Philippians 3:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore, he says, if I surpassed all others in noble birth, zeal, character, and life, why did I abandon these high advantages, except to gain Christ’s greater, far greater things? For this reason he adds, "But whatever was gain to me, this I counted loss for Christ."

Paul rejected the way of life which he had followed so carefully from his earliest age. He rejected such noble birth, so many dangers, so many snares, labors, and zeal. What had once been profit he counted loss, that he might gain Christ.

But we, to gain Christ, do not even despise money. We are ready rather to lose the life to come than present things, though these are nothing but loss.

Indeed, if we examine each object of wealth separately, tell me, is it not a loss requiring extraordinary labor and bringing no profit? Tell me, what profit comes from many costly garments? What gain do we receive when we put them on? None, except loss.

Why? Because a beggar in poor and worn clothing endures the heat no harder than you do. Indeed, he endures it much more easily, since a worn garment, and only one, gives the body more freedom than a newly made one, even if it were thinner than a spider’s web.

Besides, through excessive vainglory you wear two and three garments, often also a cloak, a belt, and underclothing, anaxoridas. No one reproaches him for having only one garment, and meanwhile he bears the heat more easily.

This is why, as we see, the rich sweat, while the poor suffer nothing of the kind. Therefore, if poor and worthless clothing gives the beggar the same benefit, or even greater, while the rich achieve the same with greater expense, is this great excess not loss?

With respect to use and utility, nothing has been added to you by them, while more money has been spent. They are used and serve in the same way.

You, rich man, bought your garments perhaps for a hundred gold pieces, or even more. The poor man bought his for a small silver coin. Do you see the loss? But vainglory does not allow you to see it.

Do you wish us also to speak of the golden ornaments with which horses and women are adorned? Besides other follies, wealth produces this folly in people as well. The same honor is given both to women and to horses.

The ornament of both is the same. Women want to glitter with the same things as harnesses and the leather curtains behind which they are carried.

Tell me, what gain is there in adorning a mule or horse with gold? And what special thing does your wife receive, burdened with such a weight of gold and stones?

But, they say, gold objects do not perish. On the contrary, this happens very often, as those skilled in these matters affirm. In baths and in many places, stones and gold objects lose much of their value.

But let it even be so. Let them suffer no damage at all. What profit is there in them, tell me? What if they fall out and are lost? Is this not loss?

What if they stir up envy and evil designs? Is this not loss? Is it not loss when they bring no benefit to the one adorned, but inflame the eyes of the envious and even provoke robbers?

Tell me, is it not loss when a husband, who has the right to use them for profitable work, cannot do this because of his wife’s great expenses? He is forced to suffer hunger and extreme need, while seeing her in gold.

Money is called useful things, chremata, so that we may use it, not as copies from goldsmiths’ designs, but so that we may do something good with it.

Therefore, if attachment to gold does not allow you to do this, is it not all loss? Whoever does not dare to use these things, as though they belonged to another, does not use them. There is no profit from them at all.

What profit is there when we build bright and enormous houses, adorn them with columns, marble, galleries, and balconies, and set up idols and statues everywhere? Many even summon demons from these idols, but we will not touch on this.

What need is there for a golden roof? Does it not provide the same benefit as the roof of one who has a modest house? But, they will say, it gives great pleasure. Yes, but only for a day or two, no more.

If even the sun does not strike us with wonder, because we are used to it, much less do works of art. We pay them no more attention than clay.

Tell me, what does a multitude of columns, the beauty of statues, and gilded walls add to the grace of a house? Nothing. This is only the work of folly, pride, excessive vainglory, and madness.

Even of all things useful to us, we ought to have what is necessary, not what is excessive. Do you see that this adornment is loss? Do you see that it is excessive and useless?

If it gives neither greater benefit nor lasting pleasure, since with time it produces satiety, it is nothing but loss. But vainglory hinders us and does not allow us to see this.

Paul abandoned even what he counted gain. Shall we not abandon even loss for Christ? How long shall we still be attached to the earth? How long shall we not direct our gaze toward heaven?

Do you not see that the old have no feeling for what has passed? Do you not see that people die both in old age and in youth? Do you not see that even while living they are deprived of their possessions?

Why then do we cling to what is unstable? Why are we attached to what is insecure? How long shall we not care for what is eternal?

