We all have to pay the price in this matter. Many things can creep in, even good things other than Christ, to take the place of Christ in the life of Christians. It is not only the world and sin that can hinder us from seeking Christ, that can keep us away from Christ. Even good things, religious things, and even things concerning Christ can hinder us from seeking and being occupied with Christ Himself Therefore, we have to learn the lesson always to count everything as a loss on account of Christ. The things the Apostle Paul counted as loss were not bad things. All the things he counted as loss were good things, but those things were not Christ Himself Even many Christians are seeking spiritual gifts, but the gifts can be substitutions of Christ. If we focus ourselves on Christ Himself to have the genuine experience of Christ, then any gift that we have will also be Christ Himself

We must remember that God's plan is to work Christ into us, and we have to pay attention to Christ Himself, nothing else. We do not agree that anything would come into our life to take the place of Christ. We like to count everything as a loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul's desire was "to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Phil. 3:10). Paul wanted to be mingled with Christ, to be transformed into Christ in order to become a real member of Christ. If you would seek and experience Christ in this way, you will have the power, the fruit, the spirituality, and everything which is good in the eyes of God. The reason for this is that everything which is good in the eyes of God must be something of Christ Himself. If you have Christ, you will have everything. As the chorus of Hymns, 513 says, "Everything is in Christ, and Christ is everything."

Paul's life was to live Christ (Phil. 1:21a). To him to live was Christ, not the law nor circumcision. He would not live the law but Christ, not be found in the law but in Christ (3:9). Christ was not only his life within but also his living without. He lived Christ because Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). He was one with Christ both in life and in living. He and Christ, they two, had one life and one living. They lived together as one person. Christ lived within him as his life, and he lived Christ without as his living. The normal experience of Christ is to live Him, and to live Him is to magnify Him always, regardless of the circumstances.

God's plan is to work Christ into us, so throughout our life we need many conversions. Whenever there is something in your life substituting Christ, you need a conversion from that very thing to Christ Himself. We should always keep ourselves in direct contact with Christ. Then we will be one with Christ in reality.