4If anyone else has reason to be
confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth
day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born
of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of
the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I
have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I
regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I
regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on
faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection
and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if
somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained
this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own,
because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not
consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what
lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on
toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
In
Philippians 4b-14, Paul continues his warning against some errors. In the
process, we learn some personal spiritual biography that illustrates why his
opponents are going down the wrong path. His life is testimony to the
conclusion he has drawn that Torah is not the path to right standing with God.
We can infer that his opponents thought that at least some of the Jewish Law
remained authority for Christians. Paul will offer the course of his life as a
testimony of the falsity of that claim. The passage raises an important
question for us as readers. Is there anything we have had to switch off in
order to see the prize set before us in Christ? In fact, do we desire Christ so
much that we are willing to reorder our lives around him? In what ways have you
viewed your suffering in this life as participation in the suffering of Christ?
How would doing so change your view of your suffering? The passage raises the
question of the vision we have for our lives. It raises the question of the
passion that guides our lives. It may well be that the saddest thing in the
world is people who can physically see but have no vision (Helen Keller).
People with vision are the people who will change the part of the world their
lives touch. Such a vision or dream begins now to alter our lives (Goethe).
Paul
begins by recounting his past religious life. In his case, his religious life
gave him much about which to boast. After all, he had been an observant and
obedient Jew. Some signs of this were the privileges of birth. He received
circumcision on the eighth day. He
was part of the people of Israel. He
could identify himself with the tribe of
Benjamin, the tribe of the first king of Israel, Saul, after whom he may
have had his Jewish name. He kept the languages and customs of the Jewish
people (Hebrew born of Hebrews]. However,
as a matter of adult choice, he even chose to be part of the most observant
sect of his time, the Pharisee. He interpreted Torah strictly, organizing his
life around it. He could have chosen to be a Hellenist, but he rejected that
path. Further, when a dangerous teaching arose that said to Jews that Jesus was
the promised Messiah, he zealously protected his Pharisee sect and in the
process protected the special place given to Torah. Paul refers to this fact in
other passages as well. He admits that he was unfit for God to call him to be
an apostle, as in fact the least of the apostles, due to his persecution of the
church of God (Romans 15:9). He admits that he violently persecuted the church
of God and tried to destroy it. In that context, he also testifies that he was
zealous for the traditions of his ancestors (Galatians 1:13-14). Further, I
Timothy 1:13 also describe him as a blasphemer, a persecutor of the church, and
a man of violence. He concludes his reflection upon his past religious life by
referring to his blameless life, a
life without fault, as the righteousness
under the law would have it. He was scrupulous in his obedience to Torah.
In light of his devotion to
this form of life, I find it genuinely amazing that his testimony now focuses
on a transformation of the course of his life. People do not make such dramatic
changes easily in life. To do so, we have to admit we are on the wrong path. He
is clearly still zealous, but he re-directs his zeal. He was a man of violence,
but he becomes an apostle of reconciliation and peace. He went through an
amazing transformation. In verses 7-14, he reassesses his past religious life
in the light that Christ brings. He does so with the language of commerce. When
we think of the community to which he writes, we might understand why he uses
the metaphor. This community provided him with financial support, likely more
than other communities did. This may mean it was the wealthiest. In 4:10-20, he
acknowledges his debt to the community as he continues to describe their
relationship with the language of commerce. Thus, what was gain is now loss. That
which he considered advantages are now nothing. While he had considered his
past religious life as to his credit, he has done some rebalancing of the book
of his life, almost as if in a dramatic moment of his life, which changed his
thinking. All the things he once viewed as valuable he now considered in the
loss column of the account book that is his life. Beyond his Jewish heritage,
he regards everything as loss. Such a
statement takes on added power as Paul dictates this letter from prison. This
rebalancing of the book of his life, as if by an accountant, is because of Christ and the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord. He has given up himself to Christ, who has become the greatest
possible gain or profit for his life. If we think of the rebalancing of the
scales of his life, Christ did not just tip the scales, but threw them away. His
perception of what made anything a gain or loss has changed. When we consider
the context of the rest of the writings of Paul, we need to exercise some care
as to what Paul means. He does not repudiate his Jewish life and faith. After
all, much of his argument, especially his reference to the Old Testament,
involves a reinterpretation of the basic themes of Jewish thought and life. Part
of his point is that in comparison, he regards
or counts the loss of all things as
if he lost rubbish. By going through
this dramatic transformation, he has gained or won the most precious thing of
all, belonging to Christ. He can
treat his past as loss because he has gained so much in Christ.
Let us paus for a moment and
ponder whether Christ means this much to us.
Dr. Helen Huston was a
Canadian missionary surgeon who had spent her working life in Nepal. She had
written a letter in which she had spoken of Christians who had been willing to
suffer for their faith. When Victor Shepherd visited with her around 2002, she
told him and others of fellow believers in Nepal who were at the receiving end
of persecution from the Hindu government. Friends and neighbors ostracized
some. Some are in prison. Hundreds are out of jail only because they have
posted bail and must report to the courts every month. Many have mortgaged
their lands in order to pay their bail. She then offered her bottom line. “We must stand in solidarity with them. It is worth everything
to know Jesus.”[1]
Such focus
upon Christ we find also in St. Patrick, who sang the following hymn.
I arise to-day
Through the strength of Christ 's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His
crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His
resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent
for the judgment of Doom ... .
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me
abundance of reward.
I arise to-day
Through a mighty strength, the
invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the
oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.[2]
In verses 9-11, Paul will
move from the testimony of the transformation of his life to the kerygma, the
basic themes of his preaching. He will mention his favorite theological topics.
