BUT WHATEVER THINGS WERE GAIN: alla atina en (3SIAI) moi kerde: (Ge 19:17
Ge 19:26;
Job 2:4;
Pr 13:8;
23:23;
Mt 13:44-46
16:26;
Lu 14:26
,33;
16:8;
17:31
17:32
17:33;
Acts 27:18;
27:19
27:38
Gal 2:15
2:16;
5:2-5)
those
things which were profit to me (BBE)
But
Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless
(CEV)
These things that
I once considered valuable (GWT)
whatever
things were assets to me (ISV)
All such things which I
used to count up as distinct items with a miserly greed and reckon to
my credit—these I have massed together under one general head as
loss. (Lightfoot)
But (alla) marks a definite
and striking contrast between the before/after picture of who Paul was in the flesh
versus who
(and whose) he was now is in Christ.
Paul is saying
I
saw that all my acts of (self) righteousness were nothing on which I
could depend for salvation; and that Christ crucified could alone
profit me; for I have come to understand that it is impossible for the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
Whatever things were gain -
The apostle still speaks from his old standpoint —they were objects of
gain, inasmuch as and so long as they were believed to secure
acceptance with God. The zemia is opposed
Whatever
things are similar
to the "things" Paul warned the Colossians about
(keeping certain days, abstaining from certain foods, performing
certain ascetic practices, etc) declaring that "these are matters
which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion
and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no
value against fleshly indulgence" (see note
Colossians 2:23)
because they were external works that produced no internal heart
change.
Gain (2771) (kerdos)
is an accounting term that means profit
(excess of returns over expenditure in a transaction). The meaning is
that which is gained or earned.
Kerdos also refers to an advantage or any kind
of benefit. In the plural (as in this verse = literally "gains")
kerdos usually referred to money in secular Greek uses.
TDNT writes that...
kerdos means “gain,”
“advantage,” “profit,” with the desire for it as a derived sense, also
crafty counsels in the plural. (Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the
New Testament. Eerdmans)
NIDNTT adds that kerdos...
more rarely (was) used in Gk. for
clever advice, cunning attacks; and in the plural (meaning) deceit, a
frequent meaning from Homer onwards.
The opposite of
kerdos
is zemia, disadvantage,
loss, and (occasionally) punishment. The opposite of kerdaino
is accordingly zemioomai, suffer loss, attested only after Homer.
These contrasting pairs are brought together in Matt. 16:26 and Phil.
3:7. (Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan)
Paul used kerdos in the preceding section to
emphasis that
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is
gain (
kerdos) (see
note
Philippians 1:21)
The only other NT use of kerdos
is in Titus...
Titus 1:11 (note)
who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families,
teaching things they should not teach, for the sake of sordid gain
(kerdos).
Paul now repeats this bookkeeping metaphor using the noun form, gain
(kerdos), in this verse and then the verb form, gain
(kerdaino) to describe one side of the ledger. He uses loss
here and twice in 3:8 for the other side of the ledger. When Paul met Christ
a wonderful "business transaction" took place and he came to realize how futile
and worthless were his "good"
works to achieve God's standard of righteousness (filthy rags
of
Isa 64:6).
Paul lost some things, but he
gained much more than he lost, for in Christ
are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge" (see note
Colossians 2:3)!
Remember Lot's wife? She was unwilling to count her gain as
loss and
so she lost everything. She ignored the angelic warning
Escape
for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the
valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away." (Ge 19:17)
Instead of obeying this clear warning she
looked back, and she
became a pillar of salt (Ge 19:26)
Jesus Himself called on all
who have ears to hear to
Remember
(present
imperative =
command to keep remembering her "lot")
Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever
loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 17:32,
33)
Jesus gave similar warnings
to His disciples declaring that
If
anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother
and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his
own life, he cannot be My disciple."
