“Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended; but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall God reveal unto you: only, whereunto we have already attained, by that same [rule] let us walk” (Phil. 3:12-1612Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. (Philippians 3:12‑16) R.V.).
In this chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians, and particularly in the verses read, we are exhorted to the continuous and sustained pursuit of what we may term the Christian ideal. We are nowhere in the instructions of Scripture permitted to stand still in the career of faith, but, on the contrary, we are ever encouraged to strive to be making progress. Now in order to do so, it is essential that our efforts should be made in the right direction. Hence the scripture before us is one of great value in the development of legitimate aspirations within us.
The apostle in these communications regards his own position as one in common with the followers of Christ. He alludes to himself as a saint of God, and in that sense, on a level with those whom he is addressing. Truly Paul was an apostle, and indeed the chief of the apostles, but besides discharging the exalted duties of his apostleship, he had to learn experimentally the necessity and the practice of Christian discipline, and the application to himself of the truth he so fully taught to others. And the experience he gained in this manner, and to which he alludes in this chapter was such as must necessarily help us immensely.
There is no epistle so full as this one of Christian experience, that is, the experience of the human heart in its acquaintance and communion with God. For this is the true experience of the Christian. People sometimes speak as if it were the knowledge and insight gained from looking at our own hearts; but what we find there can never make us anything but wretched. The inevitable result of self-examination is the bitter cry, “wretched man that I am I who shall deliver me?” (Rom. 7:2424O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)). Contrastedly, true Christian experience fills us with joy, for it is our personal experience of Christ, of what He is for us, and what He does to sustain the human heart under the most trying circumstances of life.
Let us now look more closely at the case of Paul at this juncture of his history. The apostle's large heart, his wide mental capacity and his educational attainments had specially fitted him to become the prime minister of Jesus Christ. He had an extensive scope for his apostleship. He was a chosen ambassador to the whole world. He could use with the best of rights the motto which we have heard in recent times, “the world for Christ.” Indeed this honored preacher of the gospel had seen, in many parts of the world, crowds moved by his preaching to come out of the darkness of heathenism into the light of the gospel.
But now Paul was in prison. He was laid on one side to learn the salutary lesson that God could carry on His work without the help of even the chief of the apostles. Distinguished as he was, the work could go on just as well without him as with him.
In our long retrospect to-day we may think that this was an easy lesson for him to learn, and we come to this conclusion because we are not in his circumstances. If we were set aside as he was at a time when everything seemed especially to call for his personal presence and activity, we should probably modify this view. It is more than likely we should have chafed under the enforced restraint. Yet it was not so with the apostle, for there is none of his epistles so full of the joy of the Lord as this one, written by him when a “prisoner of the Lord.” Paul had been proving within himself how fully the Lord Jesus Christ could sustain and satisfy and quiet the heart when outward things seemed all wrong and contrary. It may be easy enough when things are right to keep going forward in a spirit of energy, but it is not so easy when there is apparent defeat all along the line.
Now from our chapter we find the indomitable spirit of the apostle in active exercise. We have abundant proof that he was pressing on, reaching forward, pursuing an object. Being confined as a prisoner he had much time for contemplative thought. He looks at himself, and he looks at his Master. How far be feels himself to come short of the glory of Him whom he loves! He realizes that he has not yet attained the end for which the Lord apprehended him. Though he will eventually be conformed to the image of God's Son, how far he feels himself now from that happy issue! And the consideration of this goal ahead fills him with fresh energy and renewed earnestness.
Sometimes we think that the accomplishment of our ideal conformity to Christ is entirely a work of God, and that we ourselves have no part in it. We remember that it is He who has saved us and given us all our blessings, and we are therefore inclined to rest satisfied and content with what we already possess from that source. But is there nothing to strive after, no reaching out after greater blessings still? We find at any rate that such was the apostle's attitude: and surely we need such an aim even more than he did.
What did Paul set before himself? He says, “Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on towards the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” He was undoubtedly a great apostle, but there was a greater attainment than the apostolate, and that was the “prize of the high calling of God.” There was something before his soul which he valued above his service; he desired that he, the chief of sinners, might arrive at the knowledge of Christ. “That I might know Him,” he cried, “and the power of His resurrection.” He could not rest satisfied short of this attainment. It was poor wretched stuff within him that he had to work with, but he was nevertheless pressing forward. His words are, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus.”
We may now ask, What are the special directions in which Christian endeavor should be in exercise? The third verse of this chapter may help us in this inquiry. We find there stated a threefold character of the followers of the Lord Jesus. They (1) worship God in the spirit, (2) rejoice in Christ Jesus, and (3) have no confidence in the flesh. Now the development of these qualities requires watchfulness and effort on our part.
