Philippians 3:8-11 (Contemporary English Version)
8 Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ
9 and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ.
10 All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did,
11 so that somehow I also may be raised to life.
Have you ever met a person who said that they knew something or someone yet the more they spoke about it the more you realized that they had no idea what they were talking about?
The word know by definition means:
1. To be convinced of the truth of; to be fully assured of; as, to know things from information.
2. To be acquainted with; to be no stranger to; to be more or less familiar with the person, character, etc., of; to possess experience of.
In order to know someone or something you have to convinced of the truth of it by the information that you have of the subject or be acquainted on a personal level.
If you don't have either one of these things going for you then you don't have knowledge of the subject.
I don't believe that Paul had that problem.
Here was a guy who had many reasons to brag about his accomplishments. He did all the earthly things that the Pharisees told him to do in order to satisfy the organized Hebrew faith. Paul worked hard to show them that he was worthy.
When he met Christ those things didn't mean anything to him. Paul only wanted to know Jesus and nothing more. That takes more than words, it takes a spiritual rebirth. God saved Paul through his faith in Christ, not because of the works that he did. Paul was willing to suffer as Jesus did and die for what he believed in. He was convinced of the truth of Jesus and acquainted with Him on a personal level, he took the time to get to know Him.
What's stopping you?
Nothing, I hope and I think you know what I mean.
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