Evaluating Priorities for the New Year!

I wish you a very happy and blessed New Year!

The end of one year and the beginning of another are always great times to evaluate whether our priorities are misplaced, and Paul can help us with that.

Paul had many things going for him as a Jewish man. If anyone could be a part of God’s family based on their credentials, it would be him. His credentials were superior to the Jews, who were putting unnecessary and worthless expectations on the believers in the church in Philippi. He says, “Though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one!” (Philippians 3:4-5a).  Paul is saying that he was born Jewish and was not a convert, he had the racial descent that would make him accepted into God’s family if he had to rely on human efforts and status. He says, “I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law” (Philippians 3:5b). He followed all the written and oral laws of the Torah meticulously. As a Pharisee, he maintained all the ritual purity required under the law. In verse 6, he says, “I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault” (Philippians 3:4b-6). Before he was confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), he had even gone so far as to persecute the church of Christ because it was a threat to the purity of Israel. He truly thought he had arrived spiritually.

But since meeting Christ on the road to Damascus and having his entire life and viewpoint changed, he now considers these credentials nothing. He realizes he has not arrived spiritually and is actually going in the wrong direction. In verses 7 - 9, we read, “I once thought these things were valuable,” all the things that I thought made me right with God, “but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else,” all my accomplishments, possessions, comforts, the things that I think give me security, my status, everything, “counting it all as garbage,” something that needs to be thrown away because it is so disgusting and repulsive, “so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.” This is not just knowing about him or what he said and did but truly knowing and having an ongoing relationship with him. “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith” (Philippians 3:7-9).

Then, in verses 10 and 11, Paul takes it further than simply having faith. He values experiencing Christ as being more important than anything else. He says, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10-11).  For Paul to know Christ was to become like him. He’s telling us here that the power of the resurrection doesn’t just mean the power that raised Christ from the dead, but the power at work in the life of believers that leads to transformation. Becoming like Christ involves being so identified with Christ that it can only be explained as having died to our former life. It is a separation from who we were and what we used to value to walk in step with Christ and be led by the Spirit. It is being made new. This is the transformation of the believer and becoming like Christ.

Have you evaluated your priorities for the new year recently?

• Is there anything in your life that you count on for your righteousness instead of the death and resurrection of Christ?
  

• Is there anything in your life that you value so much that it prevents you from getting to know Christ and becoming more like Him?
  

• Is there anything you need to do away with for 2025 to be a year where you grow to know and love Christ more than ever?
  

Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email using the “contact” page. It would be an honor to pray for you in the new year!