Philippians 3 Devotional

A Righteousness Not Our Own

“But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.”Philippians 3:7 (BSB)

Philippians 3 turns sharply to warn against teachers who put their confidence in circumcision and religious performance (3:2-3). If anyone could boast in such things, Paul says, it was him. He lists his record: born into Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, zealous enough to persecute the church, and faultless by the standard of the law (3:4-6). Then he moves all of it to the loss column. Compared with knowing Christ, he treats it as garbage (3:7-8).

What Paul wants instead is to be found in Christ, not holding a righteousness of his own from keeping the law but the righteousness that comes from God through faith (3:9). The gift does not make him passive. He presses on toward the goal, because Christ Jesus has already taken hold of him (3:12-14). And he waits for a Savior from heaven who will remake our frail bodies to share his glory (3:20-21). Whatever record you are tempted to stand on, you are free to set it down and stand in Christ instead.

To think about: What achievement or record are you most tempted to rely on before God, and what would it mean to count it as loss?