By Todd
What Truly Matters
D. Still
The Apostle Paul as Paradox and Paradigm
hile it is not unusual for people to speak openly of their successes and even their failures, it is rather rare for people to denigrate their successes and to celebrate their failures. Be that as it may, the Apostle Paul, who was also known as Saul of Tarsus, had a penchant for doing precisely that. In his instructions to the Philippians— with whom Paul had a special, reciprocal relationship—he maintains that Christfollowers are to boast in the Lord and to put no confidence in the flesh. They are, in a word, to live in dependence upon the Spirit (Philippians 3:3). That said, Paul contends that if anyone else had reason to be confident in their pedigree, performance, and progress according to “the flesh,” he himself could make an even stronger case (3:4). Then, in the next two verses, Paul “puts his money where his mouth is.” Truth be told, from an ancient Jewish perspective, he was something of a muckety-muck. His ascribed status markers were four: 1. circumcised on the eighth day (per Jewish regulations); 2. from the people of Israel (i.e., not a proselyte); 3. from the tribe of Benjamin (as was his namesake King Saul); and 4. a Hebrew
of Hebrews (who could communicate in Aramaic). Adding additional luster, he was a Pharisee who zealously persecuted Christfollowers and who observed the law with righteous, faultless fastidiousness. The picture Paul paints of himself to the Philippians is congruent with the selfportrait he offers the Galatians: He was on a meteoric rise in Judaism, leaving his contemporaries in the dust as he eagerly— and successfully—pursued his ancestral traditions and customs (Galatians 1:14). But after his encounter with the Risen Jesus en route to Damascus, Paul would come to view many of his previous commitments, and much of his previous conduct, as misguided, however earnest he may have been (see esp. 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:23; 1 Timothy 1:13-14). Paul’s conversion led him to reevaluate all of his previous metrics. He was forced to ask afresh what truly mattered, and he could have hardly anticipated what would prove to be the radical, revolutionary answer. As Philippians 3:7-14 evinces, what he had previously regarded as credit he came to view as debit. Considerable success, status, and standing within Judaism notwithstanding, he considered all such achievements and accolades as loss and dross. Furthermore, he came to view everything as paling
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