THE Epistle to the Philippians is the christian-experience epistle. The third chapter presents Christ in heaven as the object of the believer’s desires, the winning-post of his race across the course of this world. The Christian himself is the racer, whose energy reaches forth, and whose decision for Christ casts aside every hindrance as dung. At every bound Christ is better seen, and, seeing Him more brightly, the longing greater to reach Him. “If by any means,” says the apostle; though the “any means” might be, and indeed were in his case, martyrdom. So lightly did he esteem dying, in comparison with being with Christ in glory, that he was ready to be “made conformable to His death.”
Heart acquaintance with Christ is the secret of this vigor, and nothing else nerves the christian racer for his work. A man may know the truths of the bible, and yet be practically ignorant of the person of Christ. It is possible to go back into the world with acquaintance with scripture in the mind, but impossible to return thither with acquaintance with Christ in the heart. Christ and the world never keep company. The world murdered Him, and His own are not of it, even as He is not of it. They are chosen out of the world. A believer, whose desire is “that I may know Him,” is not tolerable to the world, and to be loved by the world is to be an enemy of the cross of Christ.
When the Christian is sluggish and not pressing on he is like an engine upon the rails, but without the heat which gives it motion. There are many Christians with their faces towards heaven, accredited Christians upon the right road, yet like the engine with its fire down―it a standstill. Love to the Person of Christ Is not active in their hearts: all the force of the engine is motionless for lack of motive Sower.
“That I may know Him” is a desire which, acing of the heart, is within the reach of the nimblest believer. There can be no deeper longing, yet the simplest heart may contain it. The question is, “Is there true-heartedness for Christ”―such a realization of who He is, that our hearts truly say, “That I may know Him?”