Philippians 3:4b-14
4bIf anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
___________________________________
This passage invites us to reflect on what we value most. For Paul, it was Christ and Christ alone.
Paul was “head of his class” as a Pharisee. He was a Jew’s Jew until that fateful ride to Damascus. He had all the credentials and followed the “law of Moses” like no other. He was proud of that, and never felt guilty for being one. But, in meeting Jesus, he found something far greater. All that he achieved before then he now considered “rubbish,” in the Greek, “Dung.”
Paul loved his church in Philippi and wanted them to see what he saw in Christ, and value that above all other.
As I sat with friend Milt in his dying days, we talked of his 100+ years on this earth and how grateful he was for his life. He was most grateful for Vi and the church she invited him to….our church! He loved our church and the people in it. “If I had a million dollars I would give it to the church” he once told me. He was generous and always, always grateful. He lived a life of gratitude. He “valued” the faith he had in Christ and eagerly looked for his great reunion in Heaven. He faced death with incredible confidence and grace. I pray that I can face death as he did when my time comes.
Prayer: Lord help us to be more like Milt and walk with Jesus as he did, and value that above all else. In Jesus name, Amen.
–Dave Dynneson