(1) Taking the first, do we habitually worship God in the spirit? The Lord's words (John 4:2424God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)) instruct us that this kind of worship is imperative. It is true that the Holy Spirit is the power for worship, and the Revisers give us God's Spirit in Phil. 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3). But I am now speaking of the spirit—the new nature within us with which, the Holy Spirit bears witness and upon which His energy is directed. True and acceptable worship towards God the Father springs only from the spirit. Let us recollect that this calls for our vigilance. I am to desire that my spirit may meet my Lord and my God. Indeed it should be the habitual experience of the Christian to have God continually before his spirit.
Take the worship-meeting: there the spirits of those assembled must be in action; audible words are not essential [1], though usual. We should all know that there may be true worship without any words at all. Times of silence are not necessarily wasted moments. We should not forget this, and chafe because there is no outward activity.
But it is not only on such occasions and in a collective capacity that we may worship God. Why should we not do so always? Worship-service embraces the whole Christian life. If in all things I have Him before me, then in all things I shall worship God, and in this respect I shall be well-pleasing to Him. Therefore let us strive that our spirits may be always before Him, and thus we shall be pressing forward. In a coming day of glory we shall worship perfectly and continuously; let us then begin the practice here and now.
(2) Then it is said that believers “rejoice in Christ Jesus.” This means that we rejoice or boast in Him now. We glory in Him, esteeming Him the “chiefest among ten thousand". Once He was here in humiliation: now He is above in supremest majesty; but there is a link between the soul and the Christ of glory and power. To rejoice in Christ Jesus now is an education for our vocation in eternity. Then we shall praise Him most fully. Why not begin this service now, and thus be in this sense pressing on towards the goal?
In the next place, the believer is to have “no confidence in the flesh.” Now it is important that we should inquire what the apostle means in these verses by the “flesh.” And we see at once that self, rather than our sins, is here in question. Self includes the natural advantages which a man may have or which he may acquire. They may not be necessarily wrong and sinful, but they are of this world, and are of no account in the realm of faith.
Such was the view of the apostle in verses 5 and 6, where he enumerates the circumstantial recommendations which were his as a religious man, and in some cases they were his by birth. He was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” None of these qualities were evil in themselves, except the persecution of the church, and that perhaps not so for him [? ] in his unconverted clays, for he did not then know it to be so. Yet so it was. [See Lev. 4; Acts 9:44And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 9:4) Tim. 1:13].
The qualities that Paul mentions are those which would be matters for boast among the Jews. But really they were very insignificant. How small they; seem as we consider his enumeration of them! What were they after all? And to what did his advantages lead him? They led to his being a man proud of his natural abilities. But now Paul learned from the Lord Jesus to have no confidence in the flesh. It was necessary that he should learn this lesson more thoroughly, to advance to see, if possible more clearly than ever, the foolishness and utter worthlessness of them all when viewed in the light of the glory of Christ. And the test applied by the apostle to himself is suitable to us all. We have only to look at the wondrous image of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to learn how little, in real worth, are the things usually held in high esteem among men.
But there is another feature of this race: Paul was forgetting those things which are behind. And the forgotten things included not only his natural advantages but his conquests by faith also. Though, for instance, he had striven earnestly a year ago, he was still to strive; though his spirit had conquered a year ago, it was still to conquer. His habitual attitude was to be “forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before.”
Sometimes we hear persons speaking of leaving their first love, as if this were a form of declension which could not be avoided in Christian life. But why should we leave our first love? Surely it is a misapprehension to think that we should love the Lord more when we were first converted than we shall ten, twenty, or thirty years later. It is more in accordance with the law, of spiritual progress which Scripture enjoins that we should now be loving Him more, rather than less, than we did at first.
The Lord regarded it as a matter for rebuke in the church at Ephesus that there had been such declension. They had backslidden, for they had left their first love. They had in fact turned away from the Lord Himself who is the Alpha and the Omega of our love as of all besides. It is not wise for us to attempt to take out our love, as it were, and look at it to discover whether it has grown greater or less. The Lord alone can rightly determine such a matter. And He will test and estimate our love, and tell us the truth about it, as He did Simon Peter in that memorable interview of old (John 21.).
The things behind therefore are better forgotten, while we ought to form the habit of reaching out to the things which are before. Is this our constant attitude? If we consider the things beyond, we shall be thereby better fitted to endure the things around.
The apostle's eye was upon the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is this prize? Surely it is our likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ, and this likeness is the consummation of the Christian race. There is a reward for works certainly, concerning which we are instructed elsewhere, but here we have what is the common aim of all believers. We are not any of us apostles; we are not all teachers; and some of us are nothing at all. But eventually all the children of God will be like Him. And we all should be striving to attain this end. In this competition we all get prizes, if we do not take our eyes off the goal. “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall God reveal unto you; only, whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule let us walk.”
W. J. H.