Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Philippians 3:7
‘Howbeit what things were gains to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.’ The things that he has described were the things that he had treasured and relied on. They had been his life. They had meant everything to him, and he had hoped that eventually they might result in him finding eternal life. He saw them as his great assets, his ‘gains’, assiduously built up bit by bit. But then he had faced up to Jesus Christ and had recognised their folly. From then on he had seen all his gains as... read more
Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Philippians 3:5-6
Furthermore as a Pharisee he had meticulously sought to follow the Law (as interpreted by them), while his zealousness as a Jew had been proved by the way in which he had persecuted those Jews who were considered to have gone astray, the new-born church. And as regards the righteousness of the Law he had been able to tick off every box demonstrating that he had fulfilled all that was required of him by the Rabbis. No finger (apart from God’s) could have been pointed at him, because he had been... read more