Christ: The Incomparable
In Philippians 3 Paul took out all his prized
possessions, one by one and looked them over. They were the kind of
things people ooh and aah over and sometimes wish they had. Paul himself
thought highly of them but after looking them over he said, "Still,
compared with Christ and what I have in him, these are all no better
than rubbish."
He then goes on to say that he actually suffered the loss of all
these. It was more than thinking of them as dispensable; he actually
suffered the loss of them (3:7-8). And he took out all the sufferings
and losses and looked them over. They were the kind of losses that
people understandably stagger under and sob about. Paul himself keenly
felt all his losses; he was no Stoic but after examining them in detail he
said, "But they aren't worthy to be compared with the glory I find in
Christ Jesus and will one day experience in full."
What's especially noteworthy is this: here's a man who went the
distance in pursuit of Christ and still confessed he couldn't catch up
to him. We're tempted to think if anyone has fully entered into all that
union with Christ means it must have been Paul. He hurries to make
clear (3:12), "I'm not suggesting I've arrived. Far from it! But I
continue the pursuit." This says a lot about Paul, of course, but it
says a lot about Jesus Christ. How much is there to him? If someone
pursues him as recklessly as Paul, without counting the cost or holding
back, what treasures of joy and pain and longing and achievement must be
hidden in Christ?
Hmmm, what treasures can I pull out of my experience? What precious
things, what gifts from God for which I should be grateful? And what
would lead me without despising them or denying their loveliness to see
them as trivia in comparison with Christ and what it means to be part of
him? What would lead me to do more than point to Paul's experience and
wish it were my own? I wonder.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.