I Count. Philippians 3:7-8. “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” Like an accountant carefully examining his ledger for lasting profit, Paul reviews his work to find some meaningful reward from all his efforts. He was raised with a set of core values that directed everything he did, a pattern he followed as he finally summed up all his activities. “My family was of good stock, after all. Can’t you see how much the world has been blessed because of our noble family? We had such a good religion; other folks looked up to us and wanted the kind of life we had.”
After figuring out all that seemed so positive to him, he began to wonder, “What is left if I don’t live?” Every point of pride he wrote down and every religious act he followed or did never gave him the least bit of lasting satisfaction. He realized the things he thought were so important then had no lasting value if there was no treasure laid up in heaven. Summing up his life’s account, he had to say, “Everything I thought was gain was loss.”
Since meeting the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, he had gained new values; now, his work was not meaningless. His efforts were for the Lord, aimed at bringing glory to Christ and blessings to sinners. The joy he experienced was not in a ledger full of deeds done to please God but in sharing the blessings that God’s salvation offers to as many people as possible. He desires to learn how he can share in the power of Christ’s resurrection and the suffering His Lord endured. The goal of his life is to know his Lord as well as a man knows his best friend. That reassures him that his new way of accounting has eternal profit.