<p>3:7 <i>However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ</i>- Paul saw himself as the man who gives all to buy the pearl (Mt. 13:45,46 = Phil. 3:7,8; although this passage also alludes to Moses; as if he took inspiration from Moses to be like the man in the parable). He saw the excellency of the knowledge of Christ as the pearl whose beauty inspired even a rich man to give up all that he had. &quot;Gain&quot; could imply financial gain; but Paul has recently used the word in saying that &quot;to die is gain&quot; (1:21). This is the radical inversion of values which there is in Christ; secular gain becomes spiritual loss, and secular loss becomes spiritual gain. Paul alludes to this idea when he says that the shipwreck on the way to Italy was gaining from a loss (Acts 27:21 uses the same words). It could well be that he had reflected on that incident, the casting overboard of secular wealth with his own hands, and it now influenced his later thought now imprisoned in Rome.</p>