This is a surprisingly difficult passage, for all of its simplicity.

For context, Paul begins the chapter telling the Philippians not to place any confidence in the flesh, although he could...he launched (v4,5) into a description of his own legal standing as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, by all accounts of the day's Judaism, an ideal man. And yet he disdains all of that "good" stuff for Christ.

The translation "garbage" or NIV's "rubish", is actually very cute. The actual word is that used is for the stuff in a city's sewage pits. Yeah, crap. Thus is Paul's worldly perfection considered next to the "greatness of knowing Christ". It devalues litterally everything else in his former life to the level of excrement to have it all compared to the pursuit of God.

Not just his own personal old accomplishments, either. The word is "all things" are a loss, meaning naturally, anything worldly. This, actually, is where the first bit of difficultly often crops up. Is he here telling us to forsake the world entirely, becoming all monks and nuns? Those familiar with Paul's views on celibacy have even more reason to believe he's saying that. This can lead to sort of a Christian apathy, what I call an Ecclisiastical fallacy.

Solomon's book of Ecclesiastes, read in a certain mood, can cause a considerable amount of hopelessness. The wise king Solomon spent a vast amount of his life with litterally everything he could wish for. He grew up as the son of King David, honored and beloved by a godly father and strong nation. Whew he was given the throne, God granted him a wish, anything he might want...and he took wisdom, an answer that so pleased God that he was granted power, wealth, and great peace as well. For those not familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes, it's basically Solomon, in all his wisdom, seeking happiness. He tried pleasures, works, wisdom...all sorts of things. At the end of each attempt he would conclude "Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" The conclusion of the matter, at the very end of the book, is the simple statement: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12:13b, NIV.

Jenny's signature is a profound restatement of Philippians 3:8: "Anything not eternal is eternally useless." When deciding what exactly we ought to eschew as rubish, we would do well to ask the question "is this something that matters in Heaven". If Angelus nips on, I'll ask him to relate his "bonfire in Heaven" picture. That aside, however, the point in this all is to be closer to Christ, as a bride (us) longs for her groom (Jesus).

However, this does not have to mean a life of asceticism for the Christian. Exactly one chapter over, Paul says:
"Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." Philippians 4:8 NIV.
This is hardly a statement that all things (or people) are "meaningless". Rather, the focus is on the higher things of God. To help, think of it this way: In any Christian, there is an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Any sight of a good thing in that person you might admire, every kind word and glint of a smile, is actually from God. Thus what is praise and to be thanked for such goodness is God, however, the person himself or herself is still a work of art through which God's hand is shown, in no way to be counted a loss. So it is with all the blessings that God gives. It would be darn disrespectful to scorn them, in fact.

Jesus told his followers: "...no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father of children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundreds times as much in this present age...and in the age to come, eternal life." Mark 10:29-30. But note who we have left the world for...not for the hundreds of times more we'll get in the present age, nor even for the eternal life in the age to come...but for Christ Jesus. The rest, the "good life" bits, just sort of fall out from our central focus. Priorities, again. "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:36.

Jesus lived a full life. He walked long and hard with his friends, enjoying friends and food and drink and all of the good things of God. However, He also walked with the heart of God, which led to weeping, pain and eventually, the cross. So then, if we are to share this yoke with Christ, it should be as we press on to the goal of eternity. The good things in this life are only good so far as they give us a taste of God, ever increasing our longing for Him. And so our purposed lives should be.

-- Edited by ScarredAndStriped at 22:59, 2006-04-09