He will elaborate in II Corinthians 2-7. He wants people to find that he is in him, or “in Christ,” as if a part of
or member of Christ. He has a personal participation in Christ. If that is the
case, then his right standing with God does not come through the scrupulous
observance of Torah, as he formerly believed and lived. Again, think of the
dramatic transformation that must happen in his life for this to happen. Rather,
he nurtures his relationship through
faith in Christ and this means he has righteousness
from God based on faith. Such faith or trust that opens one to the presence
of the grace of God is the only type of righteousness that matters to Paul. For
Paul, it means that Christ is worth more than anything else in existence. Such
faith gives the future meaning. Such faith means that righteousness is far more
about relationship than it is about following scrupulously a set of ethical,
liturgical, and purity rules. His contrast is between righteousness based upon
blameless observance of Torah versus righteousness based upon grace from God.
In this simple phrase, he summarizes the argument in Galatians and Romans. By
becoming “in Christ,” the believer shares in the righteousness of Christ. Such
a statement contains the basis for the doctrine of justification, of which
faith is the means of justification rather than its source. This notion of an
exchange of places between the innocent Jesus, executed as a sinner, means the
manifestation of the righteousness of God in those whom Christ represents
before God. Yet, such an exchange of places occurs only as sinners for whom
Jesus died let their lives link to the death of Jesus.[3]
As he continues with summarizing his kerygma in verses 10-11, he uses the
language of commitment. As if in a definitive act, he wants to know Christ, not simply in a
“knowledge about” way, of course, but in a personal relationship that
transforms his life. He wants this transforming knowledge to occur in a
specific way. He wants to know the power
of his resurrection. He wants to experience in his life the power that
raised Jesus from the dead. It will take such power to break the power of sin
and death that operates in our lives. Paul identifies the gain that has
happened in his life. Yet, even more amazingly, it seems to be a gain that he
has a share in the sufferings of Christ by
becoming like him in his death. His life is conforming or forming (summorfizw) to that of Christ through
the suffering he presently experiences. His apostolic ministry involved much
suffering. He applies the cross of Christ to his experience of suffering as an
apostle. His theology of the cross entails discipleship as fellowship with
Christ in his suffering. Paul will expound upon the theme of baptism as union
with Christ in his suffering, death, and resurrection in Romans 6:3ff. In that
sense, faith and baptism belong together.[4]
To engage in a discipleship process of becoming like the Son is to participate
in the sufferings of Christ. Such a statement is not just a reference to
persecution. It refers to the struggle against sin, Gethsemane, and Calvary. It
expresses the faith/union relation between Christ and believer. The fellowship
(koinonia) of the suffering of Christ implies a communal event. The suffering
occurs together for the sake of and the name of Christ. The suffering of
believers participates in the suffering of Christ. Christ is present with us in
our suffering. In this discipleship of faith and union with Christ in his
resurrection and suffering, Paul expresses some humility in saying that somehow he might attain the resurrection
from the dead. His expectation and hope is in the direction of
resurrection. The context suggests that Schleiermacher was right to say that
the Christian hope of life beyond death has its basis here on the fellowship of
believers with Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus means participation already in
the salvation of eternal life.[5]
In verses 12-14, moving from
a summary of his kerygma, he returns to the effect upon his life. He will shift
the imagery from commerce to athletic competition. Such language reminds us as
readers that the Christian life is goal oriented and future directed, as we will
find in an athletic contest or in a successful competitor. The present struggle
in training and discipline prepares one for the contest. He admits he has not
reached the goal. He forgets what lies
behind. He presses toward the goal of resurrection. Paul is straining forward to what lies ahead. He
had determined continually to press on
toward the goal for the prize, which would appear to be Christ. Just as the
winner of a contest stands on a pedestal to receive the crown or prize, so will
those who are in faith relationship and union with Christ receive the prize of
eternal life. Suffering is finite and temporal. No contest is infinite in
duration; nor is a human life. The Christian situation is a provisional one.
The Spirit is the one who sets us on the march. We pat ourselves on the back in
calling ourselves seekers. Yet, are we really seeking? Alternatively, we might
like to say to ourselves that we are genuine seekers. Yet, we cling to our
former way of life and thought. A genuine seeker is one whose hands are empty,
counting everything as loss. Then, one becomes a decisive seeker and a seeker
with a goal. With empty hands, the real seeker has not yet apprehended. In
fact, the real seeker wants that which he or she seeks to apprehend him or her.
Such seeking is not occasional or distracted. Such a seeker presses on and
sacrifices.[6]
We can see that the same zeal Paul brought to his life centered in Torah he now
brings to his life centered in Christ.
I
find myself in awe of such passion and devotion. I am confident my life would
not stand up to this test. I share a final reflections that have proven
meaningful to me. I hope they stimulate in you an opportunity for reflection.
Dom Helder Camara came from
a well to go home. No one had said
anything about what he should be when he grew up. However, one day he said he would like to be
a priest. His father was surprised. He warned him that he would never marry,
never have a nice home, no children, no feasts as we have, nor own wonderful
things. Then the father said, "But,
son, you would have no one to spend your days with but God, praying every day
and saying the mass! You would have to
be entirely looking at God all the time."
At the age of 10, he said, "Oh, yes! Yes, that is just what I want. Wouldn't it be wonderful?"[7]
[1] —Victor Shepherd, “The surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord,” August 2004, Sermons and Writings of Victor Shepherd Web
Site, victorshepherd.on.ca.
[2]
-"The Deer's Cry," Early Irish Lyric Poetry, translated by Kuno
Meyer, Mockingbird.creighton.edu/. Retrieved
[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 428.
[4]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
3, 232, 257.
[5]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
3, 534, 568.
[6] Church Dogmatics IV.2 [64.4] 376-7.
[7] Emphasis,
Se-Oc 1993.
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