Philippians: Trash Day

Today is trash day. I go around the house consolidating the various trash bins into a single trash bag. I take the bag out to the street and leave it for the workers who I pay to pick it up every week. Everything in the trash bag is completely meaningless to me. I can't even tell you what's in it, really. It's rubbish, and it's disgusting. I want it out of my house and out of my life.

"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..." (Philippians 3:8).

Paul compared "all things" in his life against the "value of knowing Christ." As he weighed these two things, he realized that EVERYTHING in his life was expendable next to his relationship to the Lord. If he put "all things" in his life (his earthly relationships, his money, his knowledge, his experiences) on side 1 of a scale and his relationship with Christ on side 2, side 2 would drop like a rock flinging all the contents of side 1 off the scale! There's no comparison.

What kinds of things should we count as rubbish? Certainly past sinful activities. We obviously need to trash the old man of sin. But what about past achievements? What about the "good" things we've done? I have worked hard for the Lord. I have studied hard at school. I have earned awards at work. I have become a deacon or an elder or a teacher. I am recognized in the world and in the church as a person of integrity. Aren't these wonderful things? Shouldn't I hold on to these things? Paul would say "no." Paul said, "I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching froward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). Paul had done much good and evil in his past. He's content to forget the past in the sense that he doesn't hold on to those things. He constantly looks to the future. Every day was trash day for Paul. He continually unloaded the baggage of his life. He could run faster and farther without all that rubbish, and when he reached his goal I'm convinced he never thought again about all the rubbish he left behind on earth!

God bless,
Nathan

Tomorrow's Reading: Hebrews 1-6