Philippians 3:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The heretics attack these words. Yet here also is the work of the Spirit's wisdom, that He allowed them to hope for victory, so that they would undertake the struggle.

If the Apostle had spoken plainly, they would have treated these words as they treated others. They would have cast away the books and denied the Scripture, being wholly unable to look at it.

But as in fishing, that by which the fish may be caught is not set openly, but hidden, so the fish itself runs into it. So it happened here when Paul called the law loss.

The law is called refuse by him and is called loss. He says it is impossible to gain Christ unless I count the law as loss.

All this enticed the heretics to accept this passage as favorable to them. But when they accepted it, they were surrounded by nets on every side.

What do these attackers say? See, the law is called loss. See, it is called refuse. How then do you say that it is God's?

Yet this very thing serves in favor of the law. How this is so we shall see from what follows. Let us examine carefully what has been said.

The Apostle did not say that the law is loss, but that he "counted" it as loss. Speaking of gain, he did not say, "I counted," but, "it was advantage."

Speaking of loss, he said, "I counted," and rightly so. The first is so by nature, but the latter only according to our judgment.

What then? According to the Apostle, is the law not loss? It is loss, but "for Christ's sake." But now it has become gain.

The law, he says, was not merely counted as gain, but was gain. I would put it this way: consider what it meant to transform into men those who had become beasts by nature.

If there had been no law, grace would not have been given. Why? Because it was like a bridge to grace.

When one cannot ascend from a very low place to a height, a ladder is set up. Once a man has ascended, he no longer needs the ladder.

Yet he does not despise it for this reason, but remains grateful to it. It brought him into such a state that he no longer needs it.

Precisely because he no longer needs it, he considers it just to show gratitude to it, since he would not have ascended without it.

The same must be said of the law. It raised us to the height, and therefore it was gain. But now we count it as loss. Why?

Not because it is loss, but because grace is far greater than it. A hungry poor man, so long as he has silver, is delivered from hunger.

But when he finds gold and cannot possess both together, he counts possession of the first as loss. He casts it aside and takes the gold.

He casts aside the silver not because it is loss. It is not harmful. He does so because he cannot take both together and must necessarily leave one.

So it is here also. Therefore the law is not harmful. Falling away from Christ through attachment to the law is harmful.

When the law draws us away from Christ, then it becomes loss. When it leads us to Him, it is not so.

This is why the Apostle says, "loss for Christ's sake." If it is "for Christ's sake," then the law is not loss by nature.

Why then does the law not permit one to come to Christ? You will say that it was given for this very purpose.

Indeed, Christ is the fulfillment of the law, and "Christ is the end of the law" (Rom 10:4). It permits us, if we believe it.

Does this mean that whoever believes the law leaves the law itself? He leaves it, if we are attentive. If we are inattentive, he does not leave it.

"Indeed I count all things as loss." Why, says the Apostle, do I apply this only to the law?

Is the world not a good thing? Is the present life not a good thing? But if they remove me from Christ, I count even them as loss.

Why? "Because of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." To sit by a candle when the sun is shining is loss.

Thus something becomes loss by comparison with what is far superior. Do you see that the Apostle speaks by comparison?

He says, "because of the surpassing," and not because of something of another kind. For superiority has place among things of the same kind.

Thus, by drawing the superiority of one understanding over another through comparison, the Apostle at the same time shows their kinship.

"For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse, that I may gain Christ."

"Refuse": it is not yet clear whether the Apostle calls the law refuse. It is likely that he calls the things of the world by this name.

After saying, "What was advantage to me, this I counted loss for Christ's sake," he says, "Indeed I count all things as loss."

He said "all things," that is, both ancient and present things. Yet if you wish to apply this also to the law, it will not be dishonored by that.

There is refuse in wheat, and precisely the coarse part of wheat is refuse, that is, chaff.

Therefore before the wheat there is need of refuse, and we gather it together with the wheat. If there were no refuse, there would be no wheat.

The same must be said of the law. Do you see how everywhere the Apostle calls a thing loss not in itself, but for Christ's sake?

"Indeed I count all things as loss." Why? "Because of the surpassing," he says, "knowledge" of Him, "for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things."

Then he adds: "and count them as refuse, that I may gain Christ." Do you see how everywhere he rests on Christ?

Nowhere does he allow the law to be dishonored and reviled, but from every side he protects it.

In itself, however, the law is gain. Listen further. He did not say, "what I considered gain," but "what was gain," since the law is truly an advantage. By freeing men from savagery and superstition, and by becoming a ladder, it leads us to life in Christ.

When someone ascends a ladder, he does not despise the steps. On the contrary, he remains grateful, because without them he could not have ascended.

So the law was gain. Yet now we count it loss and harm, not because it is such in reality, but because there is a greater grace.

Or consider a man who has silver and finds gold. If he cannot possess both, he considers it harmful to keep the silver and keeps the gold. So also the law becomes harmful if it leads away from Christ. If it led to Him, it would not be harmful.

Therefore, he says, I not only formerly counted the law as loss, but I count it so now. Why? Because of the surpassing grace. Do you see that he makes a comparison?

Only things of the same kind are compared. Therefore what surpasses, surpasses something of the same kind. The law too is knowledge, but a lesser one. Likewise a lamp is light, but not like the light of the sun, though it is light.

