For many Christians, Philippians 3 is one of their favorite chapters in the Bible, because it shows us how we can pursue Christ and ultimately come to know Him.

What we see in this chapter is that there are stages we must pass through in our seeking after Christ. To begin with, we need to reject the “religious dogs” (v. 2) who want to turn us away from Christ to some other kind of righteousness. Next, we ourselves must give up any kind of righteousness we have of our own, or any spiritual attainment we may feel we have outside of Christ. Then we need to go on to count so many things as loss that would otherwise frustrate us from gaining Christ (vv. 7-8).

In brief, we must see a vision of Christ so that, like Paul, we “stop ourselves.” Only then can Christ begin to work in us and through us as He desires.