Philippians 3:8

Philippians 3:8. Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss. Now he refers to the abiding state of his mind. He made the great sacrifice at first, and as it were cast overboard all which had seemed valuable in his Jewish life, and since that he is prepared to sacrifice himself and all besides for the service on which he has entered. And as he found no merit or value in his privileges and eminence as a Jew, so he lays no stress on what he may do or suffer as a Christian. It is ‘not I, but the grace of God that was with me.' All this extinction of the natural pride of man was not without many a struggle, we may be sure, and made up part of what he includes afterwards under a communion in the sufferings of Christ.

for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. The first preposition may be taken in the same sense as ‘for Christ' in the previous verse, that is, ‘for the sake of the excellency' or it may perhaps better be understood as ‘by reason of.' The apostle has learnt much of Jesus since the day when he first heard His voice, and the surpassing worth of what he knows makes all else poor in comparison therewith. This excellent Knowledge is life eternal. For to know God and Christ (and no man cometh unto the Father but by him) constitutes eternal life. How then can anything in this world be mentioned in comparison with it! But St. Paul does not rest satisfied without the personal application. He knows Jesus as ‘his own Lord,' and this it is which makes the knowledge most precious. At first he had only said, ‘Who art thou, Lord?' (Acts 9:5), but the fuller knowledge of Jesus has taught him to say now, ‘my Lord.'

for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. The verb is cognate with the noun rendered ‘loss' above, and intimates that the surrender was self-made; the Greek would perhaps be more nearly represented by ‘the whole' instead of ‘all things.' It is for Christ the personal Saviour that all this has been done, not merely for the knowledge of Him. The Jesus whom St. Paul, last of all the apostolic band, had seen is the being worthy of all this, for He had been dead and is alive again, thus manifesting the power of His resurrection.

and do count them but dung. This rendering of the noun is a common one, but Dr. Lightfoot has shown that the sense of ‘refuse,' signifying those remnants of a meal which were thrown to the dogs, is probably what was meant here. If this be adopted, then the Bishop's further remark is apposite, that whereas the Jews regarded all but themselves as the dogs, hardly worthy of the crumbs, now the strict Jew (St. Paul) looks upon all that he had so highly valued before in the light of refuse, and so makes those who cling to such observances to be the dogs, rather than the Gentiles whom they had so much contemned.

that I may gain Christ. This is the true gain, and the identical word as in the original should be preserved to show how the one thought pervades the apostle's mind. He has cast off what he formerly deemed ‘gain,' but for all that he has another and richer ‘gain.' He has lost something, but has gained for more.