Value Proposition

Value proposition:  it’s a marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.  It should clearly and concisely communicate what customers can gain from selecting a particular brand over that of its competitors.

In a value proposition, you don’t want your product to be viewed as being worth less than what your competitors offer.  But even worse, in a bit of a quirk of how letters and spaces can fall, if you take out the space between “worth” and “less”, you get “worthless”, which means something of no value.  If that word is used in conjunction with how your product is viewed by customers, it’s a word that will likely kill your brand.

In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul, in a sense, communicated some value propositions. In chapter three, he starts off with describing the value of some things that many considered as extremely valuable in that day and age.  They had to do with status and achievement in the religious world.  And they were also once highly valued by Paul.

But then Paul described a new value, one that had everything to do with Jesus Christ:  “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”  (Phil 3:7-8).  

The things that Paul once valued became loss for the sake of Christ.  In fact, Paul wrote that he counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.  He further emphasized that he even considered them garbage in order that he might gain Christ.  Some translations translate the word garbage as dung (or poop). 

In Paul’s value propositions, the things that he once valued had become more than just worth less, they had also become worthless.  And while Paul did not actually use the word “worthless, he did portray its meaning by comparing those things to garbage.

Another writer, however, did use the word “worthless”.  The psalmist wrote this:  “Turn my eyes away from what is worthless. Revive me with your word.” (Ps. 139:17).

While the Psalmist didn’t exactly delineate what was worthless, the whole of the Psalm points to the great worth of the Word of God.  Does that mean all other things are worthless?  Not necessarily!  But the psalmist does give us a value proposition:  when we, with the Lord’s help, turn our eyes away from that which is worthless, the Word of God can revive us.

So both the Apostle Paul and the psalmist gave us value propositions that communicate what we gain when we value the Word of God and when we value knowing Christ. They also communicated that much of what we might tend to value in comparison to Christ and to the Word of God is really worth less and may actually be worthless even to the point of being absolute garbage (or poop if you prefer a more graphic emphasis)!

So a value proposition for us: the Word of God and knowing Christ both provide great gain!