Have You Counted All Things But Loss?

Doesn’t it feel good to achieve your goals? To be known as an accomplished person? Those of us who remember our high school and college years remember the daunting task of creating a resume and embellishing it with as many accomplishments and activities as we could. Often times, this is also how we measure the worth of a person. Someone with a PhD is more important than someone with a GED, and a doctor has more value than a waste management worker. But is that really true? And in the realm of Christianity, do any of these things really matter?

Solomon and Saul

King Solomon, ruler of Israel in succession to his father David, was recorded as the wisest man in the whole world. Because of his humility in asking God for this wisdom, he also became the wealthiest man and greatest ruler in the world. But in all this wisdom and wealth and power, Solomon found these things to be “striving after the wind.” Even toiling to build marvels and create great achievements he found to be worthless. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:20-23 concerning this:

“So I turned and gave my heart up in despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This is also vanity and a great evil. 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.”

Solomon later found out, in trying to find man’s purpose and greatest fulfillment, that “man’s all” was to “fear God and keep His commandments.” Only in doing these two things does man fulfill his purpose and achieve life’s greatest calling.

Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee and prominent leader of the Jews in the first century, was very similar to Kind Solomon in that he had much to brag about. Paul wrote about his former life a Saul in Philippians 3:4b-6.

“…If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as the righteousness under the law, blameless.”

Paul had quite a list of achievements and credentials in which he could boast. But it is his next statement that should blow us all away.

Philippians 3:7 - “But whatever gain I had, I counted loss for the sake of Christ.”

Counting It But Loss

The kind of devotion that Paul and Solomon had once they realize the purpose of humanity is the kind of devotion that all Christians are called to have. But rather than focus on the calling, consider why Paul counted all things but loss.

Philippians 3:8 - “Indeed, I count everything but loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”

Certainly you can do something because you are told to do it. But aren’t we all inclined to pick between two things if one is better or has more value than the other? For Paul, knowing Christ surpasses all wealth, all toil, and all accomplishments. So much so, that all of his previous credentials are, to him, rubbish or garbage.

True Devotion

The kind of devotion that Paul had in pleasing God and following His commands did not come from him being told to do it. Just because we’re told to do something doesn’t make us want to do it, even if it is God. Paul’s response to please God was fueled by knowing the surpassing worth of Christ.

If we truly recognize who Christ is and what He has done for us, His awe-inspiring love should fuel our hearts into complete devotion. Not partial, but full, complete devotion. When Christ comes in to play in our lives, nothing else (achievements, credentials, wealth, wisdom, and power included) should matter to us. Today, I am the greatest and most blessed person I can be: a Christian. Have you counted all things but loss for the sake of Christ? Is this attitude reflected in your devotion to God?

We’re all human and we all have a long way to go. Mistakes will be made; priorities will sometimes get flipped. But keep pressing toward the goal. None us will ever be perfect, but we do have a God who is.

In Christ,

Zack