Philippians 3:12-16
Not That I Have Obtained It
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.
16Nevertheless, we must live up to what we have already attained.
Berean Standard Bible
He has just told them he counts everything he ever had as rubbish, and that what he wants instead is Christ and the power of the resurrection. It is a very large thing to say out loud, in a letter, to people who already think well of you. The sentence that comes next is the one that keeps him honest.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
He denies it twice in the same line, and then a line later he says it a third time: he does not consider himself to have taken hold of it yet. This is the same man who had just set out his qualifications item by item, and he is now at some trouble to stop anybody thinking he has arrived.
There is a grasping on both sides of that sentence, and Christ's came first. Paul is stretching after something because something already took hold of him, and what he is trying to lay his hands on is whatever that grip was for.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
One thing. Not ten things, not a list of resolutions written down in January. A man whose freedom is gone and whose choices have mostly been made for him has one thing he is doing, and he says what it is.
Forgetting here is not amnesia. He has just been remembering in close detail, the worst of it included. What he refuses is to let what is behind him govern what he is reaching for. Straining is a word for a body at full stretch, reaching for something on a shelf that is too high. Something is being pulled.
Then the tone goes gentle, which is unexpected after all that effort. Those who are mature should think this way, he says, and then he adds a line for anybody who does not.
And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.
He does not tell them to argue it out until somebody gives in. He leaves the disagreement with God and turns to what is left, which is the plain end of the whole passage. Live up to what you already have. Whatever you already know to be true, live at that level, and let the rest arrive later.
How We Know
Three times in two verses this passage has Paul denying his own progress. Verse 12: not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect. Verse 13: I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
That sits against verse 6, where he described his old record as faultless. The same letter has him claiming a spotless record under the law and then refusing to claim one now. One letter, two settings, and no attempt to square them, which fits a man whose confidence had moved off his own record without choosing that reading over another.
Questions
1 Paul has just made a very large claim about what he wants. What does he say about himself straight afterwards?
AnswerThat he has not obtained it and has not been made perfect. He says it twice in one sentence and then again a line later, which is three denials of his own progress inside two verses.
2 Paul is reaching for something. Who reached first?
AnswerChrist did. Paul presses on to take hold of the thing that Christ took hold of him for, so the grasping did not start with Paul, and the whole effort is an answer to something already done to him.
3 What is something you find hard to stop replaying, good or bad? Paul says he is forgetting what is behind, and he had just been remembering it in detail. So what does forgetting mean here?
AnswerNot amnesia. He has recalled his record and his worst actions in detail. It means refusing to let what is behind him decide what he reaches for next.
4 What does he say to people who see it differently?
AnswerNot that they should be argued into line. God will reveal it to them as well, which leaves the matter with God rather than with Paul. Then he gives the plain instruction: live up to what you have already attained, and start there instead of waiting until you understand everything.
What This Means for Us
Christ Jesus took hold of me. That grasp came first, and it is not Paul's. Everything he says about pressing on and straining forward is a man reaching after the thing he was already caught for, which makes the effort here a response rather than an audition.
One thing I do. Most of us are doing eleven things badly and calling it a full life. Paul is in custody, his freedom gone and most of his choices made for him, and what is left is one thing he is pointed at, because one thing already had hold of him.
So say what you are actually straining toward at the moment, in one sentence. If the answer turns out to be nothing in particular, that is a thing to find out at a table rather than on your own. And the place to start is not more resolve. It is the prize of God's heavenly calling in Christ Jesus, which is the thing Paul says he is running at.
Prayer
Father, we live in the past in both directions, proud of some of it and sick about the rest. Thank you that you took hold of us before we reached for anything. Give us one thing to press toward, and the honesty to admit we have not arrived. Amen.