“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my I Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
– Philippians 3:7–11
Oh, Philippians 3:7–11 is such a great passage. There’s so much in here. The big picture. I want to encourage you with today and lead us to pray according to is this reality that everything is loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus as Lord. Paul says, “I’ve suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish.”
The word he uses there is basically dung in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. He just took all the things of this world, even good things in this world, many of the things he listed right before this in Philippians 3 are good things. And Paul just said they all together are dong compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus, of being in Jesus, united with Jesus now and forever into the future. That’s the big picture point. And I just want to encourage you. I don’t know all that you’re walking through. I don’t know what challenges you’re enduring, but I want to encourage you in a fresh way.
Reminded that Jesus is Better
If you are a follower of Jesus, you have Jesus. You have Jesus. And he is better than the best things of this world all of them put together. His worth is surpassing. His greatness and glory and grace are far beyond all the best things of this world put together. And I just want to encourage you with that today. I want to pray that over you. God, you know what every single one of us is walking through right now. You know what we are enduring, challenges we are experiencing.
God, we praise you for this reminder today that in Jesus we have everything. That in Jesus alone we have abundant life that nothing in this world can take away from us. That Jesus, you are better than all the best things that this world put together. So help us to live with this perspective, oh God. Help us not to run after all kinds of stuff in this world, thinking that’s what’s going to satisfy us. Help us to rest in you, Jesus.
Philippians 3:7–11 Reminds Us to Work through Difficulty
And when we walk through difficult days, or even when good things in this world are taken from us or they’re gone or we’re missing them, God, we pray that you would help us to press in all the more deeply to the gain we have in Jesus. And then to live, to lead others to this gain, to live like we have found eternal treasure because we have to share that eternal treasure with people all around us and all around the world. God, help us to faithfully share the treasure. God, help us to lead others to life in Jesus. Help us to say to others today like all these things in the world, they don’t compare to Jesus.
Help us God to faithfully proclaim Jesus today. And we pray for the Kakwa people in Sudan. Over a million of them who have little to no knowledge of Jesus. Muslim people group. God, we pray that they would experience gain that’s found in Jesus alone. That they would know the surpassing worth of Jesus alone. God, we praises you that we know Jesus and have in him everything we need. In his name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
