There is a danger in thinking that our accomplishments are because of our own abilities or talents. In Philippians 3, Paul reminds us that our confidence should be placed in our relationship with God, not in our own flesh. Paul begins this argument in Philippians 3:4-6 by providing his resume. He began by listing everything that he achieved through his talents and work. He was raised in the church. His ancestral line was pure. He got great grades in school. He served in the Church with great passion and enthusiasm. He even calls himself a “Hebrew of Hebrews” (verse 5).
But there was one big problem with Paul’s resume: it was driven entirely by what he knew and what he had accomplished with that knowledge. In those days of his life, he went by Saul. There are a few theories about why he later went by Paul instead of Saul, but for now, the important thing to keep in mind is that Saul and Paul are the same person. Saul believed he was the best synagogue member that any synagogue could ask for, and there were many leaders in the synagogue who agreed with him. He used all that prestige, knowledge, and passion to persecute the early Christians for believing in and teaching others about the resurrection of Jesus and His forgiveness of our sins.
Because Saul was so focused so using his accomplishments and gifts to stamp out opposition, God went to drastic measures to get his attention while he was traveling to Damascus to carry out his agenda. After this encounter, he spent three days in blindness while he fasted and prayed for God to heal him. Fortunately for the early church and us, God sent other believers to minister to Saul, and Saul redirected his focus from what he himself could do to what God wanted to do through him. You can read the whole story of Saul’s conversion in Acts 9 and confirm that Saul and Paul are the same person in Acts 13:9.
Paul shows how the shift from focusing on his expertise to focusing on faith in Jesus starting in Philippians 3:7 where he states that everything he considered gain in the past he now considers as loss. He even goes so far as to call all his success on his own, “garbage,” in comparison to knowing Jesus as Lord (verse 8). Paul uses his own life to illustrate that we find our value and salvation in Jesus Christ, not in something we can work towards or accomplish on our own. Paul urges us to fix our focus not on what we have done in the past or what we feel we are entitled to do, but on what God is calling us to do from now on and remember that God is always in control.