Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13, 14).
“One thing” is of supreme importance, and that one thing he does: he forgets “the things which are behind.” Not that he does not remember them, and does not know of them any more, but his mind is not fixed on them any longer. He does not look back on them in such a way that they impede his further progress. The recollections of what he was in his former unconverted state must not paralyze and discourage him; disappointments and temptations of the past must not depress him; the thought of what God had already done for him and through him must not lead him to slackness and self-satisfaction. The hand is put to the plough and he will not look back.
Not Perfect
The question is not, have we attained to perfection? but, are we in the track of it? To hold up perfection before men as a present and instant attainment, is as presumptuous as it would be to expect the child by one leap to put himself by the side of the venerable scholar. The command is not, be finished in grace, but grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is fatal to Christian progress to limit any element of the Christian character to present attainment.
M. RHODES
Paul insists upon this, that he may convince the Philippians that he thinks of nothing but Christ—knows nothing else—is occupied with no other subject of meditation. In connection with this, there is much weight in what he now adds—that he himself, while he had given up all hindrances, had nevertheless not attained that object of aim, and that, on this account, he always aimed and eagerly aspired at something further. How much more was this incumbent on the Philippians, who were still far behind them?
JOHN CALVIN
Paul formerly spake of his desire, choice, and esteem of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the force thereof he found in him. Now, lest secret, insinuating, proud conceits might arise, either in himself or in them, concerning his holiness, he crosses them with a “not as,” showing that the best estate of God’s children in this world is imperfect. There is ever something to do or suffer; some lust to conquer, or some grace to strengthen.
RICHARD SIBBES
You remember, perhaps, how the discoverer in natural science, Sir Isaac Newton, said toward the close of his life, that he was but as a child, who had gathered a few shells on the shores of an illimitable sea. He saw stretching before him a vast ocean of knowledge, which his life had been too short, which even his powers had been too weak, to explore. What he felt in things natural, St. Paul felt in things spiritual—that there were heights above him which he had never fathomed; that, rich as he was in Christ, there were yet hidden in that Lord treasures of wisdom and knowledge which would make him far richer still; that God was unsearchable, unfathomable, a shoreless sea, an ocean of perfections; of which he understood a little, of which he was understood a little, of which he was understanding ever something more; but which man could no more take in than he could hold the sea and all its multitudinous waves in the hollow of his hand.
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH
Running The Race
That the prize, which God from above called the apostle to run for, was righteousness by faith, together with eternal life its consequence, is evident, not only from vs. 9 and 11 where these blessings are represented as the prize for which he ran: but also from 2 Tim. 4:8 where, in allusion to the distribution of the crowns by the judges of the games, he terms the prize for which he ran, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me at that day: and from James 1:12, where it is called a crown of life.
JAMES MACKNIGHT
He compares the object and endeavour of a Christian to a lawful race; so familiar was this image to the Philippians and other Greeks. The superintendent of this mystical course is God, who instituted it by his Son Jesus Christ. The path in which it is run is the part of faith, of repentance, of holiness, of every Christian virtue. The time alloted for the race is during our life. The moment of our conversion is the commencement of it, and is (as it were) the barrier from whence we start, each in his turn, as soon as the heavenly voice has called us; and the place where the race is finished is the moment of death, when we quit this world. The goal to which it conducts is the perfection of our sanctification, of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, of the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship with his death; and to this we can only attain in departing from this life.
JEAN DAILLE
Called In Christ
The call is “above” and stands in contrast to what is below. Sin is degradation, for what is ignorance but lowness of spirit? But this calling exists in a sphere of moral elevation, high or heavenly in its connection with the most High God, by whom it is issued to man.… The call is described in an ideally local aspect as high, then it is asserted to be the call of God. But it is not a call of naked Godhead, of bare Divine authority: it approaches us in Christ Jesus. It is from God—a Divine summons that pierces the spirit and ensures compliance, but it is in Christ, for it is a call which the blood of Christ consecrates, and to which his grace gives effect.
JOHN EADIE
The progress of the Christian to eternal glory has its origin in the fact, that he has been called from above by God in Christ, and has been laid hold of by Him; its continuance in the fact, that he holds firmly to Christ without contentedly looking back upon what has been already won, but with his face earnestly set towards the goal with the feeling that he has not yet reached it; and its end in the fact, that the exalted Lord receives him into His glory. It is thus an onward movement in one direction, without elation or depression, or a deviation to the right or left.
KARL BRAUNE
When we know that Christ must cause us to run the race, this makes us draw strength and courage from him, and run still till we come to the end. If we be hungry or faint in the race, he is bread of life to refresh; he is the truth to direct; the life to hold in our life till the race be run; the prize we run for; our swiftness, and strength, and assurer of attainment.
DAVID DICKSON
