“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 10:34-39
So, why are these words of Jesus extremely important to the conversation about Paul? Because if we are to understand the extent to which Paul regarded everything as loss for the sake of Christ, we need to understand what it means to regard everything as loss for His sake or in short ‘The True Cost of Discipleship’. The thing is sadly we leave in a world that regards prosperity, health and wealth as the true cost of discipleship when that couldn’t be further from the truth. Is it God’s Will to bless people with prosperity, health, and wealth? Yes, it is as nothing is outside of God’s sovereign control cause as the maverick R.C. Sproul used to say ‘No maverick molecule is outside of God’s control’ because if there were one then we can never count on Him.
However, that isn’t and never was the chief end of man cause the chief end of man was and still is to glorify and enjoy God forever. To do that however means that you aren’t in love with the world because as we know when it comes to God and the world, it is an either-or situation (1 John 2:15-17). This means that because of your loving God you will be against the world and that’s where the cost of discipleship lies. Jesus says in His High Priest’s prayer in John 17:
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
John 17:14
It is a guarantee that when God calls you to Himself then the world will vehemently hate you as you no longer belong to it. However, as Jesus says in the verses that are guiding this article, the world doesn’t just include people you don’t know it also and especially includes people you know and love to the point that you could die for them. That’s the true cost of discipleship where you have to answer the question: are you willing to lose everything including your own friends and family for the sake of glorifying and enjoying God forever? For that, we now look to Paul as he not lived a life that consistently bore the cost but also he of course gave the best answers to the question we have asked.
Paul’s Worldly Gains and Confidence in the Flesh
although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
Philippians 3:4-6
Here is our second small autobiography by Paul. He tells us plainly that while we might have confidence in the flesh, he had all the more reason to be so much more in his own. Which reasons are these?
Circumcised on the eighth day:
every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
Genesis 17:10-14
Of the nation of Israel:
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 7:6
Of the tribe of Benjamin:
Despite its shortcomings in Judges 19-21, the tribe of Benjamin had excellent swordsmen (Judges 20:15–16; 1 Chronicles 8:40, 12:2; 2 Chronicles 14:8, 17:17) and despite being the smallest tribe in Israel it produced some of the most significant people in the history of Israel. First was Ehud who delivered the Israelites from Moab (Judges 3:12-30), secondly, we have Saul who became the first king of Israel (1 Samuel 9:15-27). Also in later Jewish history, we had Mordecai and Esther (Hadassah) who were used by God to deliver their fellow Jews from death by the hand of Haman in Persia (Esther 2:5-7).1
Also, it was the tribe in which tribe the temple stood, and which adhered to Judah when all the other tribes revolted. Benjamin was the father’s darling, and this was a favorite tribe.
Hebrew of Hebrews:
As our friend Matthew Henry says what this means is that he was “an Israelite on both sides, by father and mother, and from one generation to another; none of his ancestors had matched with Gentiles.”2
As to the Law, a Pharisee:
I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.
Acts 22:3
But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!”
Acts 23:6
since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion.
Acts 26:5
As to zeal, a persecutor of the church:
I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.
Acts 22:4-5
As again our friend Matthew Henry says “he showed that he was in good earnest, though he had a zeal without knowledge to direct and govern the exercise of it.”
As to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless:
“As far as the Pharisee’s exposition of the law went, and as to the mere letter of the law and outward observance of it, he could acquit himself from the breach of it and could not be accused by any.” – Matthew Henry
So, as we have seen Paul had a myriad of reasons as to why he could be confident in his flesh as he had done things that most people his age could only dream of. Not only that he was a full-blooded child of promise as we have seen and even if he came from the smallest tribe, well it still was a tribe that harbored the temple and brought about some of the most significant people in Jewish history.
However, something happened that would render all these accomplishments seem meaningless and that was the fact that he was called to Christ by Christ (Acts 9:1-19) and no matter what happened to him and believe me a lot happened to him, he
Counted it all Loss
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ
Philippians 3:7-8
Why did he count it all loss? As we see from our preceding verse it was for the sake of Christ and why for His sake so that he may know Christ more and as he says in 1 Corinthians 9:23 so that he may be a partaker of the gospel. As I said earlier it is not that he is saying that all of his previous accomplishments are meaningless as either way by God’s providence these accomplishments were necessary for Paul to be regarded as he is today at least by me ‘The Greatest Man not called Christ’. What he means is that all of those accomplishments compared to Christ mean absolutely nothing thus he was taking Luke 14:26 rather literally.
However, he continues in verse 8 that not only would he count them all loss but also that lost all these things as well for the sake of Christ and counts them as rubbish. This goes against the cost of discipleship that is paraded to us today as I earlier said. Because here is Paul basically saying that he lost all his prosperity, power, wealth, and even health for the sake of Christ. He says in 1 Corinthians 4:9-13;
For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour, we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
As you can see from these 4 verses that this is starkly different from what most Christians believe is owed to them. Also, there is another thing most Christians for one reason or another believe that God owes them something or anything at all because of their service to Him. However, as Paul says in his sermon on Mars Hill:
The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
Acts 17:24-28
From these verses, we see that we are actually the ones who owe Him everything because we live, move, and exist in Him and the fact that He gave us the breath of life. So, no He owes us nothing rather we owe Him everything and even the everything we owe Him He actually gives us the resources to render our service to Him whether it be grace (Ephesians 2:1-10), faith (Hebrews 11), His word (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and many more that I can’t mention at the moment maybe at a later time.
However, as we see in 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 Paul and the apostles were not exactly people who you would see on the street and you would yearn to approach them but maybe you would be actively trying to run away from them. They were homeless, poorly clothed, reviled, persecuted, and were even considered the scum of the world but that didn’t matter to them because what mattered most to them is to be fools for the sake of Christ. Paul though was starkly different from the others in that while the others were never prosperous, powerful, or had every resource they could ever want at their disposal, he actually was but he lost all that because Christ meant much more to him, and even as he would be first to admit it wasn’t by his own strength but Christ’s and he does in Philippians 4:13. Why was it easy for Paul to render all things as loss and rubbish?
To Be Found in Him
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:9-11
Well, the answer is simple to be found in Him, not because of His strength or righteousness that is based on the law but on one that comes from God on the basis of faith which is the assurance or evidence of things hoped for, the certainty of things not seen. Thus, even if he never saw the resurrection happen by faith he believed it that’s why he confidently says in 2 Timothy 4:6-8;
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Believing all about Christ gave him the confidence to always preach and live for the sake of the gospel even if it was to his absolute detriment, which we will cover in part 3 because he knew that Christ would always be there, above all earthly powers and interceding for him instead of condemning him (Romans 8:34). He lost everything knowing that what he would be gaining would be infinite times better than all he lost. He and his fellow apostles showed us what it meant to be a disciple. It was never about prosperity, health, wealth, honor or privilege, it was always about knowing that Christ is Lord whether in the good or bad, and proclaiming that to the whole world. The question for you and me is when we are on death’s door as Paul was when writing his second letter to Timothy, can we confidently say that we have been valiant soldiers for Christ because we gave up everything to follow Him. Hopefully, our answers will mimic Paul’s.
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