Philippians 3:1-14

Philippians 3:1-14 NIV
 ¹ Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord!

I woke this morning and I was not rejoicing.  My unemployment and the reality that my divorce has dragged on for a year now caused anxiety and robbed me of rest.  Reading this passage and getting my heart off my troubles and focused on God has helped me relax.

It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. ² Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. ³ For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— ⁴ though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

There were those teaching that the Gentiles had to follow the Jewish tradition of circumcision in order to be saved.  Paul was reminding them that salvation is not what we do in the flesh, but what God does in us through the spirit. 

   If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

Here is Paul pedigree.  If anyone had the "right" to say "Look at me.", it was Paul.  His family followed the law in his circumcision, he was educated in the law and defended the law by persecuting the church.  As far as the law was concerned Paul was perfect.

 ⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

Paul met Jesus on the way to Damascus. Right then his life changed forever.

 ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul considered his old values a loss and garbage when compared to his desire for Christ.  This was not just part of his life but it was life itself.  I think of the days that I struggle to find time for study or for blogging or prayer.  I'm convicted that God is still just part of life for me and not my life.


 ¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

And here I find the encouragement needed.  Yes, I am not as far along in my walk as Paul was when he wrote this, but even he said he'd not "arrived".  He uses words like pressing on and taking hold.  He does not quit.  Again this in not earning salvation, this is walking victoriously with Christ.

The best example come in the middle of vs 13.  "Forgetting what is behind..."  So many live in the past.  I know still struggle with that. When we make a mistake, confess it (1 John 1:9) and move on.  It's arrogant to not forgive yourself for something that God has already forgiven.  That is only going to hold you back.

God Bless.