<p>3:8- see on Lk. 9:23-25.</p><p><i>Yes indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ</i>- Paul truly believed, &quot;doubtless&quot; (AV), without even temporal doubt, that the loss of secular things was gain. We tend to doubt that sometimes; waves of worry about our financial future and longer term security swamp us at times. But Paul was without doubt about his position. The &quot;all things&quot; which Paul lost were largely psychological values and standing amongst men; although the words for gain and loss can have a distinct financial sense too. And he likely lost much of his family, seeing he was from a line of proud Pharisees. The power of Paul's teaching about singleness is backed up by his personal situation. As a member of the Council who condemned Stephen, he would have had to be married. An unmarried Orthodox Jew would have been a contradiction in terms at that time. And yet he is evidently single in his Christian ministry. It seems fairly certain that his wife either died or left him at the time of his conversion, probably taking the children with her. If this is so, it gives extra poignancy to his comment that he had suffered the loss of all things for the sake of his conversion. The chances are that he thought and wrote that with a difficult glance back to that Jerusalem girl, the toddlers he'd never seen again, the life and infinite possibilities of what might have been... And it gives another angle on his description of his converts as his children.&nbsp;</p><p>Paul &quot;counted&quot; the things of this life as loss &quot;for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ&quot; and His sufferings, so that he would gain the resurrection. Moses likewise rejected the world for the same two reasons: the excellency of sharing the reproach of Christ, and secondly from respect unto the recompense of the reward, at the resurrection. He uses the same word translated &quot;esteemed&quot; when we read of how Moses &quot;esteemed&quot; the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures in Egypt (Heb. 11:26). The &quot;reproach&quot; of Christ is the same word used concerning Christ being &quot;reviled&quot; on the cross. Paul felt that the intellectual heights of knowing the mind of our crucified Lord, of being able to enter into the riches than are even now in the mind of Christ (Col. 2:3) more than compensated for his sacrifice of all material things in this life. And Moses was the same; he esteemed the &quot;reproach of Christ&quot;, the knowledge that he was sharing the sufferings of his future saviour and would thereby enter the Kingdom which he would make possible, as far greater than the possibility of being King of Egypt. He knew that he was sharing the sufferings of Christ, and that therefore he would be rewarded. It was this knowledge which motivated him in rejecting the riches of Egypt.&nbsp;</p><p>Paul could have been such a high flyer; he profited (materially, the Greek could imply) in the Jews' religion above any one else (Gal. 1:14). But he resigned it all. He wrote some majestic words which ought to become the goal of every one of us: &quot;But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss <i>for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord</i>: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I way win Christ&quot; (Phil. 3:7,8). Why did he do it? Not just because he wanted to get salvation. &quot;For the <i>excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord</i>&quot;. For the <i>excellency</i> of who Christ is, as <i>my</i> Lord, he did it. Grasping the wonder of our salvation in the Lord Jesus should do even more than motivate us to write out a cheque; Paul not only gave, but he counted the things of this life as <i>dung</i> (and that's just what it means); he <i>despised</i> material advantage. This is a stage beyond just being generous.</p>