Counting his past achievements as dung
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
Phil 3:7-9
I am still working my way through my Splitter Approach that I gave you in Bible Gem 1961:-
A warning against false teachers (3:1-3)
Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith. Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,
Phil 3:1-3
Saul putting his confidence in his own righteousness
though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
Phil 3:4-6
Counting his past achievements as dung
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I count them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
Phil 3:7-9
You can see clearly how these segments are joined together under Paul’s larger division – Philippians 3:2-26 – which I titled because Paul didn’t give his segments titles. We also had to look hard for his segments because the whole passage was inseparably joined together in the original. But we noted Paul’s use of distinctive conjunctions connected together with “dear friends”. Notice too many of the segments don’t finish with a full stop but with some other form of punctuation which begs us to read on to the next segment. It all flows together. I could turn it into a Propositional Analysis Passage, but I won’t do that because it will unnecessarily complicate it.
Don’t Trust the Righteousness that Comes From the Law; Trust The Kind Christ Gives
Back when Paul was still Saul, he saw things very differently. Now as Paul, he looks back on his past actions stemming from his theology. He opened this section by warning the Philippians to watch out for false teachers and picked as his example the Judaisers – the Jews who were trying to force the new followers of Christ to be circumcised and follow the Jewish Laws and customs. That is fascinating because that is what Paul himself did, even to the extent of ruthlessly pursuing the believers to kill or jail them. Paul has told the Philippians and us not to put our trust in making ourselves right according to the Law. That way ends in death. He listed all his credentials under the Law and in being Jewish. Now in the segment we have before us for today, Paul gets out the ledger and examines how righteousness under the Law stacks up.
Paul starts this segment with the statement “I once thought these things were valuable. . .” My questions to us all, including the Philippians, but they can no longer hear, is what things? Paul’s thought process and argument is always very logical. What things is he referring to? To all of the above. He is talking about his list which under the Law would make him right with God.
- I was circumcised when I was eight days old.
- I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel
- a member of the tribe of Benjamin
- a real Hebrew if there ever was one!
- I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.
- I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church.
- And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
Note the number of times Paul uses the word ‘count‘. The word in Greek is the word [ἡγÎομαι] (hÄ“geomai) which means “to account”, “to consider”, “to deem”, “to reckon as” “to think”. Paul is using an accounting term and drawing up a balance sheet. He was looking to weigh up the ledger and see how his balance was in the end. Was the whole exercise profit to him or loss? He was determining the end result in terms of heaven. I have written Gems before on the financial situation of giving to God, paying your tithe. There are those who claim paying tithe is no longer required, it’s part of the old Jewish Law.
“Look at my bank account. I am disadvantaged because I paid tithe. I gave ten percent of my income to God and now it is gone. Look at the final reckoning. I have lost that money.”
No you haven’t. You are looking at the wrong bank account. You ought to be looking at your heavenly bank account but you don’t have any statements for that account. You have to trust (have faith) that the money you gave has gone into your heavenly bank account. In a sense that is what Paul is doing here. He has got out the ledger and is weighing up all of his actions under the Law. Does it stack up? Was it worthwhile? Let’s examine the accounts.
I am sure the astute ones among my Gem readers will notice what I have done above. You will see that I coloured some words red. Yes I am aware I am talking in financial terms, but I am not meaning to suggest “we are in the red“, i.e. that our account is overdrawn. But it could be because that is the way Paul is talking. Perhaps some of you (the older ones) are recalling the words of the King James version for this passage.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 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, 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:
Phil 3:7-9
It a little difficult to put it all together because Paul was mixing his metaphors so to speak. But I will pull it all together in the next Gem. Why is this Gem so short? It is short for two reasons. One because Paul has mixed his metaphors and I will move on to the second analogy in the next Gem. But it is also short because in the last few days I have had three people make comment about the downside of the Gems – that they are generally longer than byte sized and that they arrive too frequently. So I have decided, reckoned, count the cost and figured that I will change tack. Oh, now I have mixed my metaphors and gone from the world of banking straight to the world of yachting. I plan now to only write two Gems a week on Mondays and Wednesdays and not write a Gem on Friday followed by a Nugget on Saturday. One reader told me it is hard getting a long Gem on Friday and then a long Nugget on Saturday. Ok, you have spoken and it will be granted to you; ask and you shall receive (or not as the case may be).
My suggestion to you now is to read back over this portion again and consider it in financial terms as indicated above. Profit and loss if you will. Then consider the implications of what Paul has to say at the end of this segment. Suffice to say, it is very important!
Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like.
Will Rogers
Wealth consists not in having great (an abundance of) possessions, but in having few wants.
Epictetus
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin
The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money, because one day you will; you can’t take it with you.
Ian Vail