(Lu 14:26)
"So then, none of you can be
My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions." (Lu 14:33)
(bolding added for emphasis)
Jim Elliott missionary
martyr had the same attitude as Paul writing that
He is no fool to give what he
cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
THOSE THINGS I HAVE
COUNTED AS LOSS FOR THE SAKE OF CHRIST: tauta hegemai (1SRMI) dia ton Christon zemian:
I now consider worthless for Christ (GWT)
Spurgeon comments that...
when we come to Christ, whatever we
have to trust to, we must put away. We must write it on the other side
of the ledger. We had entered it as a gain; now we must set it down as
a loss; it is of no value whatsoever, it is a loss if it shall tempt
us to trust any less in Christ.
Paul's faith in Jesus reversed all
his former estimates, ’so that his gains he counted to be losses. He
thought it so much the worse, concerning zeal, to have persecuted the
church, and so much to his injury to have imagined that he was
blameless in the presence of God.
Those things (5023)
(tauta) is emphatic. Paul is saying in essence "these, yes
these things". What things? Those things just mentioned
such as physical circumcision. In a similar reminder Paul wrote to the
Galatians who were being tempted to add law and works to justification
by faith --
Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive
circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you (if you are
placing your "faith" in your "work" of circumcision). And I testify
again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under
obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ,
you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen
from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting
for the hope of righteousness." (Gal 5:2-5)
I have counted
(2233)(hegeomai) is a mathematical term which
says "Think about it and come to a conclusion." In the account book of
Paul's life (so to speak) his entries on the gain side were transferred to the
loss side. They were not merely useless, they were detrimental.
After reflection (now with the mind of Christ) he considered them
worthless.
Counted is in the
perfect tense which means that Paul made this accounting at a point in time in the past and that
he still considered them as a loss. One could paraphrase it as
follows...
These things I have set down as
loss, and do so still.
The
perfect tense
here contrasts with his use of the
present tense for the
same verb ("count")
in the next verse.
Jesus alluded to this same thought
when He declared
what will it profit a man if he
gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give
in exchange for his soul? " (Mt 16:26)
Loss
(2209)(zemia)
describes the state of coming into a worsened situation from previous
advantage. Thus zemia is translated as damage, disadvantage,
loss, forfeit. In Herodotus zemia usually meant ‘punishment’
but in the NT it is only used of in reference to suffering the loss of
something, with the implication of sustaining hardship or suffering.
In ancient Greek manuscripts
zemia referred to commercial or business losses.
TDNT writes that zemia
meant...
Disadvantage (which) may take the
form of monetary or material “loss” or “damage.” It may also be
moral or spiritual in the sense of “hurt” or “ruin,” with a subjective
nuance of “unpleasantness.” Legally zemia early takes on the
sense of “penalty” and zemioo “to punish.” (Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the
New Testament. Eerdmans)
NIDNTT adds that...
The opposite of
kerdos
is zemia, disadvantage,
loss, and (occasionally) punishment. (Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan)
Other than Phil 3:7,8, there
are only 2 other Scriptural uses of zemia...
(The ship carrying Paul to Rome to
stand trial, encountered a deadly storm, prompting Paul to declare),
"Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be attended with
damage (hubris) and great loss (zemia), not only of the
cargo and the ship, but also of our lives." (Acts 27:18)
Paul stood up in their midst and
said, "Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set
sail from Crete, and incurred this damage and
loss (zemia) (Acts 27:21)
A similar historical illustration of "counting it all loss"
is told of the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez. After landing at Vera
Cruz, Mexico in 1519 he was so intent on conquest that to assure the
devotion of his men, Cortez set fire to his fleet of eleven ships!
With no means of retreat Cortez’s army had only one direction to move,
into the Mexican interior. Cortez understood the price of
commitment—and he was willing to pay it for a temporal, earthly
treasure. Paul in contrast was willing to give up the earthly for the
heavenly. Am I? Are you?
For
the sake of Christ - This
means "on account of Christ" or "because of the fact of Christ"
(Vine)
Eadie explains for the
sake of Christ as signifying...
what was once gain was now reckoned
loss, either because it did not commend him to Christ, or what was
held as something won was regarded now as loss, for it did not enable
to win Christ, nay, kept him from winning Christ. When he won, he was
losing; nay, the more he won, the more he must lose. All his
advantages in birth, privilege, sect, earnestness, and obedience, were
not only profitless, but productive of positive loss, as they
prevented the gaining of Christ, and of justification through the
faith of Christ.
