Profit And Loss For The Sake of Christ
(Philippians 3:4-7)

Paul has just attacked the Jewish teachers and insisted that it is the Christians, not the Jews, who are the truly circumcised and covenant people. So Paul sets out his credentials to show that he had enjoyed every privilege a Jew could enjoy and had deliberately abandoned it all for the sake of Jesus Christ. Every one of Paul's privileges has its special meaning:

Paul's Human Inheritance

1. Paul was circumcised when he was eight days old.
"He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you" (Genesis 17:12); this commandment had been repeated as a permanent law of Israel (Leviticus 12:3). Paul stresses the fact that he had been born into the Jewish faith and had known its privileges and observed its ceremonies since his birth.

2. He was of the race of Israel.
When the Jews wished to stress their "special" relationship to God they would use the word Israelite. Israel was the name which had been specially given to Jacob by God (Genesis 32:28). It was the Israelites alone who could trace their descent to Jacob, whom God had called by the name of Israel. By calling himself an Israelite, Paul stressed the absolute purity of his descent.

3. He was of the tribe of Benjamin.
Paul belonged to the elite of Israel. The tribe of Benjamin had a special place in the history of Israel. Benjamin was the child of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, and of all the twelve sons he alone had been born in the Promised Land (Genesis 35:17-18). It was from the tribe of Benjamin that the first king of Israel had come (1 Samuel 9:1-2), and it was no doubt from that very king that Paul had been given his original name of Saul. Under Rehoboam, the kingdom had been split up, ten of the tribes went off with Jeroboam and Benjamin was the only tribe which remained faithful with Judah (1 Kings 12:21). When they returned from the exile, it was from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah that the nation of Israel was formed (Ezra 4:1). The tribe of Benjamin had the place of honor in Israel's battle-line (Judges 5:14, Hosea 5:8). In the book of Esther the central male figure of that story was Mordecai, a Benjaminite. When Paul said that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, it was a claim that he was not simply an Israelite but that he belonged to the highest aristocracy of Israel.

4. He was a Hebrew born of Hebrew parents.
This is not the same as to say that he was a true Israelite. The point is this. The history of the Jews had spread them all over the world. In every town and in every city and in every country there were Jews. But sometimes they forgot their own language. They became Greek-speaking because they lived and moved in a Greek environment. A Hebrew was a Jew who was not only of pure racial descent but who had deliberately kept the Hebrew tongue. Such a Jew could speak the language of the country in which he lived but also the Hebrew which was his ancestral language.

Paul's Human Achievement

5. He was a trained Pharisee.
This is a claim that Paul makes more than once (Acts 22:3, 23:6 & 26:5). There were not very many Pharisees, never more than six thousand, but they were the spiritual athletes of Judaism. Their very name means The Separated Ones. They had separated themselves off from all common life and from all common tasks in order to make it the one aim of their lives to keep every smallest detail of the Law. Paul knew from personal experience that Jewish religion was at its highest and most demanding.

6. As for zeal, he had persecuted the Church.
To a Jew zeal was the greatest quality in the religious life. Phinehas had saved the people from the wrath of God because he was zealous for his God (Numbers 25:1-13). Paul spoke of zealousness again and again (Acts 22:1-5 & 26:9-11). It is Paul's claim that he knew Judaism at its most intense and even fanatical heat.

7. As for the righteousness, he was blameless.
Paul claims there was no demand of the Law which he did not fulfill.

All these things Paul might have claimed on the credit side of the balance sheet, but when he met Christ, he wrote them off as nothing more than bad debts. The things that he had believed to be his glories were in fact his shame. All human achievement had to be laid aside, in order that he might accept the free grace of Christ. He had to empty himself of every human claim of honor so that he might accept in complete humility the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Paul proves to these Jews that he had the right to speak. He is not condemning Judaism from the outside. He had experienced it at its highest point; and he knew that it was nothing compared with the joy which Christ had given. He knew that the only way to peace was to abandon the way of human achievement and accept the way of grace.

It is our arrogance and pride which keep us from totally surrendering our lives to God!

Paul used the word "profit" which in the Greek means: gain, profitable, rewarding, beneficial. Paul used the word "loss" which in the Greek means: that which is a detriment, harmful, damaging.

Are you holding on to something or some situation that you have deemed "profitable but is really "harmful"?

What have you put before Jesus?

What do you value more than serving Jesus?

Paul appeared to have it all, everything we would judge as a happy and successful life. Yet, when confronted with the Holy Savior, Paul saw all that he had and had achieved as a handicap, as a detriment! How do you respond to the calling of the Jesus?

What do you consider as "profit" and what are you prepared to "lose" for the sake of Christ.