Daily Passage on Works: Philippians 3:8-20

Day 31:

Philippians 3:8-20: I count everything a loss for the superior purpose of the knowledge of King Jesus my Lord. For him I have suffered the loss of everything, and I count all of it refuse so that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in the King, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

I want to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, so that I may shaped into the form of his death, if at the end I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. It is not as though I have already attained, or were already perfected, but I race after him so that I may grab that for which I have been grabbed by King Jesus.

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have gotten my hands on it, but I do this one thing: I forget the things which are behind me, and I stretch for the things in front of me. I race toward the finish line for the prize of the upward call of God in King Jesus.

Let us, therefore, as many of us as are perfect, think like this. If anyone has any other way of thinking, God shall reveal even this to you. Beside this, to wherever we have already arrived, let us walk by the same measure, let us think the same thing.

Brothers, be followers, together, of me, and pay attention to those who walk like you have us for an example. For there are many who walk, as I have told you often and even now tell you with weeping, who are the enemies of the cross of the King. Their end is destruction; their god is their belly, their glory is in their shame, and they pay attention to earthly things. Our citizenship, however, is in heaven, and from there we also look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus the King.

The Purpose of This Exercise

This is passage 31 of what I hope will be 180 passages (six months worth). The point is to establish that we can exhort each other to good works without apology because Jesus and his apostles certainly don’t apologize for their exhortations or their warnings concerning good works.

This is a faithful saying, and I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. (Tit. 3:8)

Reach Beyond Your Grasp (kharismagzine.wordpress.com)
Friday Devotional: The Secret to Contentment (betaupsilonchi.wordpress.com)

About Paul Pavao

I am married, the father of six, and currently the grandfather of five. I teach, and I am always trying to learn to disciple others better than I have before. I believe God has gifted me to restore proper theological foundations to the Christian faith. In order to ensure that I do not become a heretic, I read the early church fathers from the second and third centuries. They were around when all the churches founded by the apostles were in unity. My philosophy for Bible reading is to understand each verse for exactly what it says in its local context. Only after accepting the verse for what it says do I compare it with other verses to develop my theology. If other verses seem to contradict a verse I just read, I will wait to say anything about those verses until I have an explanation that allows me to accept all the verses for what they say. This takes time, sometimes years, but eventually I have always been able to find something that does not require explaining verses away. The early church fathers have helped a lot with this. I argue and discuss these foundational doctrines with others to make sure my teaching really lines up with Scripture. I am encouraged by the fact that the several missionaries and pastors that I know well and admire as holy men love the things I teach. I hope you will be encouraged too. I am indeed tearing up old foundations created by tradition in order to re-establish the foundations found in Scripture and lived on by the churches during their 300 years of unity.

View all posts by Paul Pavao →