Phillipians 3:7-11

The only key to the truth of life is Christ Jesus, all man all God, given for the salvation of our souls and the gift of faith from the Father to believe in His righteousness so that no one can boast.

Those things that Paul thought to be important became unimportant after confronting the resurrected Messiah. Paul recognizes that true righteousness is a matter of faith, not of works. It is God's righteousness that comes through Christ, not our own righteousness.

The Believers at Philippi

There must have been very few Jews in Philippi because the city did not have a synagogue, and in first-century Judaism it took only ten Jewish men to justify building a synagogue for worship. The Jews who did live in Philippi went outside the city gate to the banks of the Gangites River for worship and prayer. Philippi was a culturally diverse Roman city on the main highway (the Egnatian Way) from the eastern provinces to Rome, and the church at Philippi had a diverse group of believers. The NT specifically mentions an Asian, a Greek, and a Roman. One was a businesswoman who sold purple cloth to the rich; one was a slave girl who had been possessed with a spirit of divination; the third was a jailer. These people represented three different races, three different social ranks, and probably three different religious loyalties before encountering Christ.

3:7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.