Christ Alone

Singularity in Christ should be our goal. Singularity means that Jesus Christ is our single and most important focus. It means to deny everything else, it means to even abandon all other things. This can be hard to stomach, many servants of the Lord will say this is radical thinking and that they should have other focuses. They cite family, friendships, and fun experiences. But is that what the Bible says? Lets take a look.

Lets start with Jesus' own words. Jesus said, "Those who want to be my disciples must deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow me." (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23). This single statement from the Savior can be polarizing and it should push us. Right in the verse we see, "deny yourself (your comforts, what you want, your desires and etc), pick up cross (suffer and nail things to the cross) and follow Jesus." This verse alone could drive home the point that we should make Jesus Christ the sole focus and purpose of our lives.

The Apostle Paul takes an account of his life and everything in it and he says this,

"More than that, I count all things to be loss in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish so that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8, NASB).

Let me give two more translations of this verse for perspective:

"Yes everything is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For my Sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8, NLT)

"What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord, for whose sake I lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8, NIV).

I wanted to compare these different translations because they each have details that are better. The NASB has "suffered the loss of all things" which denotes loss of possessions and stuff, while NLT has "everything is worthless when compared to the infinite vale of knowing Christ," which gives a greater measure of the importance of knowing Jesus is infinitely better than anything this world has and the NIV denotes Paul lost much "for.. the sake" of Jesus and thus makes you remember that because Paul became Christians he became rejected by his family, his former wife, and friends.

Interestingly, in the Greek, "garbage or rubbish," that Paul mentions as being anything other than Jesus Christ is actually translated "Filthy rags," which were the rags women in Biblical times used for their period/Mency's cycle to clean the blood and thus stunk and were burnt. So Paul actualy really was saying he considers everything other than knowing Jesus Christ as blood covered rags meant to be burned.

And yet many Christians cannot cope with this message. Then would rather cling to words, delusions, comforts, pleasures, focuses, and other things than give their whole hearts to Jesus Christ. There are many people caught up in nostalgia and melancholy over their past. They want to preserve their childhood by clinging to those things that remind them of the "good ol days." But The Apostle has response to this, "When I was child, I used to speak like child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man I did away with childish things." (1 Corinthians 13:11).

There comes a time when we must grow up, and grow up in Christ! When we should discard those old comforts and desires. Eventually we must come to the point when we are ready to "forgetting the past (leaving what is behind) and pressing forward to the goal of the upward calling of Jesus Christ.." (Philippians 3:13).

While I believe this call should be answered as soon as possible, I do understand that many need to go through the process of laying down "childish things," and "counting all things as garbage" but "except for knowing Christ Jesus." Mercy should be upon those who need to adjust and die to the things of this world. But that should not be an exuse to procrastinate and keep putting time into these hollow things of the earth. For the Apostle John said, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves world, the love of the Father is not in them." (1 John 2:15). If the Apostle's words by the Holy Spirit do not alert you, then listen to Jesus' own, "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, that is why the world hates you." (John 15:19).

If the world does not hate you, then something is wrong. It means there is compromise in your life. We are suppose to be different, to stand out and not be recognized as of this earth! It says in Romans, "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think (renewing your mind). Then you will learn God's Will for your life which is good, pleasing, and perfect." (Romans 12:2).

Christ alone should be our all. If we are drawing closer to Christ Jesus everything in this world should become less appealing, stale, dark, cold, uninviting, and dead to us. It is time to reexamine being disciple and follower of Christ. It is not meant to be casual or closely tied to the world, but we are to be set apart. Until Jesus Christ is all Christians care about, this world will continue to crush the church and shipwreck many. The time has come to make Christ Jesus are only passion and make Him alone our prize.