Troy a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Reaching For The Prize Phlilppians 3:12-16
Philippians 3:12-16
*Not that I have already obtained it or already become perfect but I press on in order that I may hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as many as are perfect have this attitude, and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
*I think it is obvious to any student of the New Testament and any student of the letters of the Apostle Paul that he must have loved athletics, as many of us do. And the reason I say that is because he so often uses athletic analogies, or athletic metaphors to illustrate spiritual truth. One of his athletic analogies is that of a runner, running a race. The runner to him is the picture of the Christian, the race is the Christian life. And frequently in his writings he alludes to this running metaphor, this...this picture of maximum effort as the Christian moves along toward the finish line. That is essentially the underlying picture of the passage before us.
*Now obviously the heart of this passage is the very familiar fourteenth verse, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." The theme here then is pursuing the prize. The analogy is that of a runner who is running to win in order that he might gain the prize. The spiritual point here is the matter of pursuing the spiritual prize. If you will, Paul is talking about Christian effort toward growth. Now he has just given his personal testimony of the experience of his own conversion from his viewpoint from verses 4 to 11.
*You'll remember that he has lived as a Jew and he recites his credentials in verses 5 and 6, circumcised the eighth day of the nation Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is the law found blameless. And as he lived as a God-fearing law-abiding Jew he had learned to put his trust in those achievements for his salvation. So he had this prophet column in which he assumed that all of these things made him right with God. Then on the Damascus Road he was confronted with the living Christ. And he saw that all of those works and all of those achievements not only did not make him right with God, they hindered him from being right with God. And that he would have to abandon them all and receive Christ. And so, in effect, in verses 4 through 11 he says, "When I saw the value of Christ and when I saw that salvation was only in Christ, I took everything that once was gained and counted it loss and I abandoned it all for Christ." And so you had then in verses 4 through 11 an insight into the heart attitude of Paul at the time of his conversion when he discounted all of those things once precious, put them all aside to embrace Christ.
*In verses 8 through 11 then he began to recite what he gained in Christ. Verses 4 through 7, what was loss, verses 8 through 11 what was gained. And what did he gain in Christ? Remember there were five things. He gained the knowledge of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the power of Christ, the fellowship of Christ and the glory of Christ. Frankly, quite an amazing list of spiritual benedictions.
*Now, saying that I set all of this aside, received Christ and in Christ I gained all of this might lead someone to assume that Paul had reached spiritual perfection. It might lead someone to assume that the beginning for him was also the end. Or that the start was also the finish, that having come to Christ he was instantaneously made perfect...nothing more to become, nothing more to seek, nothing more to pursue, he had arrived.
*It is also quite possible that the Judaizers, the Jewish teachers who were plaguing the Philippian church, were telling the Philippians that spiritual perfection was available if they would be circumcized and keep the law. It is also true that there were heretics floating around at that time who believed you could reach a certain level of knowledge in which you attained perfection. So to answer the Gnostics who thought they had reached that level, to answer the Judaizers who thought they had reached that level through circumcision and law keeping and to answer anybody else who might assume that because he had the knowledge, the righteousness, the power, the fellowship and the glory of Christ he was therefore perfect, he quickly in verse 12 launches into a passage which is a total disclaimer of any spiritual perfection. That's his intent in this passage. He wants us to know that he is not perfect. He has not reached moral perfection, he has not reached spiritual perfection even though he is a new creation, even though he has a new heart and a new disposition which desires strongly holy things, even though he had union with Jesus Christ and a new mind, the mind of Christ, even though he has new standing before God and is accepted by God and entitled to heaven and has the righteousness of Christ covering him, even though he has the indwelling Holy Spirit who is the power of God, even though he has promised future glory and indwelling glory in that Spirit, he has not arrived...he is not perfect. He is still temptable. He is still the possessor of his unredeemed flesh. He is still a sinner.
