Christ lives in us for us to gain Him by counting all things loss and refuse. In Philippians 3:7 and 8 Paul says, “What things were gains to me, these I have counted loss on account of Christ. But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them refuse that I may gain Christ.” The Greek word for “gain” in verse 8 means to secure, to obtain, to lay hold of. According to the Greek, the noun form of the word gain is in verse 7 and the verbal form is in verse 8. Therefore, Darby translates verse 8 this way: “That I may have Christ for my gain.” To gain Christ is to gain His very person. Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9) and the reality of the shadows of all positive things (Col. 2:16-17). To gain Him is to experience, enjoy, and take possession of His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8).
In order to gain Christ, we need to count as loss the things that were once a gain to us. We need to count every gain as loss for Christ. There is no comparison between any gain and Christ. If we make such a comparison, we shall count everything loss. The reason we regarded certain things as gain in the past was that we did not know Christ. But once our eyes were opened to see Christ, we began to realize how foolish it was to keep those other things.
Because Paul had this vision, he could say, “What things were gains to me, these I have counted loss on account of Christ.” These are the things mentioned in verses 5 and 6. The things that were gains to him Paul counted loss on account of Christ. All the different gains were counted as one loss by Paul because they all issued in one thing, that is, in the loss of Christ. All the things which were once gains to Paul hindered him and held him back from participating in Christ and enjoying Him. Hence, on account of Christ, all the gains were a loss to him. Paul counted as loss on account of Christ not only the things of his former religion but all other things as well.
We may think that the things in 3:8 refer to worldly, material things. In a sense, this understanding is partly right. However, to interpret Paul’s word in this way is not very practical. According to verses 5 and 6, Paul’s concept is not mainly related to material things. It is true, of course, that worldly, material things occupy people and keep them from experiencing Christ. However, Paul realized that the things which really frustrate people from experiencing Christ are mainly the things of religion, philosophy, and culture. If we get into Paul’s spirit and thought in Philippians 3, we shall realize that as he was writing he was thinking of religion, philosophy, and culture when he spoke of “all things.” The “all things” in verse 8 must certainly include the three categories of religious, philosophical, and cultural things. If we would drop our religion, philosophy, and culture, we would truly abandon everything. By dropping these three categories of things, we would automatically drop the worldly, material things, which are actually dominated by religion, philosophy, and culture. Although it is easy to overcome the influence of material things, it is very difficult to overcome religion, philosophy, and culture. We cannot experience Christ if we count as loss only the worldly, material things. In order to gain Christ, we need to count all things as loss, including the things of religion, philosophy, and culture.
Like Paul, we should not only count all things loss on account of Christ but also count all things refuse. The Greek word for “refuse” in 3:8 refers to dregs, rubbish, filth, what is thrown to the dogs; hence, dog food, dung. There is no comparison between such things and Christ. The more we count all things loss and refuse on account of Christ, the more we shall gain Christ for our experience and enjoyment.
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