Yet indeed I  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 (9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faithin Christ, the righteousness which is from God y faith; (10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being confirmed to His death, (11) if, be any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.  (12) Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay ahold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  (13) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, (14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The letter to the Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul to encourage the Christians at Phillipi to know Christ Jesus.  Christianity is not a religion of rules and rituals but a personal growing relationship with Jesus. When we meet Him we change and He initiates this – He marks us and the more we know Him, the more we change.

Paul was a Pharisee – he belonged to the strictest sect of Judaism and strictly observed the Mosaic Law. He was sincere, zealous, faithful and committed but when Christ choose him, Paul realized he was utterly wrong in trusting to his good deeds to earn salvation. Paul had to write off everything in his past  as not just loss but “garbage”.  We only gain the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ – all human effort is hopeless and worthless. The principle here is the foundational fact that Paul was apprehended by Jesus Christ.

Paul uses the metaphor of running the race to reach the goal. Christians need to press on – that running the race with our eyes fixed on the goal of the upward call of God in Jesus is a lifelong process but that sanctification will be completed. And only if we continually train do we grow and learn to deal with the obstacles of life, large and small. We are encouraged to forget the past while running our race and to keep moving – live daily in the Lord as tomorrow’s problems are sufficient to themselves. Our goal is to know Christ and to become more like Him.  Whatever we do we should do it all in the name of the Lord