As he elevates and broadens his knowledge of God and of Christ, the Savior of men, he begins to understand himself and the objects of the external world better. At the same time, he strives not only to know but also to appropriate the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ.

He seeks to know Him, as he himself was known by Christ (1 Cor 13:12).

The word γνῶσις used here by the Apostle gave many heretics in antiquity, and many critics in more recent times, occasion to attach whole theories to it and impose them on the Apostle.

The former used this word to conceal their religious errors, and the latter to justify their philosophical inventions. The Church long ago exposed and condemned the heretics. Impartial investigation exposes the more recent interpreters and shows that the gnosis of the heretics and the teaching of the Apostle Paul have nothing in common except the name.

But when Christ came, the law became unnecessary."

According to St. John Chrysostom, "It is likely that the Apostle also calls the things of the world refuse."

And Bishop Theophan, explaining how the surpassing knowledge of Christ should be understood, says that "here the Apostle means Christian doctrine, which embraces everything: past, present, and future. It explains everything in a satisfying and edifying way. Or by the knowledge of Christ Jesus he means what was given about Christ Jesus, the experiential tasting of spiritual goods from faith in Him."

"I lost what is loss and gained Him in whom is the source of inexhaustible gains. For to gain Christ means to gain everything."

This abiding in Christ is possible only on the foundation of faith (ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει), when a man, so to speak, rests upon it. The Apostle desired to abide in Christ and be found in Him in order, first, to attain full knowledge of Him.

Above all, he desired to know the great power and meaning of His resurrection from the dead. Second, he desired to enter into communion with Christ in His sufferings, that is, to endure the same afflictions which Christ endured from sinners.

Third, he desired thus to die in a manner like Him, that is, to put the old man to death within himself. For this he will be raised, like Christ, to glory. Yet the Apostle, in his characteristic humility, speaks of this only conditionally: "if somehow I may attain."

Still, he does not wish to say that he has already succeeded in attaining this perfect knowledge of Christ. He only zealously strives to grasp moral perfection by the hand, since he himself has already been grasped by the Perfect One, Christ.

In general, he never turns his attention to his own successes in the work of his Christian growth. Like one running in the arena, he looks only forward, not looking back, and runs to receive the reward prepared for the victors.

But afterward Chrysostom adds that, if you wish to apply all these words to the law alone, you may do so.

The flow of the discourse, both before and after, is indeed wholly about the law. Therefore it is more natural here also to have only the law in mind.

But the thought, "I continue to count," is meager. There was no reason to set it forth.

Rather, we should suppose that the Apostle intended to express this thought: I do not count all that as refuse without cause, but because of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus.

This explains the preceding phrase, "for Christ's sake."

"Because of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus." "Surpassing," το υπερεχον, means the superiority of knowledge.

"Because of the higher knowledge, I call the lower loss and neglect the small for the sake of the greater.

I flee it not because it is evil, but because I prefer what is more important. Having received the grain, I count the chaff superfluous.

For the coarsest and stiffest part of the straw is called refuse. The grain of wheat is held upon it, but after the wheat is gathered, it is cast away.

So the law points to Christ. But when Christ came, the law became superfluous" (Blessed Theodoret).

By knowledge one may understand the system of Christian doctrine, which is wholly centered in Christ Jesus.

Proceeding from Him, it embraces everything, past, present, and future, and explains everything in the most satisfying, edifying, and consoling way.

The light of the knowledge of Christ Jesus captivated the Apostle's vast mind. But the frame of knowledge given by the law is narrow.

Comparing one with the other, I cast away the law and cleaved to Christ. In His light, I saw there only darkness.

Or by the knowledge of Christ Jesus he means what was given concerning Christ Jesus: the experiential tasting of spiritual blessings from faith in Him.

Circumcision, Sabbaths, sacrifices, washings, purifications, and all the rest cleansed the body. The soul remained without any benefit, and nothing fell to its share.

But in Christ Jesus grace descends into the soul. It drives away the passions, gives strength for every good, and fills the soul with consolations.

It does not allow the soul to feel the bitterness of privations and sorrows. It illumines all the paths of life and strengthens the heart with unshakable hope.

All this I know, as he seems to say, by experience. I see how much higher it is than what the law gives.

Therefore I cannot remain with the law. I gladly leave it and all its advantages because of the superiority of what I learn and experience in Christ Jesus.

The addition to the words "Christ Jesus," namely, "my Lord," breathes warm and sweet love.

He counts Him as his own, for he bears Him in his heart. He bears Him in his heart because he feels how much he has received and still receives from Him.

He knows how he was personally converted by Him, and then was constantly preserved, guided, comforted, and enlightened by Him.

He is still guarded by Him to this day, despite the hostility that surrounded and still surrounds him.

"For whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things," that is, I have lost all. I have cast everything away and renounced everything.

I have renounced legal justifications and sacrifices, Pharisaic zeal, and my own race. I count all this and the like as refuse, as dung, as nothing, "that I may gain Christ."

He did this in order to gain Christ, for the acquisition of Christ. Yet this acquisition is not expected only in the future. It is already possessed in the present.

I left all that, and in exchange I gained Christ Jesus my Lord. If you compare the two, you will see that this is not loss, but gain.

I lost what is damaging, and gained Him in whom lies the source of inexhaustible gains. For to gain Christ means to possess all things.