I serve on a committee of clergy and laity that meets several times a year to certify candidates for ordained ministry in our denomination. There are criteria for the candidates: seminary education, psychological assessments, recommendations from church leaders, etc. During the meetings, we pray, listen carefully to the candidates and to God, and discern if we confirm a call to ministry and if the candidates seem ready to move on in the process. We expect them to meet the criteria and show fluency in theology, leadership skills, and pastoral care. We also want them to be mature Christian disciples who wholeheartedly trust in God.

In this reading, Paul lists the ways he met the criteria for being a faithful Jew: by birth, zeal, and keeping the Law. He knows that while these credentials are good, even God-given, knowing Jesus puts him in a right relationship with God. So he gives up putting his trust in his credentials and instead puts his total trust in Jesus. This does not mean that Paul stopped using the skills of debate or knowledge of the Law that he had honed as a Pharisee or stopped being energetic in living out his faith. When Paul chose to rely first on Jesus, he placed his credentials in the right place, the right order. They then became tools with which he could serve God in remarkable ways.

Whether clergy or lay, we easily slip into relying on our credentials—how long we have attended church or how many mission projects we have gone on—as a way to be right with God. Paul reminds us that we are to trust in Jesus not in our credentials—no matter how good they are.