Philippians 3:7

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ”

In Philippians chapter three Paul describes his heritage, training, and the great achievement he had as a Pharisee. They were remarkable, and yet he counts them loss for the knowledge of Christ. Paul had to unlearn the former way of life which is not an easy task. One of the reasons I believe that Paul spend three years of his early ministry in Arabia was to take all his early training and apply the new understanding of Christ to his training. It was probably in these three years that God through his spirit opened the old testament scriptures to Paul to an understanding that changed his walk forever.

It is amazing once we truly seek God and began our journey with Christ as our Lord and Savior how many of our past beliefs just fade away. As we grow in Christ the things of this world are not as important as they once were. Our focus becomes on the things of heaven and presenting the gospel to these of a lost world that does not know Christ. To Paul his past was counted as lost because he found the gift of eternal life. Sometimes we like Paul must get away and let the Holy Spirit works through the scriptures to get us to go in a new direction.