Philippians 3:8-11 (ESV)                                                                                                      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.”

Every now and then, and not very often, I say something off the cuff that stays in my mind and helps to clarify my thinking on a subject. This happened to me three Sunday nights ago. While commenting on the nature of discipleship, I said, “The true nature of our discipleship is best defined by the intimacy of our personal relationship with Jesus Christ!”

I think this says in one sentence what I have been trying to formulate in my mind for years. While I am comforted by my belief that I do indeed have a personal and saving relationship with Jesus Christ, I am not at all satisfied with the level of personal intimacy in that relationship. Over and over again, this realization causes me to despair.

And then I think on these verses in Philippians three! No one and I mean no one had a closer relationship with Jesus Christ than did the Twelve Apostles.  In this passage, the Apostle Paul who had met Jesus face to face on the Damascus road, spent years in intimate conversation with Him, and who had actually been taken to heaven says that, “I may know Him…” Paul wants to know Jesus? Wow, If Paul was not satisfied with his personal relationship with Jesus, I am in trouble!

What Paul is saying is that he wants a more intimate personal relationship with Jesus. It appears in the text that the specific area Paul has in mind is to know Jesus in respect to, “His sufferings.” Let me confess that thinking on these verses makes me feel that my relationship with Jesus is very shallow indeed.

While I really do want to know Jesus more intimately, I am not at all sure that I want to “know” the fellowship of His sufferings. I am convinced that until I am ready to sacrifice my comfort I will not get closer to Him. Intellectually I am sure that I want to know Him more and more and more; but, evidently I am not willing to pay the price for that intimacy.  My prayer for myself and for you is that we will be willing to pay the price to know Jesus and to know Him intimately!