(Philippians 3:8) Nothing compares to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul had received the highest religious education in Jerusalem.

He was a prominent Pharisee.

He was the young religious star in Israel.

However, everything changed when Jesus appeared to him as he was walking to the city of Damascus to persecute the Christians who lived there (Acts 9).

After the miraculous visitation of Jesus, Paul was transformed.

He would never be the same.

What was important to him no longer mattered.

He was now the apostle Paul, called by God to go to the nations with the Gospel.

In Philippians 3:8, Paul declares that he lost everything when he came to serve Jesus Christ.

Actually, it is better to say that he gave up everything—his educational achievements, religious prestige, and his promising future as a leader in Jerusalem—to know Jesus Christ as his Lord.

His past successes did not compare to his new life in the kingdom of Jesus.

He embraced persecution and imprisonment because of his faith in Christ.

Paul was fully committed.

Walking to the Jerusalem temple in flowing religious robes while the people honored and praised him no longer mattered to him.

He did not have one foot in God’s kingdom and the other foot in the world.

When we are born again—when we fully embrace Jesus as the Lord of our lives—we are changed from the inside out.

We no longer value what we once did in our lives.

We see everything differently.

When we experience the spiritual treasures of the kingdom of God in Christ, the value of many things in our lives fades away.

The things that once attracted us in this world no longer do.

The old things of this world fade away.

They are no longer important.

As Jesus tells us, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and everything we need will be given to us.”

Is knowing Jesus Christ greater than your money, prestige, job, and reputation?

Or are you still entangled in the deceptive ways of this world?

If not, why not?