Pressing
Toward The Goal
All scripture is CSB version
Philippians
3:12-16 - 12 Not that I have already reached the
goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it
because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers
and sisters, I do not[a] consider
myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is
behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I
pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly[b] call
in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore, let all of us who are
mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will
reveal this also to you. 16 In any case, we should
live up to whatever truth we have attained.
As individuals,
we have all experienced frustration, fear, doubt, loss and a myriad of other
things that have made this a tough year to live through. As the Apostle Paul said
in the passage above, he had trying times in his life as well. Here he laid out sort of process about how he
made progress in moving ahead in his life. These are all things that we can
apply to our own lives and move ahead in the future.
Even though
we haven’t obtained what we are shooting for yet, it is important to keep
moving ahead and pressing on. Paul said
that even though he hadn’t yet reached his gosl, he made every effort to take hold
of it. It is interesting the reason he says why. It is because he had also been taken hold of
by Christ Jesus. I think that this is
very significant, especially if we are pressing on to what Jesus has called us
to do with out lives. We are to make
every effort to take hold of it, because He has already taken hold of us.
Paul readily
admits that he is not already perfect.
Too many times we do not start off on the path we are supposed to go,
because we do not believe that we are good enough, strong enough, etc. Paul pressed on anyway, because he knew that’s
what he was called to do and that Jesus already had him in his hands.
Perfect here
usually means mature or complete or finished.
It doesn’t specially mean a moral or a sinless perfection, but it means
a reach of a state of completion as a Christian. I do not believe that happens
until we cross over into heaven.
Paul is
confident and trusts Christ to lead because:
1)
He
wants to lay hold of that Christ Jesus has already laid hold of him.
2)
He
admits he has not reached the goal yet, but his desire is to reach that level
of maturity as a Christian that Jesus has already laid hold of him for.
3)
Jesus
does not want us to remain “babies” of the faith. He expects us to mature and
keep moving forward in our faith.
Paul recognized
that some of the churches he had planted were not growing spiritually as fast as he thought that
they should. He said in 1 Corinthians
3:2-3 - 'I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not
yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still
worldly. For since there is envy and strife, among you, are you not worldly and
behaving like mere humans? '
We do not
really know how long it had been since Paul had left the church in Corinth, but
it had obviously been enough time that he believed that they should be long
passed the basic beliefs of the faith. It
was obvious to him that since they were still behaving like the world, that the
Holy Spirit was not being allowed to work through them to grow in their
faith.
The author
of Hebrews (presumably Paul) wrote something similar to the Hebrew Church, in Hebrews
5:12-14 - 'Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need
someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need
milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the
message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the
mature — for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish
between good and evil.'
It is important
that, as disciples of Christ, we continue to grow in our faith. If we do not become true disciples of Christ
and continually pray, read and study the Bible and be a part of a solid Bible believing/teaching
church, we will stagnant and not grow in the Lord.
There is a
big difference between our physical age and spiritual age. Too many churches have people in positions as
elders, deacons and teachers, that have not grown beyond the very basics of the
faith, simply because they have been members of that church for years. If they have not grown in their faith that is
fitting with how long they’ve been saved, the person should likely not be in
said position, but that’s another article.
Paul did not
let his past keep him from pursuing what God had called him to do. In his zealousness as a pharisee, he pursued
Christians and drug them off to jail. He was present when Stephen was stoned to
death. But after Jesus laid him out on the road to Damascus, he was saved and
became a Christian himself. God greatly used him thereafter. This did not happen right away, however. Paul had to spend time in pray, study and eventually was brought into a position to
do what God wanted him to do. The
believers, were still scared of him for a time.
Paul did not allow those things he had don’t in the past to keep him
from making progress on his goal to serve God.
But He did have to wait until God prepared him and opened the doors for
him to head out.
He then kept
going after his goal. He could have at any time used his past as an excuse to
not keep pursuing after Christ’s will for his life. He could have easily
decided, “you know, I’ve done many terrible things to the body of Christ, so I
can’t step out into this, because no one will believe me.” He could have also decided as he set out and
went on his missionary journeys that he had done enough for Jesus already and
not do anything more. But, he recognized that as long as he had breath left in
his body, he could and would, keep serving Jesus and pursue that “upward call of
God in Christ Jesus.” That upward call
of Christ speaks of the divine call to complete sanctification. He continued to work for the reward that was
due him for his faithful service to Christ in heaven. And so should we.
Working towards
that goal that we have been given by Jesus is of great benefit. “As many as are mature have this mind.” What mind?
Perhaps it would be better said “mindset” or even “passion. To pursue the goal, we do not let our past
keep us from it. We do not allow our feelings about our abilities or value to
keep us from pursuing it for as long as we are able.
If we believe
we have the wrong idea of what our call is, or think our purpose is in life is
wrong, then we should definitely take the time to consult God and get His
direction. As it says in verse 15b
above, God will reveal to us what is wrong.
One important
thing we need to keep in mind as we pursue God’s goal for us, is that sometimes
we don’t always have the complete picture of it as we start out. As it says in verse 16, we should live up to
the whatever truth we already know. Stepping
out in faith is an important aspect of our goal, but we don’t always need to
know all of if. Sometimes, God gives us
the first step of His plan and that’s all.
He expects us to act on it, trusting him. Jesus said in Luke 12:26 – “If then
you’re not able to do even a little thing, why worry about the rest?'
This was always
an issue for me. Being a big picture
person, but also a planner who needed to have every step of the way planned, I
had difficulty being able to start the small thing first, when I already
new what the whole plan was, for the most part. God finally cured me of that …
mostly. The thing is, sometimes God wants
to test our faith and only gives us baby-steps to complete before He gives us
anymore of the plan, to see if we will be faithful to do the small stuff and
trust Him. If we aren’t faithful in the
small stuff, He’s not going to give us the big stuff.
As a way of
concluding this, lets commit to stepping out and do the small stuff faithfully
until God gives us the next step and the next step and the next step, until we reach
that goal “of the upward call of Christ.”
AMEN!
