This past Saturday I had a garage sale to raise proceeds for the World Race. I literally sold everything I had and for 8 hours I watched as strangers came and went with my stuff. And some of it was hard. I began to understand what Paul meant when he said in Philippians 3:8
Have you ever lost something and suffered from it? You know when you lose your cell phone and those fifteen minutes seem like hours. Or when you lose the remote to the TV and your world begins to fall apart! There’s that physical tension of loss and emotional torment of suffering (I’m not exaggerating; what would happen if your car was lost?) And Paul demonstrates both realities when describing everything that he takes to account. I felt that at the garage sale. Watching items that I grew up with like toys, books, things that seemed so important and valuable like game systems and shoes, all these things being sold one by one hit me. I felt this sense that I’m suffering from the loss of literally of all these things. And for a moment it seemed hard. But as the day went on and as I shared with everyone the reason why I was selling everything, I noticed the same transition in my soul as Paul shows in this verse. Loss becomes rubbish.
Some of the things I sold at the garage sale.
The word rubbish is used only once in the New Testament and the Greek word used is Skuvbalon (or Skubalon.) It literally means human feces. Most scholars, due to the nuance of a vulgar expression with emotive connotations, consider that the term can be roughly equivalent to the English “crap” and even to the modern word “s**t” as it's use today. You see, the Greek word translated as “rubbish” is not necessarily the most accurate translation of the Greek. Skuvbalon is an ancient dirty, harsh, intense, offensive word in Greek. Please note that I’m not endorsing the open usage of vulgarity. But please consider why some scholars have come to this:
- Its paucity of usage in Greek literature (a computer search of the Thesaurus Lingua Graecae [1990 version] showed that out of 3165 authors and over 65 million words (from Homer to 1453 CE), there are only 178 instances that the word Skuvbalon is used [one of them being Philippians 3:8.]
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It is used frequently in emotionally charged contexts (as are its verbal cognates) in which the author wishes to invoke revulsion in his audience.
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.There is evidence that there were other, more common and more acceptable terms referring to the same thing (in particular, the agricultural term “Koprov” and the medical term “Perivsswma.”)
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Diachronically, the shock value of the term seems to have worn off through the centuries.
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A natural transfer of the literal to a metaphorical usage, in which disgust, revulsion, or worthlessness are still in view, argues for this meaning as well.
What am I trying to prove here? It is NOT the endorsement of vulgar words. It is to show that Paul begins to realize that everything he worked for was crap compared to Jesus!!!! He graduated the Jewish version of Oxford University to become a Pharisee, he persecuted the Church for fame and power, he had it all going for him, and he threw it all away!!! Why? Because knowing Jesus is more priceless over all things and is greater then anything that can ever be imaginable!
And as I looked at the vast sea of items floating within my driveway, waiting for strangers to come and take them away, the Holy Spirit began to show me that all of these things that I once held dear to me were nothing but pieces of crap compared to what God has for on the World Race. And the zealous, eager fire of excitement for my trip began to boil to the top of my soul, and I went from being cautious to sell my possessions to wanting everything I had off of my driveway! I sold everything; game systems, toys, old books, hats, shoes, everything I had was gone.
God showed me how bad I suck at life. And when I say life, I mean the American Dream; the stereotypical, young, single male, dress like GQ, workout 3 times a week, have a nice car, live safe and secured, make money life. The world tells me to buy more; Jesus tells me to sell all of my possessions. The world tells me to save money; Jesus tells me to give every dollar to mission. The world tells me to continue my education; Jesus tells me to put that on the back burner and go across the globe. The world tells me to get my act together and find out what you’re going to do with your life; Jesus turn my life upside down and tells me to forget what the world says and follow Him to places I’d never even dreamed of going to and to people I never thought I'd meet.
Here with people I would have never of guessed I'd fall in love with.
I’m a failure when it comes to living life! But it’s because I’m not living my life for crap. I’m letting Christ live in and through me and because of that, I can actually begin to live. In order to find life, you gotta loose it. Jesus said in Matthew 16:25 that “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” And I’ve completely lost it! I’m gone. I’m following Jesus and there’s no turning back. It’s not me who lives, but Christ who lives in me. So this is it. This is my devotion: I am not going to living for s**t like cars and clothes and money and power and position. I’m living a radical, crazy life completely sold out for Jesus Christ. And as the great saint Augustine once said:
(Disclaimer: Like I said before: I'm not endorsing or advocating the use of profanity The Bible clearly teaches the believers not to use such vulgar language. The purpose of using such intense, even offensive language in this blog is the same as Paul's usuage in the letter to the Phillippians: to prove a point that Christ is more valuable above all. Also, possessions of nice clothes, nice cars, looking like you're straight from GQ isn't necassarily bad! The purpose of these examples is to show that anything can become more valuable then knowing Jesus. From watches to even Theology; the blog isn't intended to bring some kind of legalistic, poverty-Gospel that says you need to be poor and filthy and dress terribly to know Jesus. It's intended to illuminate the realization that Jesus Christ needs to be more valued then anything else; more valued then cars, then the type of worship you listen to, then money, then Theology, then anything and everything. Christ is everything or He is nothing!)