What would the elderly not give if they could be delivered from old age? Is it not extreme madness that we desire to restore vanished youth, and are ready to give everything to become younger?

Yet when we may receive a youth that never wears away, a youth with great riches and wholly spiritual, we do not wish to sacrifice even a little. We begrudge even what is now completely useless.

Wealth cannot deliver you from death. It has no power to drive away disease, prevent old age, or stop anything that is necessary and happens according to the law of nature. Are you still attached to it?

What profit is there, tell me? Does not drunkenness come from it? Does not gluttony come from it? Do not indecent and varied pleasures come from it, exhausting you more than cruel masters?

This is the only profit one can receive from wealth, and no other. There is no other because we do not wish it. If we wished, through wealth we would inherit even heaven itself.

Therefore, will someone say to me, wealth is a good thing? This does not depend on wealth, but on the free will of the one who possesses it. That it depends on the will, you will see from this: heaven can be inherited even by the poor.

God, as I have often said, looks not at the measure of what is given, but at the intention of those who give. Even being poor and giving little, one may receive all, because God asks what is within one’s strength.

Neither wealth leads to heaven, nor poverty to Gehenna. A good or evil will leads to one or the other.

Therefore let us correct it, restore it, and order it, and everything will be easy for us. As a carpenter works logs equally with an iron axe or a golden one, and even better with the iron, so it is here.

Virtue is performed far more conveniently in poverty. Concerning wealth Christ says, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God" (Mt 19:24).

Concerning poverty He said nothing of the kind. He even says the opposite: "Sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and follow Me" (Mk 10:21), since following Him depends on free will.

Therefore let us not flee poverty as though it were evil, for it is a pledge of the Kingdom. Nor let us pursue wealth as though it were good, for it destroys the foolish.

In every condition let us lift our gaze to God. Let us use rightly the good things given to us by Him, bodily strength, wealth, and everything else.

It is unseemly for us, created by God, to use these good things for something else, and not for our Creator. Has He given you eyes? Use them for Him, not for the devil.

How then should you use them for Him? Contemplate His creations and glorify Him, and do not turn your eyes toward women.

Has He given you hands? Use them for Him, not for the devil. Do not use them for robbery and covetousness, but for fulfilling the commandments and for acts of mercy. Stretch them out in prolonged prayers and to help the fallen.

Has He given you ears? Use them for Him, not for listening to noisy songs and shameful tales. It is written, "Let all your conversation be in the law of the Most High" (Sir 9:20).

And again, "Be in the assembly of the elders, and whoever is wise, cleave to him" (Sir 6:35).

Has He given you a mouth? Let it utter nothing displeasing to Him. Let it sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, "that it may give grace to those who hear" (Eph 4:29), for building up, not destruction.

Let it be for doxology, not slander, not calumnies, but for all that is opposite to these.

He gave you feet so that you might hasten, not to evil, but to good. He gave you a stomach, not so that you might overfill it, but so that you might live temperately.

He implanted desire for childbearing, not for fornication and adultery. He gave you a mind, not so that you might blaspheme, not so that you might revile Him, but so that you might glorify Him.

He also gave money so that we might use it as we ought. He gave strength so that we might use it rightly. He gave arts for the support of life, not so that we might turn away from spiritual pursuits.

He gave them so that we might learn not empty arts, but necessary ones. He gave them so that we might serve one another, not plot against one another.

He gave shelter so that it might protect only from rain, not so that it might be adorned with gold while the poor man perishes from hunger.

He gave clothing so that we might cover ourselves with it, not vaunt ourselves in it. He did not give it so that there might be much gold on it while Christ dies naked.

He gave a house, not so that you might live in it alone, but so that you might receive others.

He gave land, not so that, setting apart a large portion for yourself, you might spend God’s good things on harlots, dancers, actors, flute-players, and harpists. He gave it for the hungry and needy.

He gave you the sea so that you might sail and not be worn out by travel. He did not give it so that you might search its depths and bring up stones and the like. He did not give it for you to occupy yourself with this.

Why then, you will say, are there stones? Better tell me yourself why there are stones, and why they are so precious. Is it by inner worth or by usefulness?

But non-precious stones are more useful. They at least are fit for building, while these are fit for nothing. Besides, they are stronger.

But, you will say, precious stones serve as adornment. How? This is prejudice. Are they whiter? No, not whiter than the whitest marble. They do not even equal it.

