4. Paul’s Present Values—Phil.
3:7-11
Now Paul draws a basic
conclusion, what were seemingly advantages are in reality liabilities. He
declares in Romans 8:3-4: “For what the
Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned
sin in the flesh, so that, the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us,
who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Because of what the Law could not do, God did in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Therefore, Paul concludes: “But
whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted loss for the sake
of Christ” (Phil. 3:7). Again we find the conjunction of contrast (but; alla).
Paul now contrasts his past values with his present one. Those things refer to the seven points of Paul’s past that he took
pride in (Phil. 3:5-6). They produced legalistic pride but little else. He
realized it was what God did; not what he [Paul] did that truly counted. Thus,
Paul expresses his total reorientation of his life two ways:
- His new evaluation of his life. He does so “employing accounting terminology and antithetic parallelism.”[1] He accentuates the reevaluation by the parallel phrases:
“But whatever things were gain to me”
“those things I have counted for loss”
The parallelism
is obvious: “whatever things” is
matched by “those things” both of
which refers back to the things listed by Paul. Of which, he contrasts by three
accounting terms: gain, accounted and
loss. What he thought was gain, is
now loss. There is a significant change of outlook and value. In this light, it
should be pointed out a tendency in modern scholarship to downplay the element
of conversion by Paul at the Damascus
road and instead emphasize it as a new calling. On this Silva correctly notes:
“It is true of course that Paul understood
his experience as a divine calling; and it is also true that he did not view
his new commitment as an abandonment of the God of Israel. But Phil. 3:7-8
leaves no doubt that Paul’s submission to Christ constituted a conversion in
its deepest sense.”[2]
Paul makes clear
that the things of the past brought spiritual bankruptcy. They were worth
nothing.
- The reason for the new evaluation is “for the sake of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:7). It has been pointed out that the three uses of for (dia) in verses 7-8 indicate “the reason for which he has counted his former benefits as nothing.”[3]
Paul goes on to expand these
thoughts to reinforce what he just wrote: “More
than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 4:8). The
following should be observed about this verse:
- The word loss in these verses is the Greek word zemian. It is the same word used of the shipwreck in Acts 27:10, 21, 28, 41. The ship and cargo were lost. The cargo was thrown overboard, and the ship broke up. There is an element of damage inherent in the word. Nothing survived of the cargo and the ship. This is the idea of the term loss here. Gromacki observes: “At his conversion, Paul not only counted his religious gains to be loss, but he also ‘suffered the loss of all things.’ The verb tense (ezemiothen) looks back to a definite time in his past.”[4] It enhances the idea of damage.
- Notice the progressiveness of the loss. It goes from loss (zemia), to suffer the loss, or damage (zemioo), to rubbish, or dung (skybala). What Paul had regarded as “assets” were in reality “liabilities.”[5]
- The reason (dia) it was loss is “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8). The gain outweighed the loss. Notice also the positive progress in relation to Christ. He moves from the “sake of Christ Jesus” (v7) to the “surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” The word translated surpassing value is the Greek word huperecho, a compound word, huper, over, echo to have; thus to have over.[6] It has the meaning of to hold above, to stand out above, to be over top, to surpass, excel or superior.[7] It is used three times in Philippians (2:3, 3:8, 4:7), but interestingly translated somewhat differently each time (KJV—better; excellence; passeth: NASV—more important; surpassing value; surpasses: NKJV—better; excellence; surpasses). I point this out to show the range of the meaning of this word. However, its main idea is that of superiority. What is of greater value? “Knowing Christ.” Homer Kent reminds us that, “the knowledge of Christ Jesus as his Lord meant the intimate communion with Christ that began at his conversion and had been his experience all the years since then.”[8] This knowledge comes from personal knowledge and relationship with Christ. Jesus prayed that his disciples “might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Knowing Christ is superior and surpasses all other gains. It shows those other things as loss. There is a “radical antithesis between his former way of life and the new hope offered to him.”[9]
…to be continued
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