Philippians 3:7-11 -- On Losing Ourselves to Find Salvation

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
Philippians 3:7-11


Before this selection, Paul runs through some things that he was proud of in his life... things that made him stand out among others and feel like he was doing the right thing and a good person. I think we all have things like that in our lives... accomplishments, things that make us feel good about ourselves and that we feel like we did, or are doing, right. And not saying those are bad things... Paul was for sure trying to do the right things his whole life, living strictly by what he thought was right, and what his society told him was right.

However, then he goes on and explains in our selection that even though all of those things lifted him up and made him feel good about himself, they were nothing compared to what Christ offers us. He lost everything (figuratively and literally in his case) so that he could accept Christ. Lost his position, lost his stuff, lost his friends... but found new life, and better life, through the truth of Christ. And it was better *despite* losing everything, not because he suddenly got all his stuff back. :)

The last part is a little confusing talking about fellowship of sufferings and conformable unto his death, but I think what Paul is going for here is the idea of having empathy for Christ and following his example even down to how he suffered and died. Not so that we can be martyrs, but the idea of doing good and being good and being willing, if necessary, to give up our lives to help or save others... those are worthy ways to live, whether it is what God has in store for us or not. Today, let's try to be more like Paul, being willing to lose ourselves to gain God... and through his example, let's work to be more like Christ in ways that we had perhaps not thought of before, being willing to follow him anywhere according to his will.