Note: the following is the manuscript for my portion of the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.
Introduction
Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
It is with this parable in mind that Paul may have written, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
For those who first received Paul’s letter, the image that might have come to mind here could have been that of a scale for weighing goods.
If you went to the market to sell 5kg of grain, you would bring it to a scale to prove its worth.
On the one end of the scale is the standard of weight, an object that has been proven to weight 5kg. Then, you add your grain to the other side to see if it measures up to the standard.
All throughout the New Testament there are many references to this concept of worthiness. It’s helpful to have a good understanding of what is meant by this concept in order to have a clarity about what you’re getting into when you decide to trade the promises of this world for the promises of God.
Paul uses strong language to express the incomparable value of knowing Christ. I’ll read the passage and then we will look briefly at what Paul is saying not to value and then what to value and why.
Look for the connection to worthiness in Philippians 3:1–14
Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 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—though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 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; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 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 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. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 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. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Paul understood well that God calls us to the once-in-a-lifetime treasure hidden in what is sometimes layers of religious dust or cultural clutter.
When he was interrupted by Jesus on the Damascus Road, it was an invitation to sell everything and buy the field with an infinitely valuable treasure.
In this section of the letter, Paul is telling the Philippians not to value the flesh but to instead value knowing Christ and what is to be gained in Christ.
Value Not the Flesh (1-6)
It is helpful to keep in mind when reading verses 1-6 that Paul is writing to a non-Jewish audience. Philippi was made up of people loyal to the Roman Empire.
Perhaps there were some Jewish people who lived there and they heard about Paul’s message and the church that was being established.
In the beginning, Christians were understood to be a small movement within Judaism. The Jews didn’t like this because the message being preached was that salvation through Jesus, who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, did not require adherence to Jewish practices such as circumcision.
It is likely that some Jewish people came to the Christians in Philippi and told them that if they want to be accepted by the Jewish God, they had to be circumcized.
One commentator says that Paul calls his opponents “dogs” because, like dogs who intrude where they are not wanted, his opponents have invited themselves into Paul’s churches (v. 2a).
They are “mutilators of the flesh” because their confidence lies in circumcision (v. 2b). Paul says believers are the true “circumcision” (v. 3a).1
Beneath this obscure passage is a fundamental truth about the kingdom of God that Jesus taught about often. It is the nature of repentance and is one of the most relevant messages for our world today.
Matthew 4 contains a record of when Jesus first started to preach. It says that the essence of his message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
These are the same words said by John the Baptist, who was the one preparing people to receive the Messiah. And, it is the same message that Jesus told his disciples to preach.
Matthew 10:5–8 “These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”
Many messages could be preached on this statement. I’ll only say this: repentance means turning from the self and toward Christ.
Our society is obsessed with satisfying ourselves, justifying our existence, making a name for ourselves, self-indulgence, self-promotion, and self-actualization.
The message of Jesus is that what he has to offer is far valuable than any attempt at satisfying the flesh. And this is what Paul is getting at.
Circumcision was about getting access to God because that was valuable to them. These days, access to God is not seen as valuable. But, our true desire remains the same. We have only exchanged the object of our desire.
The desire has always been about becoming like God, having divine power so that we do not need to depend on others including God himself.
Circumcision was not what saved the Israelites. It was symbolic of their adoption as God’s children. This symbol has now been replaced by the Spirit of God in us.
Paul says in Philippians 3:3 “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—”
And Paul had more reason than most to boast in the flesh. He was a highly accomplished man and would have been seen by the Jewish people as righteous because of his pedigree, his training, and his observance of the law.
But, he said he is trading all that in exchange for something much more valuable: knowing Christ.
Value Knowing Christ Jesus (7-11)
What does Paul mean by the statement that he considers everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus?
One of my favourite things about preaching is being able to spend time studying things that have always intrigued me. This statement is one of those things.
It’s the word choice here that gets me. Paul contrasts his previous signs of success with the value of knowing Christ. What first comes to mind here is how we think about knowledge.
We tend to think about knowledge has something we acquire by hearing or reading. It is the input of information. But, for Paul and his listeners, knowledge was far more experiential.
In verse 10 and 11, we see that knowing Christ is a two-sided reality, including both suffering and resurrection.
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
The value of this experiential knowledge is that by identifying with Christ in his suffering, death, and resurrection, he is embodying the transformation, or the new birth, of humanity.
You see, we tend to think about the work of Jesus mainly in terms of penal substitution, meaning that Jesus died in our place, taking on the consequences of our sin.
And while this is a biblical concept, it’s not the full picture. A more complete picture is that of humanity renewed. Jesus came as a perfect human, how we are all meant to be, and made a way for us all to become perfect.
But this way is the way of suffering, death, and resurrection. So, the question is, what is to be gained in Christ Jesus?
Value What is Gained in Christ Jesus (12-14)
In verse 14, Paul says that he is pressing on toward the goal to win the prize. Anyone who has ever trained for an athletic competition knows that sacrifices have to be made if you want to do well.
And those sacrifices are hard to make unless you constantly remind yourself of the goal and prize associated with doing well.
So, for Paul, what is the goal and what is the prize of this giving up of his status and accomplishments?
In light of what has just been said, the goal is most definitely not perfection in this life, but rather the death of the imperfect body. He wants to fully identify with Christ, which requires physical death.
The prize could be understood as the fulfilment of his lifelong passion, which is the full and unhindered knowing of Christ, which will only happen upon his resurrection.
Once again, the meaning of knowing Christ here is experiential knowledge. It is knowledge associated with joining Christ in his death and resurrection.
He goes on to say later, in 20–21, “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
This is the prize that awaits us. It is a prize not earned by us but by Christ Jesus. But he shares this prize freely with all who want it. Conclusion
Consider Paul’s shift in value systems, from valuing status, power, and the things of the flesh to valuing a shared experience of suffering, death, and resurrection with Christ.
What sort of values do you need to exchange? The promise of God in Christ is not a more comfortable life but a life filled with hope in that which will completely and eternally transform you into who you were always meant to be.
- Christopher A. Beetham and Nancy L. Erickson, eds., The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible, One-Volume Edition, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2024), 1167. ↩︎