 27:32 – General Rom 1:1 – a servant 2Co 3:10 – had 2Co 5:16 – know we no 2Co 5:17 – old Gal 4:12 – be Gal 6:14 – God Phi 3:3 – rejoice Col 3:11 – but 1Pe 2:7 – you
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
(Php 3:7.) , -But whatever things were gains to me, these I have reckoned loss for Christ. The conjunction introduces a striking and earnest contrast. In the use of , which is placed emphatically, the apostle refers to these previous things enumerated as a class-that class of things which were objects of gain; the plural intimating their quantity and variety, and not simply corresponding in number with the plural . Krger, 44, 3, Anmerk 5. The dative is that of profit, and not that of opinion, as is supposed by Erasmus, Beza, Rheinwald, De Wette, and Hoelemann. The apostle still speaks from his old standpoint -they were objects of gain, inasmuch as and so long as they were believed to secure acceptance with God. The is opposed to , and is used in its literal sense in Act 27:10; Act 27:21. The is emphatic-these, yes these, I have reckoned loss; and the is not, as van Hengel makes it -non vera lucra, sed opinata. The perfect tense may bear the meaning of the present-Buttmann, 113, 7-yet the use of the present immediately after confines us to the past signification. These things I have set down as loss, and do so still. He had come to form a very opposite opinion of them. It is needless to take in the sense of mulcta, or . It stands simply in unity, opposed to in plurality-many gains as one loss-denoting the total revolution in the apostle’s mind and opinions. Theophylact adds -and have cast them away, but not correctly, or in strict unison with the previous declaration, for the apostle still had them, and says that he still had them- . Nor is there more propriety in Calvin’s figure, virtually adopted and deteriorated by Macknight, taken from navigation, when men make loss of the cargo to lighten the ship, and save themselves. The apostle now states the grand reason for his change of estimate-
-on account of Christ. Not in respect of Christ, as Heinrichs; nor specially to enjoy fellowship with Him, as van Hengel. On account of Christ-that is to say, what was once gain was now reckoned loss, either because it did not commend him to Christ, or what was held as something won was regarded now as loss, for it did not enable to win Christ, nay, kept him from winning Christ. When he won, he was losing; nay, the more he won, the more he must lose. All his advantages in birth, privilege, sect, earnestness, and obedience, were not only profitless, but productive of positive loss, as they prevented the gaining of Christ, and of justification through the faith of Christ.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Php 3:7. In the lexicon the original for gain is defined “advantage,” and that for loss is defined “damage.” There was a time when Paul thought it was a great advantage to have all of the fleshly accomplishments named above to his credit. But after learning what it means to have Christ, he could realize that it would have been a disadvantage or loss to him, had he clung’ to them. Indeed, the “damage” would have been to the extent of losing the grace or favor of God (Gal 5:4).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Php 3:7. Howbeit what things were gain to me. In the days of his persecuting zeal, he like the Judaizers had counted all these distinctive marks of the pure and exclusive Jew as so many advantages. And in the original this is expressed somewhat more fully, for the word is really gains, as though he had felt the total sum in his early days to be very great, and had been consequently proud of them.
these have I counted loss for Christ. In these, like the rest of his nation, he had been putting his trust. Now he has learnt that in Christ alone is salvation, and that so long as Jewish observances are cherished side by side with a half-acceptance of Him, these legal merits, however complete, bar the way effectually to a full and saving faith. They had been gains in his eyes, but now he sees that to cling to them is ruin, and therefore he resigns them as one entire loss. This he has done for the sake of Christ, whom he has found to be far more precious than all beside. The tense, which is scarcely expressed in the Authorised Version, tells of that sacrifice which followed close upon the vision at his conversion. The words from heaven, and the three days spiritual enlightenment while his bodily eye was quenched, gave time for the full comprehension of the worthlessness of all that he had prized before.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
That is, the fore-mentioned privileges, which heretofore he accounted gain, and thought to gain justification and salvation by, now, since his illumination, he counted them all loss; he saw he had lost his soul for ever, had he trusted to these; but Christ being made known to him as the only way to gain pardon of sin, and acceptance with God, he renounces all his former privileges, his former legal righteousness, he durst not lean upon these broken reeds, he would have no more confidence in the flesh, but in Christ only: What things were reputed gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ’s sake.
And he repeats the words over again with confidence and assurance, that he might not be thought to speak unadvisedlly, and in a hear; Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss. He did not only count them but loss, but he had actually renounced them as such; an illusion to a merchant, who is content to suffer the loss of all his goods to save his life.
But how did St. Paul suffer the loss of them?
Ans. He did not make shipwreck of holy duties, and cast off the performance of them, but he cast off all dependence upon them, and cast away all expectation of happiness and salvation from them, which he had before.
Observe farther, He did not only count them loss, but cast them away as dung, as filthy carrion, as garbage cast to dogs, as the word signifies. Such things as these the false teachers (whom he called dogs) might delight in; but as for himself, he could relish and savour nothing in them, in comparison of Jesus Christ.
In these words, observe, 1. The low esteem and mean account which St. Paul had, and every enlightened Christian has, of the greatest advantages which this world doth or can afford: In comparison of Jesus Christ, and him crucified, I count all things but loss; all my spiritual privileges, with all my worldly advantages, I do, upon the greatest deliberation and thought, undervalue them all for the sake of Christ and his grace.
