October 9, 2013

From Jim McGuiggan... Christ: The Incomparable

Christ: The Incomparable

 

 

In Philippians 3 Paul took out all his prized possessions, one by one and looked them over. They were the kind of things people ooh and aah over and sometimes wish they had. Paul himself thought highly of them but after looking them over he said, "Still, compared with Christ and what I have in him, these are all no better than rubbish."
He then goes on to say that he actually suffered the loss of all these. It was more than thinking of them as dispensable; he actually suffered the loss of them (3:7-8). And he took out all the sufferings and losses and looked them over. They were the kind of losses that people understandably stagger under and sob about. Paul himself keenly felt all his losses; he was no Stoic but after examining them in detail he said, "But they aren't worthy to be compared with the glory I find in Christ Jesus and will one day experience in full."
What's especially noteworthy is this: here's a man who went the distance in pursuit of Christ and still confessed he couldn't catch up to him. We're tempted to think if anyone has fully entered into all that union with Christ means it must have been Paul. He hurries to make clear (3:12), "I'm not suggesting I've arrived. Far from it! But I continue the pursuit." This says a lot about Paul, of course, but it says a lot about Jesus Christ. How much is there to him? If someone pursues him as recklessly as Paul, without counting the cost or holding back, what treasures of joy and pain and longing and achievement must be hidden in Christ?
Hmmm, what treasures can I pull out of my experience? What precious things, what gifts from God for which I should be grateful? And what would lead me without despising them or denying their loveliness to see them as trivia in comparison with Christ and what it means to be part of him? What would lead me to do more than point to Paul's experience and wish it were my own? I wonder.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

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