Philippians 3:7
Philippians 3:77But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.
receives little JW commentary. The verse contains Paul's renunciation of his religious resume — "the things that were gains to me, I have considered loss on account of the Christ." Watchtower theology cannot easily endorse the principle here without conceding that the Witness emphasis on organisational gains (field-service hours, meeting attendance, loyalty record) follows the same pattern Paul renounced.
Paul's "gains" are listed in vv. 5-6 — circumcision, tribal heritage, Pharisaic standing, zeal, blameless law- keeping. He had a more impressive religious resume than any modern Witness. Yet he counted ALL of it as loss for the sake of Christ. The verse is doctrinally decisive: if even Paul's perfect law-keeping was loss compared to knowing Christ, no amount of organisational obedience can stand as the basis of one's standing before God. Pair with vv. 8-9 (the climax: righteousness "from God on the basis of faith," not "from following the Law") and ("him who knew no sin he made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him"). Imputed righteousness — received, not earned — is the substance of salvation. Paul's "gains" became loss the moment he saw what Christ offered freely.