Philippians 3

Paul can recount, as can many of us, a litany of things that would make him seem qualified to preach the Gospel and by human standards qualify him for heaven. Paul, though, says that it is not any of that that matters. Without Christ, his achievements are no good. Without Christ, he would not be preaching the Gospel anyway. Without Christ, he would never find heaven.

Are we truly living with the understanding that it is only Christ that matters? Or are we caught up in the idea that we need to know more, do more, be more, and appear to be more? I think many of us want that appearance. I think that many people in the church want to look like good Christians more than they actually want to be good Christians, and those people are dangerous for the Gospel. Those are the ones that most damage the church when an outsider sees their behavior on Sunday as opposed to every other day of the week. Those are the ones that are the biggest challenge for others to overcome.