… for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage…
Summary: Paul’s assessment of the things in his life gives us a reason to pause and consider what it is that we value, too.
Sometimes people say things and they don’t really mean it.
For example, if I said, “If I don’t get to go on vacation soon, I’m just going to die!,” you would understand that I am exaggerating. Some call it hyperbole. Everyone “get’s it.”
When Paul writes, “I have lost all things,” it is understandable if we consider his words hyperbole. After all, “all things” means everything. Is he serious?
It is a fair question.
He has just listed everything that used to be important to him: family, status, education, and his job as a Pharisee. He also felt he had accomplished everything the law of God required.
When Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), everything changed. Nothing else mattered.
After his years of service as an Apostle for the Lord, the Spirit told Paul to begin his greatest challenge yet. The challenge begins with instructions to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22-23). From there, Paul is taken prisoner by the Romans. His next challenge is the trip to Rome (Acts 23:11).
At this point in the story, Paul has already “lost all things” that meant anything to him before he met Jesus. What happens next takes Paul’s loss to the next level.
Having realized that everything that meant anything to him in the flesh was “garbage,” Paul gives his life to Jesus fully. Then he is instructed to go to Jerusalem, where he is arrested and loses his freedom.
His story continues while he is imprisoned for two years under Felix (Acts 23-24) and then Festus (Acts 25), the governors of Judea. Finally, after appealing to Caesar, Paul is sent to Rome. It was during this trip when the ship broke apart on a sandbar that Paul was stripped of everything but his life and the shirt on his back (Acts 27:27-44).
Was Paul being hyperbolic when he said he “lost all things?”
Maybe a little.
It is true that he still had a cloak and some scrolls he had left in Troas (2 Timothy 4:13). Yet, he had still given up all the things people consider important: money, power, and prestige. Everything people might envy in another was gone.
And guess what — Paul didn’t care! Knowing Jesus was far better.
Application: Take an inventory of what you value.
Food for Thought: If knowing Jesus is a “10” and garbage is a “0,” how do you rank the things in your life?
I have always been one to “value” things based on their utility. That mindset though can be troublesome when one’s “values” are self-centered. The old saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is about perception. Putting “knowing Jesus” at the top, and all other things beneath is the best perspective. Then the utility changes from self-service to service of Christ, and the value is in Christ.
Paul is way ahead of his time. In this passage of Philippians, Paul is expressing, in both a spiritual and simple way, two complex modern physiological phenomena known as “Loss aversion reversal” and “Freedom from the endowment.”
Loss aversion reversal:
People are more motivated to avoid losing something than they are to gain it; when people consider something already lost, they are liberated to redefine purpose and utility.
Freedom from the endowment:
People place a higher value on things they own, making them reluctant to part with them. Considering something already gone breaks the emotional attachment and allows people to use the true value creatively.
So, to consider all things “lost” for Christ, liberates us from the attachment of the things, and empowers us to allow Christ to use them fully and creatively to His Glory. The utility of the thing changes from serving us to serving Christ. And this is true of anything and everything.
And I think this is what Paul is stating. These “things” are worthless to Paul, but purposeful to Christ. That whatever good or righteous action that can be done, must come through Christ, and without Him, these things are garbage.
I like Jesus’s example of the candle and the basket. The candle has no value, only the light it produces has value. And if we light the candle and put it under a basket, there is no value. Whatever God has given to us is useless and garbage on its’ own; when used to glorify God, to serve the Lord, its value is as the Lord intends it to be.
Matthew 5:15-16
15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
This line: So, to consider all things “lost” for Christ, liberates us from the attachment of the things, and empowers us to allow Christ to use them fully and creatively to His Glory.
should read: So, to consider all things “lost” for Christ, liberates us from the attachment of the things, and empowers us to allow Christ to use them fully and creatively to God’s Glory.
Chris,
I appreciate your insights into “Loss aversion reversal” and “Freedom from the endowment.” That makes sense to me and is actually helpful in my own personal self-evaluation.
You have really shed some “light” on the topic today!
Thank you!
Good question and comment by CH. And great Bible verses by CH.
I realize that part of this question is for self evaluation of where we are at in a 0 – 10 scale. I know I want to be at 10 on this scale, but I don’t think I am there yet. This is a question that will have me searching my heart and praying about.
Thank you, Rich!
Yes — the question was rhetorical. 🙂
It does give one pause to think, though!
Thank You CH!
If knowing Jesus is a “10” and garbage is a “0,” how do you rank the things in your life?
He has showered my family and I with His love and protective security, we are marked as His and live in peace, irregardless of the circumstances. We live a 10!
I have known Jesus for over 50 years now. He is my Lord and very best friend. He knows absolutely everything about me and continues to show His love for me, each and every day. My family and I are all believers and do have our moments of difficulty. However we have reached the point of knowing, “ Our God is Sovereign in all circumstances.” And seek to live our lives accordingly, allowing God to be Sovereign!
Knowing, living in this knowledge of God being Sovereign has shed an entirely new light on all events in our lives as we live observing ” His will being done in all things. ”
Psalm 115:3, Our God is in heaven, he does whatever pleases him.
Proverbs 19:21, Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
James 4:14-15, Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.
Ephesians 1:4-6, For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Thank you, Ron!
Allowing God to be sovereign puts it all in perspective. Well said!