In Paul's great renunciation, he gives us his own “Profit and Loss
Statement” with "those
things" in the
preceding verses that had been gain to him, "writing" on one side of
the ledger and "writing" on the other side the single word
Christ.
Paul's point is that all of man's glory amounts to nothing when
compared with the glorious treasure which is found in Christ Alone.
Where is your treasure...for
where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also. (see notes
Matthew 6:19;
20;
21)
On the Damascus Road Paul had the
unspeakable privilege of
seeing the glory of the Risen Lord (Acts 9:3),
and from that moment on all other glories seemed like
nothing in comparison.
McGee adds that
On the credit side of the ledger Paul had been adding up his
background and his character and his religion. It seemed like an
impressive list—and it was , on the human plane. Suddenly it all
became a debit—he no longer trusted in those things because he met
Jesus Christ. He had hated Him before and was on the way to Damascus
to persecute His followers, but now the One on the debit side was
moved to the credit side. He put his entire trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, my friend, if the bookkeeping system of this country were
transformed like that, it would upset the economy of the world. It
would be a revolution. Actually, any conversion is a revolution
because what things are gain become a loss, and loss becomes gain. It
turns you upside down and right side up. It gets you in an altogether
different position. That is what conversion is. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
><> ><> ><>
June 1, 2000
I Have Everything
READ: Philippians 3:1-12
I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord. --Philippians 3:8
The airline had mangled Debbie's luggage. Then her purse disappeared.
Instead of entering the airport through an enclosed corridor, she
stumbled off the plane in the pouring rain. She was drenched, far from
home with no money, no identification, and no dry clothes.
Under normal conditions Debbie would have been furious, but that night
it didn't matter. She had just survived the crash of Flight 1420 in
Little Rock, Arkansas. "When I walked off that plane," Debbie said, "I
walked off with nothing, then I stopped and thought, I have
everything." She had suddenly realized that her life was more
important than all she had lost.
It sometimes takes a dramatic turn of events to alter our perspective.
That was true for Saul of Tarsus. He had treasured his hard-earned
reputation for "righteousness" more than anything in the world (Phil.
3:4-6). But when he met Christ on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-6), his
whole outlook changed. Later he wrote, "What things were gain to me,
these I have counted loss for Christ" (Phil. 3:7).
Yielding our sinful pride and self-sufficiency to the Lord may seem as
if we are losing everything. But only then will we discover that to
have life in Christ is to have everything. —David C. McCasland (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
We think we have what matters most
Of what this life can give;
But when we yield it all to Christ,
We've just begun to live. —DJD
When we have nothing left but
Christ
We find that Christ is enough.
><> ><> ><>
WHEN ALL IS LOST
READ: Philippians 3:7-14
What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
—Philippians 3:7
I was rummaging around my son's garage and found all the trophies he
had won in his years of athletic competition. There they were in a
box—about to be thrown out.
I thought of the blood, sweat, and tears that had gone into gaining
those awards, yet now he was putting them in the trash. They no longer
had any value to him.
It reminded me of a whimsical children's poem by Shel Silverstein
called "Hector the Collector." It describes all the things that Hector
collected over the years. He "loved them more than shining diamonds,
loved them more than glistenin' gold." Then Hector called to all his
friends, "Come and share my treasure trunk!" And all the people "came
and looked and called it junk."
So it will be at the end of our lives. All our possessions—the things
we've spent a lifetime working for—will be nothing but junk. That's
when we'll surely know that the best things in life are not things.
But we can have the right perspective now, as Paul did. "What things
were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ" (Philippians
3:7). We can keep a proper attitude about our possessions, because we
possess the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus our
Lord.—David H. Roper (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
I'd rather have Jesus than silver
or gold,
I'd rather be His than have riches untold;
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today. —Miller
© Renewal 1950 Chancel Music, Inc
Our greatest riches are the riches we have in Christ.