The One Phrase That Can Help You Recognize When Something Is Out of Balance
Something is out of balance.
Philippians 3 says:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
As humans, we’re symmetric. We enjoy symmetry. Symmetry is equated with harmony. Asymmetry is something that is out of balance, either intentionally or unintentionally. If it is intentional, it gets our attention. It is a powerful tool drawing our attention to a message very quickly. It is often easy, because we’re symmetric, to spot something that is asymmetric.
Visually, that is.
But, the asymmetry of a broken world can often be in the eye of the beholder. What works for one person, or some people, or a large group of people, may still be asymmetric to the world view of an entirely different group of people.
St. Paul, who wrote the book of Philippians, senses that there is something out of balance. And so, to bring it to our attention, he uses the words: for the sake of Christ. How often do we make the phrase for the sake of a passé expression without taking into account the full intention of it? If you boil this idiom down to its bare essentials, it means that something is out of balance. If you do something for somebody’s sake, it implies that there is an asymmetric force at work, that this certain somebody is not getting the credit they deserve, or that it might be something else they are owed. As long as it’s not an exclamation (e.g. for Pete’s sake) there is the subtle understanding that something needs to be done to bring about a place of symmetry, or harmony.
So, St. Paul realizes that there is something out of balance in the life that he has been living and the message of Jesus Christ. Essentially, what he is saying is: my life to this point has overshadowed the message of Jesus Christ and, in fact, so much so, that it must all be counted as nothing in order to give Jesus Christ His proper place. Paul understood that the things we do (often good things) can get in the way of knowing our Lord and Savior. And they must be relinquished in order to make right that imbalance.
This is what the church will always struggle with. This is what we as humans will always struggle with. Letting the Gospel find its full glory in our lives apart from the things we do (A.K.A. good works) is a road less traveled by so many. It’s easy to read these words of St. Paul and do a couple of things: (1) complain that this is unattainable in this life, or (2) hold him up as the holiest man who has ever lived, next to Jesus of course! We can read these words and assume that Paul never struggled with this, but Paul’s words to the different churches tell of a man just like you or me. He understood the necessity of the Gospel, but he was far from perfect. He had his weak moments; he had his angry moments; he had disagreements that he probably didn’t handle correctly every time. If he were here, he’d admit it readily. But he was willing to wrestle with it every day so that the Gospel was a continued force for joy and peace in his life and ministry. Paul knew (and tells us) of the endgame: I need to become like Christ, and that means if He died, I need to die to certain things; if He rose again, I need to rise again, and certainly, I will rise again when the full glory of Christ is attained at my last breath.
So, let’s struggle with St. Paul. Perhaps we should use the phrase for the sake of Christ more often, being extremely intentional in reminding ourselves of how our lives can overshadow the Gospel and be asymmetrical with the life of Christ we are called to live. Be willing to suffer daily the loss of some really good things, so that the Gospel does not lose it’s effectiveness in your spiritual life. Amen.
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