The concept of losing to win is a strange one. But a radical servant of God from the first century had this quirky perception that to lose would ultimately mean gain for him. His name was Paul, and he wrote to the Philippian church, “that he counted ALL things loss, that he might gain possession of Jesus Christ!” He counted as a loss all his former confidence in religious fervour, zeal, and righteousness for his new found confidence in Christ. And he went a step further to say that in fact he counted all things outside of his love and relationship with Jesus Christ to be dung or refuse. This was a radical servant of the risen Lord! But he did not consider all things as a loss in his life because he had an affection for misery or sorrow. No, Paul lost for a greater gain. He was willing to give up all competing affections for Christ, that he might gain or acquire possession of Christ Himself! As the Gospel of Matthew says in chapter 13 and verse 44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” He lost everything he owned to gain a far greater treasure. This is the Gospel- that Christ is a far greater treasure than anything else. Paul was willing to lose his reputation, his religious boasting, and anything else in his life that stood in the path of his affections for Christ. The late missionary Jim Elliot once penned, “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”. What is the treasure you most prize today? Are you gaining now, only to lose it all one day, or are you willing to count it all as refuse that you might gain Christ forever!
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