Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

positively harmful … perhaps including his Roman citizenship, material possessions, or an assured
position in the world – in fact, anything in which he was tempted to trust and which therefore stood
over against the personal knowledge of Christ ... Whether the apostle is contrasting this personal
knowledge of Christ with inferior forms of knowledge is not certain; but he clearly emphasizes that
it is the only knowledge worth having, a knowledge so transcendent in value that it compensates for
the loss of everything else. (P. O’Brien)
A bare, speculative knowledge of Christ is a great privilege, but if we are content with it, we shall
perish. It was not those who saw the ark, but those who entered it who were saved ... Christianity is a
system of divine knowledge from God ... if the soul is without knowledge, it is not good. Ignorance
is not the mother of devotion ... Sin has got into the heart (mind), knowledge of Christ must also get
there. Mere superficial knowledge of Scripture will only aggravate the sinner's doom. Hell is full of
it ... But advanced doctrines of Christ have a transforming and assimilating effect on all who
believingly contemplate it. If the knowledge of Christ is so excellent, it should be our constant and
vigorous effort to increase it, and we should endeavor to extend it to as many of our fellow creatures
as we can reach. It is remarkable how Paul makes every other topic tributary to this. All things are
but loss in comparison with this knowledge. No knowledge worth having is to be had without
diligence, and how sad that many are so busy about lower knowledge that they say they have no
time for this. (J.S. Exell)
“Skubalon” is also used to describe a half-eaten corpse or lumps of manure, a deliberately vulgar
term. Paul's prior gains were now offensive to him. (G.F. Hawthorne) The Greek term “skubalon”
means dung, muck, both as excrement and food gone bad, scraps left after a meal, and refuse. It is
here used in the first sense (excrement). Although the apostles' language is stark, it is inappropriate
to weaken its meaning because of embarrassment, as some of the early church fathers did. (P.T.
O'Brien) A special reference to excrement is not uncommon. (M. Silva) Paul also uses a
paranomasia – a play on words; Paul has given up all other forms of "gain" in order that he might get
the "true gain." (G.F. Hawthorne) Paul’s declaration in this passage reveals his spiritual growth from
supergrace status to ultra-supergrace status. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.) The “all things” he lost might include
confiscation of property, disinheritance by family, as well as the loss of status in Judaism, which he
had formerly prized. A considerable cost had been involved in Paul’s glad acceptance of Christ Jesus
as his Lord ... He had no regrets. He did not keep harking back to the past, secretly longing for the
things he had lost. Quite the reverse. He regarded them as abhorrent. (P. O’Brien)
Knowledge is sometimes put for faith: By His knowledge, or the knowledge of Him, shall my
righteous servant justify many (Isaiah 53:11). And it is the excellency of knowledge. There is an
abundant and transcendent excellency in the doctrine of Christ, or the Christian religion above all the
knowledge of nature, and improvements of human wisdom; for it is suited to the case of fallen
sinners and furnishes them with all they need and all they can desire and hope for, with all saving
wisdom and saving grace. (M. Henry) There is nothing mechanical or fixed about fellowship with
Christ. It may be interrupted by decay of zeal, the intrusion of the earthly spirit, the toleration of
known sins, the easy domination of self-will, and countless other causes. Hence, to maintain it, there
must be the continuous estimating of earthly things at their true value. (W. Nicoll) “Gaining Christ”
is a synonym for fulfilling the protocol plan of God. The believer lives the Christian way of life by