*Thus, any thought of perfection must be set aside in favor of pursuing the perfection that every believer must recognize he doesn't have. That's the point. He had already been placed in Christ, already accepted by God, already gifted with all of these tremendous things and yet he was not perfect. He had not arrived.
*Peter understood it when Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:18, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." He was saying the same thing Paul is saying here. There's a growing process. When you're saved yes you receive the knowledge of Christ, yes you receive the righteousness of Christ positionally imputed to your account, yes you receive the power of Christ in your life, yes you receive the fellowship of Christ in communion with Him, yes you receive the glory of Christ but not in perfection. And so there must be growth. There must be the pursuit of the goal. There must be the running of the race. That's his point. The pressing toward the mark.
*You say, "Well why? Why should I bother? I mean, if I'm already entitled to heaven and I already have these things guaranteed to me and promised to me and I will some day enter into the fullness of them in the presence of God, why bother to grow?" Well in one sense it's kind of a moot point because if you're a new creation in Jesus Christ you will desire to grow. So it's not as if you're going to stand there and say, "Well now that I'm a Christian I think I'll have to debate whether I want to grow or not." Having been born into the family of God you are born with a hunger, in fact in many cases an almost insatiable hunger. There is a built-in desire and drive and longing for growth.
*But apart from that there are some very important reasons why you should grow, reasons why you should pursue the prize and run the race. First of all, it glorifies God. And that's what a Christian is supposed to do with his life is bring glory to God. Secondly, it verifies regeneration. It makes demonstrable the fact that you are truly changed because you're in the progress of making it visible that your life is being changed. Thirdly, it adorns the truth. It lets you literally wear the truth of God so others can see it. Fourthly, it grants you assurance. When there is spiritual progress in your life there is the sense that you belong to God because you can see His work and your calling and election become sure. Not only that it preserves you from the sorrows and the tragedies of spiritual weakness which are not enjoyable to any believer any time.
*Furthermore, pursuing the prize, running the race, seeking the goal protects the cause of Christ from reproach because when you live a godly life and you pursue the goal, your life is consistent with the character of Christ and the character He upholds in Scripture and thus you're not a reproach to Him. Seventh, when you pursue the prize and run the race and grow spiritually it produces joy and usefulness in your life and thus you can minister capably to the church. And finally, it enhances your witness to the lost world.
*There are myriad reasons why then to run the race, pursuing the prize. So, Paul like a runner in a race is doing just that. This is not a new picture for him as I mentioned a few moments ago. In 1 Corinthians 9 in verse 24 he says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things, they then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable, therefore I run in such a way as not without aim...and then he says in verse 27...I buffet my body and make it my slave." He says I do everything I can not to be disqualified, to run the race with maximum effort and maximum conformity to the rules. I don't run half-heartedly, I run all out. I don't violate the rules, I don't take spiritual steroids, whatever you want to say, I stay within the rules. I compete as I'm supposed to. But I run the race.
*Now, let me add another footnote here. The Apostle Paul is trying to show the readers in Philippi that because he is a Christian does not mean he has attained perfection. But beyond that, I believe he is trying to teach all of us and all generations that perfection in this life is a goal, not an achievement. It is something you pursue but never reach. I think this attacks effectively the false doctrine of perfectionism. I don't know if you're familiar with that. If you've come from a Methodist background or a Wesleyan background or a Nazarene background you perhaps remember them teaching perfectionism, or as it was called total sanctification, or complete sanctification. That is that a believer in this life on this earth before death can reach a place of spiritual moral perfection. They teach that. They do not teach that that is a result of progress, they teach that as a result of a momentary instantaneous second work of grace, like salvation, you are momentarily instantaneously made sinless. And, in fact, some have gone so far as to say it encompasses the eradication of the sin nature. That's perfectionism. It basically goes back to Pelagianism, to Arminianism, was crystallized in more modern times by John Wesley and became a very important part of Wesleyan tradition, Wesleyan theology.
