Gain

I recently began teaching our college/young adult Sunday school class. I decided to start with some of Paul's letters and we've been reading through Philippians. Yesterday our discussion was centered around the first chapter of this letter.

I am only now beginning to really understand what Paul was talking about in verse 21. Here he makes the claim that to live is Christ and to die is gain. As I was studying and trying to wrap my mind around this statement that I have heard for years, I encountered a facinating statement made by my favorite College professor and comentator, Bob Utley.

He says that Paul was able to make this claim because his life was already over. To Paul, life existed for the sole purpose of furthering the Kingdom of God. There was nothing else to Paul. In this sense, death represented only the culmination of his life, the final step into eternity, into the presence of God himself.

Looking at the life of Paul and reading his letters gives us even better insight into his statements. In Galatians, he had already declared that he had been crucified with Christ. Paul's life was already over. He had already given everything to live an existence devoted to Christ, there was nothing he had to lose.

As I stated earlier, I am just beginning to understand this statement, on the fringes of wrapping my mind around it. It is very liberating, to be set free from the constraints of life, from the bonds of society, from the expectations of what I think I need. All I need is Christ. When God says that he will supply all our needs, perhaps this is what he's talking about. Perhaps what he gives us is himself. Perhaps we need nothing more.