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By TONY HOSS
August 25, 2010
Often time in our lives we encounter those individuals who seem to have a great grasp on life. They seemingly fear nothing, they appear to have every physical blessing in life that most want to have. They have many friends, money, job, education, and so forth and they also have the time to enjoy it all. These people seem to be confident in themselves and their ideology. However appearances can be very deceiving. Often those who seem to have the most in life have the least and struggle to maintain their present lifestyle. This reminds me of a bear with his paw in a honey tree hole. While his fist is clinched he may seem to have it all. However with a clinched fist he can’t get the honey and the comb out of the small whole. Until he is willing to release his grip and consider another way of retrieval he has nothing. All the bear has managed to do is disturb the residence of the hive, destroy their home and see every one hurt in the process. The Honey Bees lose food, home, fellow bees, their young and so forth. The bear receives a great amount of pain as he is attacked by the swarm; he loses food, and loses a great deal of pride until he is willing to swallow it, release his hold and step back to see the whole picture with a clear eye.
At one point in his life the apostle Paul thought he had it all. Paul said he was a Jew trained by Gamaliel in the law of the Jews. He was zealous towards God and as such he persecuted the church. He even had many Christians committed to prisons knowing that their fate would be death (Acts 22:1-5). Paul was a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, who believed and looked for the coming resurrection (Acts 23:6). In his letter to the Church at Philippi Paul stated that he had confidence to boast in the flesh; he was a circumcised Jew according to the Law of Moses, he was of the tribe of Benjamin, and practiced the law trying to reach the righteousness that was contained in the law. In essence he said he was righteous for he kept the Law of Moses (Phil. 3:1-6). Yet with all that Paul held dear in life, with all his education and with all his boasting he still found himself needing something that he did not have.
In (Phil. 3:7-16) Paul rehearses before to the church the true meaning in life. His confidence was not in his physical flesh but in the spiritual body he had attained through Jesus the Christ. For the cause of Christ and his own spiritual goals Paul had given up all that had made him a boastful, prideful and confident man in the flesh. Yet he still had a great confidence; his confidence was now in and through Jesus. All that was gain he counted loss for Christ and the knowledge of Christ. He stated that he counted all things in his former life as dung. Paul did all this that he might have proper righteousness. Not the righteousness through the Mosaical Law but that which comes through Christ Jesus, the righteousness of God by faith.
Paul would no longer have an overinflated view of himself but had confidence through Jesus. He then encouraged the Philippians to follow his example in pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of the Lord.
Paul had a confidence worth noting, a confidence that would not deter from Christian living but one that would remind him that he was a servant of the Most High God and one that was blessed in whatever situation he would find himself (Phil. 4:11). This is a confidence that is worth noting, not only worth noting but worth emulating. May we as Paul always seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.