*The Apostle Paul deals a devastating blow to this doctrine of perfectionism. By the way, the only way Wesley could make it fly was to say that there's a difference between willful sin and making mistakes because anyone who claimed sinless perfection would have a very difficult time convincing the people who were close to them that it was really true. And so they came up with a dichotomous definition and said that those are mistakes that are unwilling, they don't count, they're not the willing sins that are the result of the sin nature. So Paul, I believe, deals a death blow to that particular perfectionist's theory, he denies it and he calls for a pursuit of a prize that can only be fully realized in heaven. And by the way, in this passage he confesses that he hadn't reached it, he hadn't attained it, he hadn't acquired it, he hadn't arrived at perfection and this is thirty years after his conversion. And if the singularly unique Apostle Paul, perhaps the most committed dedicated Christian who ever lived, after 30 years had not achieved perfection, who in the world are any of us to claim such.
*Now, verse 12 launches his thought, "Not that I have already obtained it or already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." There is an instantaneous disclaimer. Paul is saying I have knowledge in Christ, the righteousness, power, fellowship, glory of Christ, I have all the great benedictions that God can give in Christ but I have not attained moral spiritual perfection in my own life. That's the disclaimer. And then he goes on in verses 13 through 16 to talk about how we must pursue that.
*Now, the basic thrust of the passage then is a call to pursue the prize. It's a call to pursue the goal, the prize which is spiritual perfection. We are to give our whole life to this, that's what he's saying in verse 14. "I press toward that." The word "press" meaning I pursue, I chase it, I run after it.
** In this passage we have six principles for pursuing the prize, Six necessary elements if we are to effectively pursue the prize.
1.An awareness of the need to pursue a better condition, not a better position, your position in Christ is fixed by God's grace through Christ. But your condition must be improved. You are not what you should be, you are not what you can be, you are not what you will be some day when you see the Lord. So there must be beginningly an awareness of the need to pursue a better condition. And you see perfectionists don't do this. Anybody who thinks they've reached spiritual perfection has no awareness of pursuing a better condition. You know what the people in perfectionism do? They get to the point where they think they've arrived at the level of spiritual perfection therefore there's nothing left to pursue. So they become content with their condition, and worse than that, they spend the rest of their life instead of pursuing a better condition, defending themselves as perfect to people who aren't convinced. It all starts with a dissatisfaction. Please note verse 12. "Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect." And that's where he starts, an awareness that he hasn't arrived. Paul the Apostle, 30 years after his conversion is saying I'm not what I ought to be. I haven't arrived. I'm not spiritually perfect. I'm not morally perfect. I haven't reached Christ's likeness. I have not reached God's perfect standard. I am not what I ought to be, I am still in process. There is still a pursuit in my life as there is in the life of every believer.
2.If you're going to pursue the prize effectively you must give maximum effort to pursue that better condition, There must be maximum effort to pursue that better condition. Look at verse 12 again, so he says, "I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." I press on, dioko, I run, I follow after, I pursue, I chase. It's used of a sprinter and the word means aggressive energetic endeavor. He says I'm running after this thing with all my might.
3.In pursuing the prize it is required that there be focused concentration to pursue that better condition. Not only maximum effort but focused concentration. Any athlete knows that when you're running in a race you have to fix your eyes on something ahead of you. You cannot watch your feet or you'll fall on your face. You cannot watch the people around you or you will trip or somebody will pass you on the other side. Your focus is straight forward on the goal that is ahead. And that is precisely what he is saying here. In making maximum effort there's a concentration point beyond you upon which you focus.
