3:7 whatever gain. Paul is obviously not thinking of his transgressions of the law but of his scrupulous obedience to its commands (v. 6).

I counted as loss. This decision is the more meaningful, because it is (at least in part) a virtue that he renounces, perhaps even harder than renouncing vice. Yet as Paul now grasps, the nobler one’s lineage and the higher one’s attainments, the greater the temptation to pride and self-confidence (Luke 18:9–14; Eph. 2:8, 9). Paul freely discards all sources of self-confidence and personal profit for Christ.