All our best efforts are dung?

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 [dung – KJV], that I may gain Christ – Philippians 3v8


One of my favourite places on the island is about a 40 minute drive from here. Trim Castle is the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland. As part of the tour they take you to the garderobe. The garderobe is not the most glorious place in the castle. To put it plainly, it was the castle’s toilet. Because clothes (and people) were rarely washed there had to be a way to keep the bugs and other critters out of the clothing. The problem was solved by hanging clothes in the garderobe to allow the ammonia from the refuse to kill of any little nasties.

In order to keep the ammonia flowing many castles had a worker called the gong farmer. His job was to stir up the waste so that the ammonia could be activated. He also had the job of cleaning out the waste from the chutes every so often.

I hope you are not reading this first thing in the morning or at meal time. You may, “Roger, why this sick history lesson in your blog?’ Well, I wanted us all to get a clear picture of how Paul saw his good works and all the wonderful things he had done. He used the word skubalon to describe them. After a little work it is obvious that this word describes all that is base and corrupt. Some say that it refers to the scrapes thrown out to the dogs, but many scholars, apparently including the translators of the KJV, say that it refers to excrement. This would include the revulsion with which Paul saw his former works. It appears that Paul used one of he basest words he could to describe his religious life before Christ.

Paul had it made in a worldly sense. He was a Pharisee, properly educated, an expert of the Law, and a keeper of the Law. He was on the right track. Yet, as he looks back he says that all of this is loss. It is all worthless. Indeed, all that was dung compared to serving Christ.

This breaks down any arguments for what we ‘might have had’ if we did not serve Christ.

There is nothing compared to following Christ. Everything, all the shiny baubles and worldly attractions are nothing but skubalon. No wonder Paul had no confidence in the flesh! Christ or skubalon – which has the greater appeal?

Click HERE for an interesting word study of skubalon at www.bible.org