4.Spiritual motivation to pursue that better condition...spiritual motivation. Notice verse 14, the heart of the passage, "I press or I pursue," continuous effort, present active indicative verb, I continually pursue toward...marvelous word, kata, means down, it means to bear down on. "I continuously bear down on...what?...the goal." I continuously bear down on the goal. What's the goal? What did we say it was? To be what? Like Christ. The same thing He saved you for is what you pursue. So you bear down on that goal with that focused concentration, that maximum effort. Why do you do that? Look at it, verse 14, here's the motive, "For the prize. What did we say the goal was? To be like Christ. Some day we'll be like Him for we shall see Him as He is, 1 John 3 says.
5. In pursuing the prize we must recognize divine resources to pursue that better condition. Verse 15, "Let us therefore as many as are perfect have this attitude and if anything...if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you." By the way, that phrase "have this attitude" literally in the Greek means to think this way, or be intent on this, or set one's mind on this. On what? Pursuing the prize.
6.Conformity necessary to pursue that better condition. We're really talking about consistency which might be a better word. It doesn't happen by intermittent effort, it demands a consistency. Look at verse 16, "However," that really means nevertheless, or better, one more thing. It's often used at the end of a paragraph to express a final thought. "One more thing, by the way, let us keep living by that same to which we have attained."In other words, look, keep moving along the path that has brought you to where you are in your spiritual progress. That's the idea. You'll be interested to know that the verb here is translated "keep living." It actually means to follow in line, to line up. It's what it means. So what he is saying is, spiritually stay in line and keep moving from where you have arrived by the same standard or principle that got you were you are. Fall in step. It's used of armies marching in battle order, stay in line, stay in step, be consistent, keep moving. Wherever you are spiritually by the same principles that got you there, keep moving ahead. Consistency, conformity, live up to the level of your present understanding and by the principles that brought you there, keep moving ahead, stay in line, hold the principle tightly and move down the track. Stay in your lane, if you will, and move as fast as you can from where you are. Whatever strength and energy got you where you are, use it to move ahead. If we were talking about the runner metaphor, we would say you've run this far in your lane with great effort, it's gotten you so far, keep that same effort up in that same lane until you hit the finish. Pursuing the prize.
Amen
Troy
Reaching For The Prize Phlilppians 3:12-16
Philippians 3:12-16
*Not that I have already obtained it or already become perfect but I press on in order that I may hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as many as are perfect have this attitude, and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
*I think it is obvious to any student of the New Testament and any student of the letters of the Apostle Paul that he must have loved athletics, as many of us do. And the reason I say that is because he so often uses athletic analogies, or athletic metaphors to illustrate spiritual truth. One of his athletic analogies is that of a runner, running a race. The runner to him is the picture of the Christian, the race is the Christian life. And frequently in his writings he alludes to this running metaphor, this...this picture of maximum effort as the Christian moves along toward the finish line. That is essentially the underlying picture of the passage before us.
*Now obviously the heart of this passage is the very familiar fourteenth verse, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." The theme here then is pursuing the prize. The analogy is that of a runner who is running to win in order that he might gain the prize. The spiritual point here is the matter of pursuing the spiritual prize. If you will, Paul is talking about Christian effort toward growth. Now he has just given his personal testimony of the experience of his own conversion from his viewpoint from verses 4 to 11.
*You'll remember that he has lived as a Jew and he recites his credentials in verses 5 and 6, circumcised the eighth day of the nation Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is the law found blameless. And as he lived as a God-fearing law-abiding Jew he had learned to put his trust in those achievements for his salvation. So he had this prophet column in which he assumed that all of these things made him right with God. Then on the Damascus Road he was confronted with the living Christ. And he saw that all of those works and all of those achievements not only did not make him right with God, they hindered him from being right with God. And that he would have to abandon them all and receive Christ. And so, in effect, in verses 4 through 11 he says, "When I saw the value of Christ and when I saw that salvation was only in Christ, I took everything that once was gained and counted it loss and I abandoned it all for Christ." And so you had then in verses 4 through 11 an insight into the heart attitude of Paul at the time of his conversion when he discounted all of those things once precious, put them all aside to embrace Christ.
