To Encourage You

Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

How badly do you want to know Jesus Christ?  Do you think you know Him well enough already? Perhaps you see yourself as a Christian. You asked Jesus into your heart at one time in your life.  You’re confident that you’ll go to heaven someday, and so you go on with your life.  Or perhaps you don’t claim to know Him at all.  Perhaps you don’t think the question is even relevant, for your priorities are elsewhere.  But isn’t your curiosity piqued, at least a little bit, when you read words such as those above from Philippians 3?  They were written by the apostle Paul, someone who was quite unique in at least one way: he had seen Jesus with his own two eyes.  And it had blinded him!  Up until that moment he had no time for Christ. In fact, his life was focused on exterminating any mention of Him. He went about persecuting those who said they were following Him.  Any mention of Jesus provoked hatred in this man who claimed to know God.  The problem was that he DIDN’T know Him. In fact, he didn’t know Him at all.  But it took a moment of physical blindness to open Paul’s spiritual eyes. He needed to realize what he DIDN’T know before he could come to the true knowledge of God. But now he couldn’t know enough. He longed to know more about this magnificent being who had appeared to him in blinding light.  In fact, his desire to know more of his Savior was so great that he was willing to lose everything else in his life if that’s what it took to know Christ.  He viewed EVERYTHING else – his physical possessions, his prestige, his family, his friends, his comfort, and anything else as rubbish alongside the treasure of growing in his knowledge of Christ. 

So does this make any sense to you?  Can you relate to Paul’s passion for this?  Does it describe you, even a little bit?  Well, if you call yourself a Christian, it surely should.  It should be the prevailing passion of your life and mine, for if we’ve truly met this One Whom Paul met, it will change our priorities just like it did his.  You see, Jesus is the First, the Last (Revelation 22:13), and everything in between. He is “the fullness” of the infinite God (Colossians 1:19). It was Jesus Who made everything that exists and it is Jesus Who, alone, sustains it (Colossians 1:16-17). It is solely for His pleasure that anything that is anything exists (Revelation 4:11).  That includes you and me.  That’s the only reason we’re here. It was solely because He willed it. 

So, shouldn’t we want to know more?  Shouldn’t we want to know this One in Whom are bound all the reasons for our existence and the existence of everything else?  Shouldn’t we want to know more of this One about Whom we are told, “from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36)?

Well, if that’s not our attitude, it’s only because of one thing – and that is, like Paul before he saw him, we are ignorant of what really matters because we are blinded by our own sin. For you see, to go through life living as if the main thing doesn’t matter is to miss the whole reason for living.  It’s the greatest tragedy that can ever be.  Listen to the words of Solomon, the wisest human being, other than Jesus, who ever lived on this earth: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).  He’s telling us that a life lived without the knowledge of God is meaningless.  To live in such a condition is to miss the whole point.  But Solomon tried it. Although he was wise in some ways, he was very foolish in others. Although he began well, he, little by little, took his eyes off God and began to indulge himself in every pleasure known to man.  Listen to him as he describes his life in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11: “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But behold, this also was vanity.I said of laughter, ‘It is mad,’ and of pleasure, ‘What use is it?’ I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”  And then listen to Solomon at the end of his book: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).  And so, Solomon was one who could say about everything that we might think will bring us happiness and the ultimate meaning in life, “Yes, I’ve been there and done that.  And none of it will matter in the end. To know God and obey what He has said is all that really matters. You can be sure to think otherwise is foolish, for all the rest of it is vanity, in the end.”