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Our Saviour's advice to those who wished to be His servants was to count the cost. He did not wish to enlist any one by keeping him in ignorance of the requirements of His service. The exercise of our judgments in the gospel is required. Do not imagine that religion consists in wild fanaticism which never considers. The apostle here gives us the word "count" three times over. He was skilled in spiritual arithmetic and very careful in his reckoning. He seems here to be in a mercantile frame of mind, adding and subtracting and balancing.

I. THE APOSTLE'S CALCULATIONS.

1. His counting at the outset of his Christian life "What things were gain," etc.

(1) He dwelt on the several items, noting each with great distinctness. The list reads like a catalogue. His Jewish advantages had been as precious pearls to him once.

(2) What is there per contra. Nothing on the other side but one item; but that one outweighed the many. That one was not Christianity, the Church, or the orthodox faith, but Christ.

(3) Not only after putting the one under the other and making a subtraction did he find that his earthly advantages were less than Christ; he found these gains transformed into a loss. There was not a plus on that side to stand in proportion to a plus on this; they were turned into a minus of actual deficit. Not that he meant that to be a "Hebrew of the Hebrews," etc., was in itself a loss — the advantage was "much every way;" but he meant that with respect to Christ those things became a disadvantage, because their tendency had been to keep him from trusting Christ. It is a grand thing to have led a virtuous life; but this blessing may, by our own folly, become a curse, if we place it in opposition to the righteousness of Christ, and dream that we have no need of a Saviour.

2. His estimate for the time then present. We are always anxious to hear what a man has to say about a thing after he has tried it. After twenty years of experience Paul had an opportunity of revising his balance sheet; and makes the strong affirmation — "Yea, doubtless I count," etc. He has made the original summary even more comprehensive, but he stands to the same estimate and uses not barely the word "Christ," but the fuller expression, "the excellency of the knowledge," etc. Now he has come to know the Christ in whom before he had trusted. Christ is better loved as he is better known.

(1) The words show the points upon which he had fullest knowledge. He knew the Lord as —

(a)  Christ, the Messiah anointed and sent of the Father.

(b)  Jesus, the anointed and actual Saviour.

(c)  My Lord. His was an appropriating knowledge.

(2) The text implies that he knew Christ by faith. He believed, and hence he knew.

(3) He knew Him by experience, "and the power of His resurrection." This is excellent knowledge when the power of a fact is realized within and shown in the life.

(4) More than that Paul aimed to know more by a growing likeness to Him.

(5) There is no knowledge in this world comparable to this, for it concerns the highest conceivable object, and no man hath it but by the Holy Ghost.

(6) If you would see its excellency look at its effects — it makes us humble, delivers us from the power of sin, elevates the motives, sweetens the feelings, gives nobility to the life, and will continue to progress when every other knowledge is laid aside.

3. His third counting may be regarded as his life estimate. "For whom I have," etc. Here his estimate sets out with actual test and practical proof. He is a prisoner, with nothing in the world; he has lost caste, has no longer his own righteousness: Christ is his all and nothing else. Does he regret the loss of all things? No, he counts it an actual deliverance to have lost them.

(1) In his first and second countings these things were "loss," now they are "dung."(2) In his second estimate he spoke of "knowing" Christ, but now he speaks of "winning" Him, or rather "gaining," for he keeps to the mercantile figure all through.

(3) Further, his aim is to be "found in Him," as a bird in the air, a fish in the sea, a member in the body — as a fugitive shelters himself in his hiding place; so in Christ as never to come out of Him, so that whenever any one looks for him he may find him in Jesus.

(4) Notice how Paul keeps to what he began with, viz., his unrobing himself of his boastings in the flesh, and his arraying himself with Christ — "not having mine own righteousness," etc.

II. OUR OWN CALCULATIONS.

1. Do we join in Paul's earlier estimate. You will never be saved till you lose all your legal hopes.

2. After many years of profession do you still continue in the same mind and make the same estimate? Not if you have settled down on something other than Christ.

3. You cannot join Paul in the last calculation — "I have suffered the loss of all things," but do you think you could have done so if required for Christ's sake? Your fore. fathers did so.

4. Seeing God has left you your worldly comforts have you used all things for His sake.

5. If Christ be to you so that all things are dung and dross in comparison, do you not want Him for your children, your friends, etc. What a man values for himself he values for others.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

WEB: However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.