“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord …”   

Are you a good … or a sore loser?  I admit that while I’ve had lots of practice at it in my life (both personally and as a member of my High School hockey team which was notoriously bad), I still, internally, hate to lose.  I’ll put up a good front to someone who's bested me, but down inside I can’t wait for another crack at it.  Or one minute I’m playing a simple board game or round of golf, thinking the pastime itself or the company I’m keeping is all the pleasure I need, and the next minute the competitive juices in me start to flow and I’m trying to win. In the process, a lot of the pleasure drains away. I’m not a happy loser!

And yet that IS what a Christian is supposed to be – someone who joyfully “loses.”  Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)   Paul echoes that teaching of the Lord in his letter to the Philippians, equating it personally to the loss of his identity as a “Hebrew of Hebrews – a Pharisee blameless under the law”.  He says he’s glad to lose that because it was something he needed to lose.  He needed to lose the constant striving for perfection, the constant measuring of himself against others, and above all, the constant worry that in the eyes of God he was still “a little short - a little lacking.”

He says he counts it as a gain - a win, to know his eternal destiny is secured by knowing Christ as his Lord. He considers his former way of life “rubbish”, and that is a modest translation of the Greek word he used there!  But of course the competitive juices flow spiritually, as well as in the realms of athletics or academics in us sinners.  We love to win. Winning usually means personal success based on personal effort and recognition, as well as those warm fuzzies we feel inside from a personal accomplishment.

I refer you to what Paul said earlier in Philippians – the subject of my Pondering last week - about ‘working out our salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12)

Nothing about Christianity disqualifies a striving for holiness, but what we work out spiritually is not the same as what we work for. We “work out” – put in play, exercise our salvation - the grace of God in our life which frees us to do good works which bless our neighbor and glorify (not to mention please) God.  

There is a phrase that comes to mind – “Use it or lose it” - and I think it most often pertains to a skill or ability. But it can also include a privilege that, if we fail to take advantage of it, we might lose the advantage of it. In matters of the faith, it is true. If we fail to make use of the abilities and opportunities that God has given us, we might lose them. (See the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 - the man who “buried his master’s money” in fear and lost both the money and the master).  But the salvation God has given you in Christ can never be lost, and that is what Paul is saying in this passage from Philippians 3.

There are people who might characterize Christians as a “bunch of losers".   Actually (if only they knew), that’s exactly what we are … and we’re darn glad of it!

Because of a cross,

Pastor Ken Nelson

All works except for faith have to be directed to the neighbor. For God does not require of us any works with regard to himself, only faith in Christ. That is more than enough for him... Therefore, think nothing else than that you do to your neighbor as Christ has done to you. Let all your work and all your life be turned to your neighbor.

Martin Luther

Advent Postil, 1522