7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 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 and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 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.There’s a song that many of us have sung in church on a Sunday morning by Robin Marks.
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands.
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands.
For it's only in Your will that I am free,
For it's only in Your will that I am free,
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
I choke on the words almost every time I sing it. Not because I don’t like the song – because I do – it moves me, deeply and often to tears. It is because of the claims I’m (We’re) making when we sing it. I start this process of self talk – and it generally starts with “really, is that really what you want - All for Jesus? All I am, All I ever hope to be? All of my ambitions, plans? – All I surrender into your hands? – It’s only in Your will that I am free? How free am I – really?” By that time, we have finished the song and moved on, but I’m still standing there, staring into space whilst everyone else has sat down and moved on.
I know the right answers. I’ve been in church all my life – I’ve studied this stuff, wrote papers and exams in seminary– and got good marks – preach on it etc, etc. But space between knowing and doing is the problem. Maybe the idea of ‘being’ does ‘better than do’ does. – more on ‘do do’ in a moment.
These are high words Paul writes here – maybe we think ‘this kind of living is out of reach – or unrealistic’. “Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss the sake of Christ”. In fact, he calls whatever was profit rubbish. Now, rubbish, this is a very nice sanitize word. That’s a nice word my very lady proper English grandmother would say in her lilting accent “this is rubbish”. The word used here however in Greek is “skubala” – It is a low crass, dirty word that would have got your mouth washed out with soap as a kid for having a potty mouth.
It helps us if we think about the time Paul was writing in. This was a time before indoor plumbing with flushing toilets and sewers systems that rushes off underground what all of us do do and yet nobody talks about. Typically, through a populated area, a trench of some sort would be carved out. You had to be careful where you were walking in the old days because people would take their wooden buckets, or clay pots – or whatever they were using and fire the contents into the trench (well sort of – more in the general direction of the trench depending on wind and, well, mood of the day). You’d find yourself walking along, minding your own business and suddenly find yourself standing in…. you guessed it “knee deep” in a skubala trench – or walking through someone’s misfire. I’ve witness the wonders of this kind of plumbing strategy first hand on a number of occasions while traveling globally. Trust me when I say, it’s not the most pleasant of experiences. It kinda assaults the senses.
Paul is shockingly stating that anything we gain on the earth – its most wonderful pleasures, its wealth, position, privileges, and power – when compared to gaining Christ, all of those things must have the attraction power of --- well, here it goes --- poo. But, that is exactly the point, it is scandalous – it is gross, it is offensive. On one hand you can gain Christ -- on the other hand you can have, um, a pile of crap – literally. Let the feeling of repulsion – the disgust – the repugnance and the distaste settle in.
He’s saying that unless we understand that difference, unless we see the reality of the choices before us – we don’t understand the nature of His purity, His righteousness, the true nature of the power of His resurrection and what He offers to us. When the earthly is set along side the heavenly, the difference between them far greater than anything we can measure – it greater than the distance between the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. The distance between the earth and the Sun does not begin to account for the difference.
Every day, moment by moment we are confronted by choices – which do I chose? Christ or that other stuff? Will we choose His righteousness, His purity, His will over our own inclinations, our own desires, our own will? His grace? Or my attitude? His mercy? Or my judgmental thoughts? His Word? Or my words? His humility? Or my arrogance? That’s the power of His resurrection, the significance of ‘becoming like Him in His death’. He bridges that divide I cannot fathom. It’s daily putting to death those attitudes, judgments or my arrogance – because they so quickly rise up within me – in what I want, in what I think should be, in what and how I believe I have a right to behave – or to say – or to be – or to do do. But I’m constantly putting stuff between me and God, between me and my relationships with those about me. When I do that I declare to God, I declare to the other that “this, this thing, this piece of skubala has more value and importance to me than – You (or you). Now, that’s a great way to make other’s feel good about themselves.
Paul challenges us – are we willing, am I willing to see those things that I want or do for what they really are? This is rough – and fortunately Paul does not leave us in despair, he says:
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
We all struggle, we all fail, we all fall short—we all have so far to go. Paul says, even I, an apostle have not ‘already obtained all this or am perfect,’ but I clearly know (as he did) the difference. I know what the prize is. I know what and who I want to be like – Christ. I reach forward trying to hang on to what I know should be – but I do it in joy, I do it willingly because, this I know, --- Christ Jesus took hold of me – and “oh no, He’ll never let go of me” (another great song).
Again, I think the picture is very much in Paul’s mind – even though he’s covered in Skubala at time. Jesus grabs hold of him, pulls him up and cleanses Paul, purifies him, gives to him Christ’s righteousness.
My father was a blacksmith – a Ferrier (one who shoes horses) by trade. As kids on holidays and summers months we traveled (more bounced in the back of a pick up truck) with him from job to job – a lot of times at race tracks. One particular hot summer day, my sisters and I were playing. I was probably 10 or so, my one sister would have been 8 and my youngest sister would have been about 6. We were jumping off this cement barrier, both I and my 8 year old sister Jessie jumped and landed on the ground safely. I mean how hard it is to jump and land on the ground – well, more difficult than what might first appear. My youngest sister, Chris, jumped and, yup, she missed the ground – and landed instead in a run off pit. This was the race barn’s trench in which the liquefied part of the discarded materials (of do do) was collected into this tank, and it was full. My Dad fortunately was close by and immediately ran and grabbed her. She was fine – but did she stink to high heaven. The ride home was unbearable. We bounced in the back of pickup with a camper cover on it – a hot, hot summer afternoon, in the back of hot and very enclosed truck bed. We made her sit in the farthest corner of the truck away from us as we tried our best to suck air out of the little sliding windows. Kinda funny now, but brutal then, mostly for my little sister as she sat crying – rejected and alone – but in my Jessie’s and mine mind, certainly not alone enough. In a very real way, that’s us. Yet Jesus doesn’t leave us alone. He’s like my dad. When we reach our destination he reached in and took a hold of his little girl, pulled her to himself, comforting her – ignoring the smell and carried her inside to be made clean. Let me tell you though, it gave us a whole new meaning to “you’re a little stinker!”
17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 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.
Today, as with every day in our Christian life, we are confronted with choices – will we take hold of Christ and give him control over our will, our words and our ways – or we will jump headlong into that run off pit. What’s more, we impact those around us with our aroma – either with the wonderful fragrance of Christ – or – let’s just say, ode of skubala!
Anyway, I was just stinkin’ thinkin’.
Neil
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