*In verses 8 through 11 then he began to recite what he gained in Christ. Verses 4 through 7, what was loss, verses 8 through 11 what was gained. And what did he gain in Christ? Remember there were five things. He gained the knowledge of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the power of Christ, the fellowship of Christ and the glory of Christ. Frankly, quite an amazing list of spiritual benedictions.
*Now, saying that I set all of this aside, received Christ and in Christ I gained all of this might lead someone to assume that Paul had reached spiritual perfection. It might lead someone to assume that the beginning for him was also the end. Or that the start was also the finish, that having come to Christ he was instantaneously made perfect...nothing more to become, nothing more to seek, nothing more to pursue, he had arrived.
*It is also quite possible that the Judaizers, the Jewish teachers who were plaguing the Philippian church, were telling the Philippians that spiritual perfection was available if they would be circumcized and keep the law. It is also true that there were heretics floating around at that time who believed you could reach a certain level of knowledge in which you attained perfection. So to answer the Gnostics who thought they had reached that level, to answer the Judaizers who thought they had reached that level through circumcision and law keeping and to answer anybody else who might assume that because he had the knowledge, the righteousness, the power, the fellowship and the glory of Christ he was therefore perfect, he quickly in verse 12 launches into a passage which is a total disclaimer of any spiritual perfection. That's his intent in this passage. He wants us to know that he is not perfect. He has not reached moral perfection, he has not reached spiritual perfection even though he is a new creation, even though he has a new heart and a new disposition which desires strongly holy things, even though he had union with Jesus Christ and a new mind, the mind of Christ, even though he has new standing before God and is accepted by God and entitled to heaven and has the righteousness of Christ covering him, even though he has the indwelling Holy Spirit who is the power of God, even though he has promised future glory and indwelling glory in that Spirit, he has not arrived...he is not perfect. He is still temptable. He is still the possessor of his unredeemed flesh. He is still a sinner.
*Thus, any thought of perfection must be set aside in favor of pursuing the perfection that every believer must recognize he doesn't have. That's the point. He had already been placed in Christ, already accepted by God, already gifted with all of these tremendous things and yet he was not perfect. He had not arrived.
*Peter understood it when Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:18, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." He was saying the same thing Paul is saying here. There's a growing process. When you're saved yes you receive the knowledge of Christ, yes you receive the righteousness of Christ positionally imputed to your account, yes you receive the power of Christ in your life, yes you receive the fellowship of Christ in communion with Him, yes you receive the glory of Christ but not in perfection. And so there must be growth. There must be the pursuit of the goal. There must be the running of the race. That's his point. The pressing toward the mark.
*You say, "Well why? Why should I bother? I mean, if I'm already entitled to heaven and I already have these things guaranteed to me and promised to me and I will some day enter into the fullness of them in the presence of God, why bother to grow?" Well in one sense it's kind of a moot point because if you're a new creation in Jesus Christ you will desire to grow. So it's not as if you're going to stand there and say, "Well now that I'm a Christian I think I'll have to debate whether I want to grow or not." Having been born into the family of God you are born with a hunger, in fact in many cases an almost insatiable hunger. There is a built-in desire and drive and longing for growth.
*But apart from that there are some very important reasons why you should grow, reasons why you should pursue the prize and run the race. First of all, it glorifies God. And that's what a Christian is supposed to do with his life is bring glory to God. Secondly, it verifies regeneration. It makes demonstrable the fact that you are truly changed because you're in the progress of making it visible that your life is being changed. Thirdly, it adorns the truth. It lets you literally wear the truth of God so others can see it. Fourthly, it grants you assurance. When there is spiritual progress in your life there is the sense that you belong to God because you can see His work and your calling and election become sure. Not only that it preserves you from the sorrows and the tragedies of spiritual weakness which are not enjoyable to any believer any time.
