Philippians - Counting It All Loss

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Phil 3:8)

What is my desire?

I find that my heart is a factory of idols. With little effort, what begins as a perfectly harmless desire can grow into an overwhelming craving ... cheesecake, exercise, career, relationships, sleep. The evil in my desires typically lies not so much in what I want, but that I want it too much (Calvin), because these desires compete against Christ for supremacy. That which is my greatest delight is my God. We are controlled by what we desire. Therefore, if we satisfy our desires with temporal goods, then our desires will themselves be ephemeral ... like the seas that are fed by the rivers, always longing but never satisfied.

The heart of sin

To be ultimately satisfied in anything other than God is the heart of sin. This is what it means to fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), we have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the glory of mortal man (Rom 1:23). We have all loved other things more than God and thus have fallen short of this glory. So how then do I love Christ more than his creation? How then do I consider everything else as rubbish compared to Christ?

A Superior Satisfaction

According to Philippians 3:8, Paul says that he considers everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. The only way to fight desire is with desire. The only way we can joyfully give up our goods for the sake of gaining Christ is if we see Christ as superior to his gifts. We see this all the time in children. You can give a little boy a Hot Wheels car and he will be content with it ... that is, until another boy walks in with a bigger better car. And suddenly, the first boy is no longer satisfied with his car, he wants the other car. If you had asked the boy to give up his car at first he would have struggled to let it go. But had you asked him after he was mesmerized by the other boy's car, he would have paid no mind. Why is this? Because his first desire was eclipse by a desire for something greater. This is the only way we can consider everything as loss and rubbish compared to Christ: we must see Christ as a superior satisfaction.

Know Christ

How does one begin to grow in their desire for Christ. Paul says, "know him." Knowledge of Christ should be the kindling of our affections for him. The more we know him the more dim the allurements of this world become and the more desirous of his presence we become.

Oh that you would increase, Lord, that I my affections for these fleeting pleasures would decrease.