PRESSING TOWARD THE GOAL

 

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!