«　WEEK 5　DAY 6　»

　　Phil. 3:7-8 But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ....On account of [Christ] I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.

　　To gain Christ is to gain His very person. Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9) and the reality of the shadows of all positive things (Col. 2:16-17). To gain Him is to experience, enjoy, and take possession of His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8).

　　There is no comparison between any gain and Christ. If we make such a comparison, we shall count everything loss. The reason we regarded certain things as gain in the past was that we did not know Christ. But once our eyes were opened to see Christ, we began to realize how foolish it was to keep those other things. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1543)

　　All the things which were once gains to Paul hindered him and held him back from participating in Christ and enjoying Him. Hence, on account of Christ, all the gains were a loss to him. Paul counted as loss on account of Christ not only the things of his former religion but all other things as well.

　　We may think that the things in Philippians 3:8 refer to worldly, material things. In a sense, this understanding is partly right. However, ...according to verses 5 and 6, Paul's concept is not mainly related to material things. It is true, of course, that worldly, material things occupy people and keep them from experiencing Christ. However, Paul realized that the things which really frustrate people from experiencing Christ are mainly the things of religion, philosophy, and culture. If we get into Paul's spirit and thought in Philippians 3, we shall realize that as he was writing he was thinking of religion, philosophy, and culture when he spoke of “all things.” The “all things” in verse 8 must certainly include the three categories of religious, philosophical, and cultural things. If we would drop our religion, philosophy, and culture, we would truly abandon everything. By dropping these three categories of things, we would automatically drop the worldly, material things, which are actually dominated by religion, philosophy, and culture. Although it is easy to overcome the influence of material things, it is very difficult to overcome religion, philosophy, and culture. We cannot experience Christ if we count as loss only the worldly, material things. In order to gain Christ, we need to count all things as loss, including the things of religion, philosophy, and culture.

　　Like Paul, we should not only count all things loss on account of Christ but also count all things refuse. The Greek word for refuse in Philippians 3:8 refers to dregs, rubbish, filth, what is thrown to the dogs; hence, dog food, dung. There is no comparison between such things and Christ. The more we count all things loss and refuse on account of Christ, the more we shall gain Christ for our experience and enjoyment. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1544-1545)

　　Some brothers and sisters in the church life come to the meetings in the way of window-shopping. They enjoy listening to the messages, but they do not pay the price to gain Christ. To pay the price is to suffer the loss of all things. First, Paul counted as loss all religious gain and all gain by natural birth. Then he counted all things as loss and suffered the loss of all things. He did this in order to gain the Christ he had seen. A number of times I have spent a large amount of money to buy a particular item. After purchasing that item and bringing it home, I began to regret the price I had paid for it. However, when I considered the item and realized the excellency of it, I did not care about the price I had paid. This is why Paul said that after suffering the loss of all things, he counted them as refuse. What he paid to gain Christ was nothing but dung, dog food, trash, rubbish, refuse. He did not regret the price he had paid. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” p. 425)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 142, 168, 348; CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” chs. 11-14