Valuing Garbage As If It Were Treasure

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him…

Philippians 3:8-9a

I had a sweet opportunity to serve at a worship service on Sunday night and I spoke on Philippians 3.  Elyse was there to support and encourage my efforts and said that a particular illustration was helpful (she also said that I hadn’t written any blogs in awhile!), so I thought I would share it a little more broadly.  

I have been in a season for what seems like far too long of what I can only describe as complacency.  Sure, I’m still attending church and maintaining a devotional life in the Word, but my life doesn’t seem to be aimed at devotion to Jesus Christ.  

I’m seeing more and more that I tend to wait around for my feelings to lead me into greater commitment to Jesus, which leads to a whole lot of waiting and not much doing!  It stands to reason that since my heart is fickle and selfish that I won’t make much progress in holiness if I sit like a bump on a log until my heart is eager to seek Christ.  Sure there will be seasons of tremendous joy and commitment when God is kind to stir emotions, but there will be just as many if not more seasons of apathy and indifference if I only pursue Christ from emotional appeal rather than by faith because of what His Word says is true!  

Perhaps it is oversimplified, but I find the illustration of a train with three cars helpful.  We need to order our lives so that the engine car is the truth of God’s Word, which pulls the second car of our faith, which is followed by the caboose of our feelings.  Often I reverse these train cars and put a car that has no engine in front.  No wonder why life can feel so void of passion and zeal when I let anything other than the truth of Scripture determine my response to Jesus.  

So, moving to the above verses, we read that the Apostle Paul, who was once a blameless Pharisee, a Hebrew of all Hebrews, who had more reason to boast in his religious accomplishments than any man he knew…he has made a statement that is radically counter cultural and just as radically controversial!  

Anyone who says that the Bible doesn’t have curse words hasn’t read Philippians!  The word “rubbish” is a vulgar word.  It is about the worst word Paul could come up with to describe the true value of the things he once treasured and meticulously measured for his spiritual gain.  It means dung or refuse.  Refuse would have been the filth that folks in Paul’s time would toss into alleys for wild dogs to scavenge through.  It was completely worthless and actually harmful to keep around because of the health issues that come from keeping sewage and rotting things around your house.  

Imagine living in a house without trashcans!  Now imagine that you don’t have trash cans because you place great value upon “trash.”  You have a half drank gallon of milk as your table centerpiece, used tea bags hang on your Christmas tree as ornaments, card board boxes are arrayed like pink flamingoes in your yard.  It wouldn’t take long for things to start smelling bad, and your physical health would be at stake as empty packages of raw chicken and rotting leftovers were piled on your counter tops.  

Paul is admitting to this reality in a spiritual sense.  He had collected all kinds of trash and valued all kinds of religious deeds and his Jewish status.  He was collecting spiritually harmful things as if they were spiritual treasure.  

Can you relate to this?  What are you placing value in that is really harmful, disgusting garbage?  Are you considering your Christian faith as weekly duties to check off?  Going to church, reading the Bible, serving in the community?  Have you placed spiritual value in these things?  

What about worldly things?  What earthly activities do you prove to put a high value upon because you continue to return to them over and over again?  Watching TV for hours at a time?  That daily nap?  Repeatedly overeating?  

Now I don’t want to sound like I am saying there is no value in anything.  But what I am saying is that Paul is clearly distinguishing between knowing Jesus and everything else.  He has considered everything else to be garbage compared to knowing Christ.  He has suffered the loss of all things, he counts them as loss so that he can gain Christ.  

Why is he so committed to knowing Christ?  Because Paul knows that it is only through knowing Christ that he will attain the resurrection from the dead.  And when he is raised to new life, he will be in heaven…to see Jesus face to face and to enjoy sweet fellowship with him forever!  That is why Paul has ordered his life around one thing and one thing only:  to know Christ which is of surpassing worth.  

We need to continually ask ourselves whether or not our lives are focused on this same end.  Have I made Jesus Christ my omega, my end point?  Is knowing him really why I wake up in the morning?  Is knowing him the last thing that I think about when I lay my head on the pillow?  If it’s not, we are in danger of being harmed by a lot of spiritual garbage.  In fact, harm is inevitable unless we aim to know Christ and be found in him.  

Jesus said that where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Going back to my earlier point that Scripture should be what guides our decisions, attitudes, and actions, Jesus’s words become all the more clear.  He doesn’t say, “where your heart is, your treasure will be also.”  NO!  He says in essence that we are to determine where our treasure will be…or who it will be…and then as we wage war with our fleshly, selfish self, our heart will gravitate towards what we treasure.  

To miss this is to miss resurrection.  It’s to miss the abundant life that Jesus offers.  

Sadly, it isn’t hard for me to imagine missing out on much of what Christ offers to his people.  I know all too well what it’s like to value garbage as treasure.  But I am grateful because each and every day provides another opportunity to say “no” to a heart that values garbage and to say “yes” to who God tells me I should treasure.  

To treasure Jesus Christ, to know Him, is to have life.  It is to be raised above the troubles and temptations of this world.  It is to found ourselves in a place where we can rejoice in the Lord always and find contentment in all things as chapter 4 of Philippians goes on to say.  

So don’t ignore the spiritual garbage that has begun accumulating in your life!  We all have it to some degree.  Toss it out for the dogs and make knowing Jesus of the infinite spiritual value that Scripture assures us that it is!  Then I am sure we will all find that the good things that we counted as loss will find their proper value in light of Christ and the worldly things that threaten our lives will be gladly flung away for the better and abiding treasure of Jesus Himself.