Why could Paul say, “Brethren, be followers together of me”? He was a man of like passions with us, and it would be going too far to say that he was never overcome, never failed. We can only understand it by remembering, that the point here is not the state attained to, but the object before the soul: Christ was always Paul’s object. It is a cheer to our hearts that we have before us, not only the Author and Finisher of faith, but one running after Him, a man of like passions with ourselves.
If we are occupied with the path, we never shall present the likeness of Christ that we see here; nothing but occupation with Christ will produce this. Paul was not occupied with the path, or with anything to which he had attained; the object was everything to him. He refers to his path only as “forgetting the things that are behind.”
It cheers us to know, that though we may fail a thousand times—and we shall judge ourselves, surely, for our failure—yet we may always have the right object before us.
On the other hand, Christians may go on, nothing outwardly to be found fault with, all fair outside, and yet they may be among those who “mind earthly things.” We must have an object of some kind; if Christ is not our object, earthly things are. They may not be wrong things, such as would be scouted by Christians, but they are earthly, sublunary things, and how foolish it is for us, when we come to think of it, to mind earthly things!
It may be tomorrow, it may be today that the Lord will call our spirits to Himself, or He may come and change our vile bodies, and earthly things will be over forever. There will be a complete transfer of interests then, but we need not be exiles from our true home now; our spirits need not be prisoners here.
If attainment were the point, one could not dare to speak of this subject, but it is a cordial to our hearts to know that the point is not attainment, but who is our object?