Observe, 2. The high and honourable esteem which he had of the knowledge of Jesus Christ; he declares there was a transcendent excellency in it: For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the way and method of salvation by and through him, is an excelling knowledge: every thing of Jesus Christ is excellent and worthy to be known; the dignity of his person, as God, as Man, as God-man, or Mediator between God and man; the dignity of his offices, as the great King, Priest, and Prophet of his church; the eminency of his example, the depth of his humiliation, the height of his exaltation, the transcendency of his love in all his undertakings for us, and the way and method of his justification of us by faith in his blood.
We may conclude of the act by the object; Christ is the most excellent object, therefore the knowledge of Christ is and must be the most excellent knowledge; not only all the excellences of the creatures are found in him in the most excelling manner, but all the excellences of the Godhead, dwell in him bodily, that is, personally and substantially.
Observe, 3. The effect which this knowledge of Christ had upon our apostle: it enabled him to suffer the loss of all things. Those that have attained the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, will not think much to suffer the loss of any thing; yea, of all things, for the obtaining of him, and salvation by him.
Observe, 4. The end and design of St. Paul, in parting with all for Christ, or the motive and encouragement which induced him thereunto, namely, that he might win Christ; that is, that he might obtain an interest in him, and the blessings purchased by him; for this was he willing to part with all his privileges, all his accomplishments, all his enjoyments, all his own righteousness, his exactness in the outward observation of the law; he renounced all, not in point of performance, but in point of dependence; he renounced all confidence in it for his justification before God: Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Paul Gave Up All For Christ
Paul forfeited, or suffered the loss, of all he once held dear and counted it a good swap for the knowledge of Christ ( Mat 13:44-46 ). Jesus says we can either deny self or forfeit self, or be cast away ( Luk 9:23-25 ; the words “cast away” and suffered the loss” come from the same Greek word.) Shepherd says “knowledge” is much more than intellectual. It “includes faith, service, sacrifice, and is analogous to the phrase ‘to be in Christ’ — the spiitual knowledge by which the indiviidual becomes one with Christ, so that his whole life is lived in Chrsit and he has no consciousness of being apart from Christ.” This kind of knowledge would, of course, grow as one grew in service of the master. Paul said he counted all that was once important to him as refuse to win Christ ( Php 3:8 ).
To be found in Christ, one must be baptized into him ( Rom 6:3-4 ). Once Paul was in Christ, he ceased relying on personal accomplishments to save him. Instead, he was obedient, which is generally the meaning of faith in the New Testament ( Rom 1:5 ; Rom 16:26 ). As Coffman says, “The contrast is between trusting in the ceremonies of the Law of Moses for salvation as contrasted with believing and obeying the gospel of Christ.”
The only faith which God will count for righteousness is that which comes by an obedient hearing of God’s word ( Rom 10:17 ). The “faith of Christ” would refer to the Savior’s faithfulness, or fidelity, in carrying out God’s plan for saving man. Note that he had to obey God to be truly faithful in carrying out God’s will ( Php 2:8 ; Joh 4:24 ; Joh 6:38 ; Mat 26:39 ). Our righteousness comes by Christ’s faith in that we are cleansed by his blood ( Php 3:9 ; Eph 1:7 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Php 3:7. But what things Of this nature; were once reputed gain to me Which I valued myself upon, and confided in for acceptance with God, supposing them to constitute a righteousness sufficient to justify me in his sight; those, ever since I was made acquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus, and embraced the gospel, I have accounted loss Things of no value; things which ought to be readily foregone for Christ, in order that, placing all my dependance on him for justification, I might through him be accepted of God, and be saved. The word , here used by the apostle, and rendered loss, properly signifies loss incurred in trade: and especially that kind of loss which is sustained at sea in a storm, when goods are thrown overboard for the sake of saving the ship and the people on board: in which sense the word is used Act 27:10; Act 27:21. To understand the term thus, gives great force and beauty to the passage. It is as if the apostle said, In making the voyage of life, for the purpose of gaining salvation, I proposed to purchase it with my circumcision, and my care in observing the ritual and moral precepts of the law; and I put a great value on these things, on account of the gain or advantage I was to make by them. But when I became a Christian, I willingly threw them all overboard, as of no value in purchasing salvation. And this I did for the sake of gaining salvation through faith in Christ as my only Saviour.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 7
Were gain to me; were prized and valued.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
3:7 But what things were {d} gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
(d) Which I considered as gain.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul’s self-humbling 3:7
Paul formerly regarded all these things that he possessed and others as contributing to God’s acceptance of him. Yet he had come to learn on the Damascus road and since then that such fleshly "advantages" did not improve his position with God. Rather they constituted hindrances because the more of them that Paul had the more convinced he was that God would accept him for his works’ sake. Each of his fleshly advantages strengthened his false hope of salvation.
"While Christ did not consider God-likeness to accrue to his own advantage, but ’made himself nothing,’ so Paul now considers his former ’gain’ as ’loss’ for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. As Christ was ’found’ in ’human likeness,’ Paul is now ’found in Christ,’ knowing whom means to be ’conformed’ (echoing the morphe of a slave, Php 2:7) to his death (Php 2:8). Finally, as Christ’s humiliation was followed by God’s ’glorious’ vindication of him, so present ’suffering’ for Christ’s sake will be followed by ’glory’ in the form of resurrection. As he has appealed to the Philippians to do, Paul thus exemplifies Christ’s ’mindset,’ embracing suffering and death. This is what it means ’to know Christ,’ to be ’found in him’ by means of his gift of righteousness; and as he was raised and exalted to the highest place, so Paul and the Philippian believers, because they are now ’conformed to Christ’ in his death, will also be ’conformed’ to his glory." [Note: Fee, Paul’s Letter . . ., p. 315.]