*Furthermore, pursuing the prize, running the race, seeking the goal protects the cause of Christ from reproach because when you live a godly life and you pursue the goal, your life is consistent with the character of Christ and the character He upholds in Scripture and thus you're not a reproach to Him. Seventh, when you pursue the prize and run the race and grow spiritually it produces joy and usefulness in your life and thus you can minister capably to the church. And finally, it enhances your witness to the lost world.
*There are myriad reasons why then to run the race, pursuing the prize. So, Paul like a runner in a race is doing just that. This is not a new picture for him as I mentioned a few moments ago. In 1 Corinthians 9 in verse 24 he says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things, they then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable, therefore I run in such a way as not without aim...and then he says in verse 27...I buffet my body and make it my slave." He says I do everything I can not to be disqualified, to run the race with maximum effort and maximum conformity to the rules. I don't run half-heartedly, I run all out. I don't violate the rules, I don't take spiritual steroids, whatever you want to say, I stay within the rules. I compete as I'm supposed to. But I run the race.
*Now, let me add another footnote here. The Apostle Paul is trying to show the readers in Philippi that because he is a Christian does not mean he has attained perfection. But beyond that, I believe he is trying to teach all of us and all generations that perfection in this life is a goal, not an achievement. It is something you pursue but never reach. I think this attacks effectively the false doctrine of perfectionism. I don't know if you're familiar with that. If you've come from a Methodist background or a Wesleyan background or a Nazarene background you perhaps remember them teaching perfectionism, or as it was called total sanctification, or complete sanctification. That is that a believer in this life on this earth before death can reach a place of spiritual moral perfection. They teach that. They do not teach that that is a result of progress, they teach that as a result of a momentary instantaneous second work of grace, like salvation, you are momentarily instantaneously made sinless. And, in fact, some have gone so far as to say it encompasses the eradication of the sin nature. That's perfectionism. It basically goes back to Pelagianism, to Arminianism, was crystallized in more modern times by John Wesley and became a very important part of Wesleyan tradition, Wesleyan theology.
*The Apostle Paul deals a devastating blow to this doctrine of perfectionism. By the way, the only way Wesley could make it fly was to say that there's a difference between willful sin and making mistakes because anyone who claimed sinless perfection would have a very difficult time convincing the people who were close to them that it was really true. And so they came up with a dichotomous definition and said that those are mistakes that are unwilling, they don't count, they're not the willing sins that are the result of the sin nature. So Paul, I believe, deals a death blow to that particular perfectionist's theory, he denies it and he calls for a pursuit of a prize that can only be fully realized in heaven. And by the way, in this passage he confesses that he hadn't reached it, he hadn't attained it, he hadn't acquired it, he hadn't arrived at perfection and this is thirty years after his conversion. And if the singularly unique Apostle Paul, perhaps the most committed dedicated Christian who ever lived, after 30 years had not achieved perfection, who in the world are any of us to claim such.
*Now, verse 12 launches his thought, "Not that I have already obtained it or already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." There is an instantaneous disclaimer. Paul is saying I have knowledge in Christ, the righteousness, power, fellowship, glory of Christ, I have all the great benedictions that God can give in Christ but I have not attained moral spiritual perfection in my own life. That's the disclaimer. And then he goes on in verses 13 through 16 to talk about how we must pursue that.
*Now, the basic thrust of the passage then is a call to pursue the prize. It's a call to pursue the goal, the prize which is spiritual perfection. We are to give our whole life to this, that's what he's saying in verse 14. "I press toward that." The word "press" meaning I pursue, I chase it, I run after it.
** In this passage we have six principles for pursuing the prize, Six necessary elements if we are to effectively pursue the prize.
