To live is....

ἐμοὶ γὰρ τὸ ζῆν Χριστὸς 

καὶ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν κέρδος 

(For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.)

-Phil. 1:21

There is an amazing verse in the book of Philippians.  It is Paul's ultimate mathematical equation about life, death and eternity.  

It is a rhyme.  The last word of the first line rhymes with the last word in the second line in Greek.  We miss that in English.

It is a distillation of all that Paul believed about this life and the life to come.

The more I study this short verse the more profound it seems. Here's Paul's ultimate equation:

 To live = Christ

(then) to die= gain

As I thought about it I realized that if I put anything else after the first = sign, the only thing that can fill the second is 'loss'.  Let's try a couple and see what happens....

To live = money

(then) To die = loss

To live = success

(then) To die = loss

To live = fame

(then) To die = loss

The only answer in the first line that will result in ‘gain’ for the second line, is 'Christ'.  There is no other answer to this formula.    

Paul's simple formula is a sum calculation of  his life.  For him it was all about Christ. 

His insights prompted his ambition to give up everything else to know Christ.  It was his focus, his passion. It was all he talked about.  In this short book of Philippians he mentioned the Lord's name more than 50 times.  As he finished his thoughts on the topic he said,

"Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him." (The Message)

How have you filled in the blanks of this formula in your own life?

To live = 

(then) To die =