Philippians 3:12 - 4:1

COMMENTS

I want to be like Jesus.  But do I want that more than I want to be thin, or pretty, or have nice things, or etc., etc., etc.?  Which do I spend my time thinking about?  Which is more likely to be the force behind my decisions today?  Does it bother me more when I eat a big piece of cake with ice cream or when I spend little or no time with my God?  Yikes, Lord….

NOTES

Having just finished his discourse on knowing Christ and expressing his desire to be like Jesus, Paul now quickly states that he’s not there yet.  (Boy, can I identify with that.)  However, he’s not discouraged.   In verse 13 he says that he’s “forgetting what is behind”—his hopes in a false salvation (works) and his failure to please God, even to the point of persecuting God’s church.  Instead, he is motivated to pursue the goal of Christ-likeness even harder.  In verse 12 he “presses on”; in verse 13 he is “straining toward”; in verse 14 he “press[es] on toward” what God has for him.  Those are not casual verbs; they are action verbs implying strong actions, strong motivations.

I particularly like verse 12:

“but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

This verse clearly states that God has a purpose for my life.  When He “took hold” of me, He had something or somethings in mind.  Clearly, some of them are specified in the previous verses, but I believe that He has specific ideas in mind for me alone.  I need to pursue them as intensely as Paul did.

Finally, in verses 18 and 19 Paul weeps for those who do not know Christ.  He says they are “enemies of the cross of Christ”.  Their destiny, what they worship, and that in which they take pride are all worth nothing.  They are earthly things—hay and stubble that will be burned up at the judgment.  No wonder Paul was in tears—such loss!  He ends this section of his letter on a joyful note, however, reminding us that we have heaven and a Savior and that we will—one day—have glorious bodies like His.

If that’s not motivation to “stand firm in the Lord” (4:1), I don’t know what is!