What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. Philippians 3:8
You cannot have peace and victory if your salvation is, ‘BY FAITH AND………’ The ‘AND’ is of worldly value.
Judiazers followed Paul from town to town. These Jewish converts believed Gentile Christians must be circumcised and follow the Jewish law, thus altering the entire theology of salvation by faith alone.
Paul had been a Jewish scholar, a Pharisee. He was a rule follower and a rule administrator to the highest degree possible, and sometimes impossible! Then Paul met Jesus, the Lamb, the Savior. He relinquished social status, a steady income and physical comforts, to carry the Gospel from one end of the Roman Empire to the other. (About 10,000 miles.) He suffered three shipwrecks, eight beatings, a stoning and five imprisonments at least. He was relentless in His quest to see that others found Hope in the blood of Jesus if they would only believe.
My neighbor has a sign posted to a tree in his yard, “There is nothing here worth dying for.” The double barrel picture completes the point. Paul said it 2000 years ago and it is still true today. There’s nothing here on earth worth missing Heaven for.
Love,
Gretchen