Philippians 3: 4 - 7 NKJV
What have we lost in our quest to know Jesus? Let me put it another way, what things have we counted as lost in our desire to know Him? I look at the man Saul and I can see just what he left behind that he might come to know Jesus all the more. Power, influence among his peers, recognition and honor. It seems that Saul had it all. In the world that Saul knew, he was in the upper tier of Jewish society. He had the greetings in the marketplace and the best seats at banquets. Yet, he considered all these things as loss for the privelidge of knowing Jesus. Well, the man Saul didn't consider these all loss, but the apostle Paul certainly did. For anyone who knows the story we find in the new testament, we know that Saul was one of the main persecutors of the early church. Chief among sinners (by his own admission) and breathing threats against the followers of Jesus, Saul seemed to be on a one way ride to damnation. But that wouldn't fit into our Lords plan of love and redemption all too well. So it is that all the luxuries which Saul had achieved in his life, all these he indeed counted as loss when he met the man Jesus on that road to Damascus. You could say that Jesus took out that trash of Sauls lifetime of Jewish legalism and comforts. As Paul tells us in Philippians 3, he counts these things as rubbish that he might gain Christ. He didn't miss them at all, for knowing Jesus was more important than what he had achieved in his life.
1Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’seat. 3“Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4“For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5“But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6“They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7“greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’8“But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9“Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10“And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11“But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12“And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Matthew 23: 1 -12 NKJV
I made the mistake not too long ago of placing far too much emphasis on those things which I felt that I had given up that I would come to know Jesus. Predictably, this argument didn't go too far. For those things which I had seen as giving up, these I could count as loss for the joy of knowing Jesus. Rubbish, man, rubbish. How could I count as loss those things which were of no benefit to me? Ultimately, I gave up nothing, it was all garbage from the start. All for the joy of knowing Him. I find it interesting that as Jesus gave His rebuke of the Jewish Pharisees we find in Matthew 23 that perhaps Saul was among those who were in that crowd listening. We may never know this for certain, but those woes of the Pharisees which Jesus proclaimed were all things which the apostle Paul would later claim as garbage for the joy of knowing this man who that very day raked the Jewish Pharisees over the coals. Oh how those Pharisees disliked Jesus! We have to assume that Saul himself seethed with dislike for Him as well. Until his Damascus road moment. After this all else became like garbage to him, not worthy of hanging on to. To Paul, to gain Christ Jesus was enough. Jesus had taken out the trash.
~Scott~
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