Philippians 3:7-11 – 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Paul reminds us that the best we can do is concentrate on Jesus and do our best to live like the Lord’s example. If Jesus wanted us to live in luxury and for ourselves, I believe that would have been His example, but it wasn’t.
Matthew 16:24 – 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
The example was to put the God first, reach out and love others and show them the way so they may find salvation.
Clint Bridges
August 28, 2012 at 11:09 am
This is an interesting statement from Paul. I wonder if he would have been as zealous and able to leave his Jewish “righteousness” if God would not have intervened to strongly in his life. I wonder if we would even have known his name, let alone have his writings. Today, as a Christian, I personally struggle with the idea of “losing my respectability” for Christ. I don’t think that I am alone. I think that today’s “modern” American church is gravel;y influenced by it. We work so hard at trying to do what is right and to look right within the community that we inadvertently create perceived or imagined barriers of righteousness which actually prevent people from coming to the Savior who loves them. It isn’t that Christians purposefully set out to do what is wrong by doing what is right, it simply is a consequence of us pursuing the God we love. But the world really doesn’t see that in us. It mainly sees our hypocrisy and shallowness. Until we decide that we are willing to lose the Church’s respectability and it’s “holy” look within the community, I don’t suppose we will have that much impact for the Lord in our community. I do not think and I am not saying that the Church (and us) need to start sinning to relate to the unsaved people of this world. But rather that Pastor Skip was right in his 2008 series of messages that we need to take the Church outside of the building and go become Jesus with skin on within the community. That doesn’t mean becoming a Jesus who tells everyone what they are doing wrong and how they are damned if they do know chose to become Christians. Rather it means to be the Jesus who met the woman taken in adultery and who asked, “Where are your accusers?” and then in response to her answer said, “Neither do I accuse you, go…and sin no more…”