1.An awareness of the need to pursue a better condition, not a better position, your position in Christ is fixed by God's grace through Christ. But your condition must be improved. You are not what you should be, you are not what you can be, you are not what you will be some day when you see the Lord. So there must be beginningly an awareness of the need to pursue a better condition. And you see perfectionists don't do this. Anybody who thinks they've reached spiritual perfection has no awareness of pursuing a better condition. You know what the people in perfectionism do? They get to the point where they think they've arrived at the level of spiritual perfection therefore there's nothing left to pursue. So they become content with their condition, and worse than that, they spend the rest of their life instead of pursuing a better condition, defending themselves as perfect to people who aren't convinced. It all starts with a dissatisfaction. Please note verse 12. "Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect." And that's where he starts, an awareness that he hasn't arrived. Paul the Apostle, 30 years after his conversion is saying I'm not what I ought to be. I haven't arrived. I'm not spiritually perfect. I'm not morally perfect. I haven't reached Christ's likeness. I have not reached God's perfect standard. I am not what I ought to be, I am still in process. There is still a pursuit in my life as there is in the life of every believer.
2.If you're going to pursue the prize effectively you must give maximum effort to pursue that better condition, There must be maximum effort to pursue that better condition. Look at verse 12 again, so he says, "I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." I press on, dioko, I run, I follow after, I pursue, I chase. It's used of a sprinter and the word means aggressive energetic endeavor. He says I'm running after this thing with all my might.
3.In pursuing the prize it is required that there be focused concentration to pursue that better condition. Not only maximum effort but focused concentration. Any athlete knows that when you're running in a race you have to fix your eyes on something ahead of you. You cannot watch your feet or you'll fall on your face. You cannot watch the people around you or you will trip or somebody will pass you on the other side. Your focus is straight forward on the goal that is ahead. And that is precisely what he is saying here. In making maximum effort there's a concentration point beyond you upon which you focus.
4.Spiritual motivation to pursue that better condition...spiritual motivation. Notice verse 14, the heart of the passage, "I press or I pursue," continuous effort, present active indicative verb, I continually pursue toward...marvelous word, kata, means down, it means to bear down on. "I continuously bear down on...what?...the goal." I continuously bear down on the goal. What's the goal? What did we say it was? To be what? Like Christ. The same thing He saved you for is what you pursue. So you bear down on that goal with that focused concentration, that maximum effort. Why do you do that? Look at it, verse 14, here's the motive, "For the prize. What did we say the goal was? To be like Christ. Some day we'll be like Him for we shall see Him as He is, 1 John 3 says.
5. In pursuing the prize we must recognize divine resources to pursue that better condition. Verse 15, "Let us therefore as many as are perfect have this attitude and if anything...if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you." By the way, that phrase "have this attitude" literally in the Greek means to think this way, or be intent on this, or set one's mind on this. On what? Pursuing the prize.
6.Conformity necessary to pursue that better condition. We're really talking about consistency which might be a better word. It doesn't happen by intermittent effort, it demands a consistency. Look at verse 16, "However," that really means nevertheless, or better, one more thing. It's often used at the end of a paragraph to express a final thought. "One more thing, by the way, let us keep living by that same to which we have attained."In other words, look, keep moving along the path that has brought you to where you are in your spiritual progress. That's the idea. You'll be interested to know that the verb here is translated "keep living." It actually means to follow in line, to line up. It's what it means. So what he is saying is, spiritually stay in line and keep moving from where you have arrived by the same standard or principle that got you were you are. Fall in step. It's used of armies marching in battle order, stay in line, stay in step, be consistent, keep moving. Wherever you are spiritually by the same principles that got you there, keep moving ahead. Consistency, conformity, live up to the level of your present understanding and by the principles that brought you there, keep moving ahead, stay in line, hold the principle tightly and move down the track. Stay in your lane, if you will, and move as fast as you can from where you are. Whatever strength and energy got you where you are, use it to move ahead. If we were talking about the runner metaphor, we would say you've run this far in your lane with great effort, it's gotten you so far, keep that same effort up in that same lane until you hit the finish. Pursuing the prize.
Amen
Troy
