'Though I myself might have confidence even in the
flesh: if any other man thinketh to have
confidence in the flesh, I yet more: circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as
touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal,
persecuting the church; as touching the
righteousness which is in the law, found
blameless. Howbeit what things were gain to me,
these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily,
and I count all things to be loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung.'--PHIL. iii. 4-8
(R.V.).
We have already noted that in the previous verses the Apostle is
beginning to prepare for closing his letter, but is carried away into
the long digression of which our text forms the beginning. The last
words of the former verse open a thought of which his mind is always
full. It is as when an excavator strikes his pickaxe unwittingly into a
hidden reservoir and the blow is followed by a rush of water, which
carries away workmen and tools. Paul has struck into the very deepest
thoughts which he has of the Gospel and out they pour. That one
antithesis, 'the loss of all, the gain of Christ,' carried in it to him
the whole truth of the Christian message. We may well ask ourselves what
are the subjects which lie so near our hearts, and so fill our thoughts,
that a chance word sets us off on them, and we cannot help talking of
them when once we begin.
The text exemplifies another characteristic of Paul's, his constant
habit of quoting his own experience as illustrating the truth. His
theology is the generalisation of his own experience, and yet that
continual autobiographical reference is not egotism, for the light in
which he delights to present himself is as the recipient of the great
grace of God in pardoning sinners. It is a result of the complete
saturation of himself with the Gospel. It was to him no mere body of
principles or thoughts, it was the very food and life of his life. And
so this characteristic reveals not only his natural fervour of
character, but the profound and penetrating hold which the Gospel had on
his whole being.
In our text he presents his own experience as the type to which ours
must on the whole be conformed. He had gone through an earthquake which
had shattered the very foundations of his life. He had come to despise
all that he had counted most precious, and to clasp as the only true
treasures all that he had despised. With him the revolution had turned
his whole life upside down. Though the change cannot be so subversive
and violent with us, the forsaking of self-confidence must be as real,
and the clinging to Jesus must be as close, if our Christianity is to be
fervid and dominant in our lives.