Are they stronger? Hardly anyone would say this. Perhaps they are more useful or greater? This is not so either. Why then are they admired? For no other reason than prejudice.

If they are not more beautiful, since we can find things brighter and whiter than they are, and if they are not more useful or stronger, why are they so admired? Is it not solely from prejudice?

Why then did God give them? He did not give them, but you counted them as something great.

And why, you will say, does Scripture present them as important? It speaks according to your understanding, just as a teacher, when speaking with a child, often presents as important what he wishes to incline him toward and attract him to.

Why do you seek beauty in clothing? Put on clothing and shoes. Adorn yourself with these and be content with them.

"The judgments of the Lord," says David, "are more desirable than gold, even much fine gold" (Ps 18:11). But did he say this anywhere about beautiful garments? They are not useful, beloved.

If they were useful, God would not have commanded us to despise them. Divine Scripture speaks in accommodation to our understanding, and this is an act of God’s love for mankind.

Here the heretics who condemn the law say, "See, Paul calls it loss. How then could it have been given by God?" But first let us be thankful that the Holy Spirit so arranged matters that they accept these words as if they spoke in their favor. If this were not so, they would simply have destroyed these words, as they did many others.

Then notice: the Apostle did not directly say that the law is loss, but, "I count it loss," since the law in itself is not loss. Otherwise, how could it lead to Christ when rightly understood?

Formerly, understanding it falsely, I did not turn to Christ. But afterward, having learned the truth, I turned to Christ. Now the law showed me that it was loss at the time when, understanding it falsely, I did not turn to Christ.

But what was an advantage to me there, I counted as harm and loss for the sake of Christ, who appeared to me on the road to Damascus.

We have already said earlier that blessedness in eternal life serves as the reward for good works. Having rejected the defense of pleasure, which is soft and corrupt, and fear of sufferings, which deprives one of courage and strength, let us show that even in sufferings there is a place for blessed life (cf. Jas 1:27-29; 2:36-58).

This can easily be proved by reading: "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for righteousness' sake. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Mt 5:11-12).

And elsewhere: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me" (Mt 16:24; cf. Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23).

"As to zeal, persecuting the Church of God." I did not destroy the Church out of ambition, vainglory, or envy, as the rulers of the Jews did, but because I burned with zeal for the law.

"As to the righteousness of the law, blameless." The Apostle showed the imperfection of legal righteousness. Therefore he did not say simply, "as to righteousness, blameless," but added, "as to the righteousness of the law."

Having thus listed all this, he shows that he does not exalt himself in it at all, and says, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ." In comparison with the higher, the Apostle called the lower loss.

A lamp is unnecessary when the sun has shone forth. A tutor is unnecessary for those who have received perfect wisdom. A nurse's milk is useless to those who taste perfect food. The Apostle says this more plainly.

But all this I “count as refuse, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). That is, that I may more and more resemble Christ and be united with Him in spirit, “and be found in Him.” This means being found in living communion with Him, like a branch abiding on the vine and bearing fruit, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3:9).

As a living example of the Christian's right attitude toward Jewish confessional advantages, the Apostle points to himself. Though he was a Jew, he became a Christian and gave no importance to supposed tribal Jewish advantages in the matter of faith, even though he was the most zealous of the Jews and even a persecutor of Christianity.

The Apostle Paul's natural Jewishness and former zealous service to it were his particular weapon against the Judaizing heretics. In this one cannot fail to see a special divine providence for the good of the Church of God.

But everything that could have especially glorified him, had he remained an unbeliever in Christ, he regarded as pure loss, ξημίαν, because he believed in Christ, διά τον Χριστόν. Of course, his former theocratic advantages were no small hindrance to his being established in this faith.

"Gains," κερδη, means advantage or profit. "Loss," ζημιαν, means damage or deprivation.

When the law was in force, all the noted advantages that Saint Paul possessed by right of being under the law were profit for him.

But when an end was put to the law by the coming of Christ, and Saint Paul came to know this and believed, then holding to the law would no longer be profit for him, but loss.

Therefore, he says, I resolved rather to suffer loss through the law and all its advantages, so that I might be with Christ, for Christ's sake.

By this he expresses: having come to know Christ, I cast away these advantages.

Others, looking at this, could say to him: what a loss, what damage you have suffered. Yes, he says, I voluntarily chose this loss for Christ's sake.