Circumstances and people can rob us of joy, but so can things, and it is this “thief” that Paul deals with in Philippians 3. It is important to see the total message of this chapter before examining it in detail, so perhaps the following outline will be helpful.

• Verses 1-11 – Paul’s past, the accountant “I count”: new values
• Verses 12-16 – Paul’s present, the athlete “I press”: new vigor
• Verses 17-21 – Paul’s future, the alien “I look”: new vision

Focus and Commitment

Our mind is so powerful and a gift from God. But like all things, used wrongly, can create wrong things.

A pencil does not misspell words.

In verses 3:19-20, Paul describes people that have an appetite as their god. They brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. Then he points us in the right direction to seek the Lord.

Paul described professed Christians who “mind earthly things,” but then describes the believer with the spiritual mind, who “minds heavenly things.” You will recall that the city of Philippi was actually a Roman colony—a “Rome away from Rome.” In the same sense, the people of God are a colony of heaven on earth. “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20 NASB), and we look at earth from heaven’s point of view. This is the spiritual mind.

Because we are in a physical world, it is hard to keep the practice of having such a spiritual mine. When we catch our thoughts and feelings running rampant with negative and disheartening ways, we need to do a check and see if we are using our spiritual mind or physical mind.

It is easy for us to get wrapped up in “things,” not only the tangible things that we can see, but also the intangibles such as reputation, fame, achievement. Paul wrote about “what things were gain” to him (Phil. 3:7); he also mentioned “things which are behind” and “things which are before” (Phil. 3:13). In Paul’s case, some of these “things” were intangible, such as religious achievements (Gal. 1:14), a feeling of self-satisfaction, morality. We today can be snared both by tangibles and
intangibles, and as a result lose our joy.”

How are you tending to your thoughts and feelings lately? Is the physical mind overwhelming your spiritual mind?

“But even the tangible things are not in themselves sinful. God made things, and the Bible declares that these things are good (Gen. 1:31). God knows that we need certain things in order to live (Matt. 6:31–34). In fact, He “giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). But Jesus warned us that our lives do not consist in the abundance of the things that we possess (Luke 12:15). Quantity is no assurance of quality. Many people who have the things money can buy have lost the things that money cannot buy.

The key word in Philippians 3:1–11 is count (Phil. 3:7–8, 13). In the Greek, two different words are used, but the basic idea is the same: to evaluate, to assess. “The unexamined life is not worth living,” said Socrates. Yet, few people sit down to weigh seriously the values that control their decisions and directions. Many people today are the slaves of “things,” and as a result do not experience real Christian joy.

Can you relate to the challenge of balancing things and joy?

In Paul’s case, the “things” he was living for before he knew Christ seemed to be very commendable: a righteous life, obedience to the law, the defense of the religion of his fathers. But none of these things satisfied him or gave him acceptance with God.

Like most “religious” people today, Paul had enough morality to keep him out of trouble, but not enough righteousness to get him into heaven! It was not bad things that kept Paul away from Jesus—it was good things! He had to lose his “religion” to find salvation.

One day, Saul of Tarsus, the rabbi, met Jesus Christ,” “the Son of God, and on that day Saul’s values changed (read Acts 9:1–31). When Saul opened his books to evaluate his wealth, he discovered that apart from Jesus Christ, everything he lived for was only refuse. He explained in this section that there are only two kinds of righteousness (or spiritual wealth)—works righteousness and faith righteousness—and only faith righteousness is acceptable to God.”

This week take the time to be aware of how we are thinking and what are we trusting in.