The story is told of a British commuter who got on a train in London. He told the conductor that he wanted to get off at Doncaster.
The conductor said, “We don’t stop at Doncaster on Wednesday, but we slow down to go through the junction. I’ll open the doors, and you hop off. But mind you, we’re going fast, so hit the ground running.”
The man did as he was told. The train slowed. He jumped off and hit the ground running. In fact, he was running so fast he caught up with the car ahead. Another conductor saw him, opened the door, and pulled him in.
“You’re mighty lucky,” the conductor said, “This train doesn’t stop at Doncaster on Wednesdays.” …
Doesn’t that story just sound like life? It raises for me the question: How do we press on in the Christian life and not get caught up and taken in the wrong direction again? That’s the issue that Paul addresses in this next section of his letter to the Philippians. Listen for God’s word to you from Philippians 3:12-4:1…
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
In this passage, Paul gives us seven essentials to pressing on in the race of the Christian life. The first essential is what I am calling: divine dissatisfaction.
What do I mean by “divine dissatisfaction”? Well, Paul makes it clear that he has not yet arrived at perfection in his life as a Christian. He knows that he has not experienced all that there is to know of the fellowship of sharing in Christ’s sufferings. He has not fully tasted of Jesus’ resurrection power. He does not know Christ perfectly.
The Bible makes it clear that none of us will achieve perfection in this life. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
So, if we can’t achieve perfection in this life, then why try? Because we can make progress by God’s grace. In fact, the prize of perfection is only given, in the end, to those who press on. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7-8…
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
In Philippians 3:12 Paul talks about not yet having arrived at his goal. The Greek word is: τετελείωμαι. In verse 15 he talks about “all of us who are mature”. The Greek word for mature is: Ï„Îλειοι. Both these words have a smaller root word at their core. The word is Ï„Îλος.
We all have a Ï„Îλος for which we are created—a purpose, a goal that God has for our life. We never arrive fully at that destination in this life, but we can be “on the way”. And here is a curious truth… I believe that only those who understand their lack of perfection can begin to reach spiritual maturity. A realistic self-estimate, which includes a divine sense of dissatisfaction, can serve as a springboard to further growth.
Phillips Brooks once wrote,
Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely content with the life he is living, with the thoughts he is thinking, with the deeds he is doing; when there is not forever meeting at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is still the child of God.
The second essential to pressing on in the Christian race is devotion to one thing. Paul says, “But one thing I do…” Paul wanted to know Christ. That was his one goal.
I’m sure you remember the story of Martha and Mary when they entertained Jesus in their home. Martha was distracted with all the preparations while Mary sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. Martha complained to the Lord and asked him to make Mary help her. But the Lord said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42) Knowing Jesus is the one thing needful, the one goal we need to focus on.
Maybe you have noticed: Human beings cannot focus on everything at once! And to focus on one thing inevitably involves letting other things fall by the wayside. Undefined priorities are at the root of much failure in our Christian life. Can we say, like Paul, “This one thing I do”? Or is our motto, “These many things I dabble in”?
The great Methodist missionary, E. Stanley Jones once said, “Your capacity to say No determines your capacity to say Yes to greater things.”
H. V. Prochnow once said, “There is a time when we must firmly choose the course we will follow, or the relentless drift of events will make the decision.”
And then there was the elderly preacher who once told a young pastor, “Young man, make up your mind on one thing and stick to it. The Christian life should be like a sword with one point, not like a broom ending in many straws. Such a single purpose forgets the past, reaches toward the future, and presses on. There is no time or place for side issues, diversions to the right or to the left. There is no place for hands on the plow, with eyes looking back. Paul was a one-track man, but you can go a long way on one track!”
This leads to the third essential to pressing on in the Christian race which is direction toward the future. Paul says, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Paul uses the Greek games, and particularly, the foot race, as an illustration of the Christian life. The backward glance can keep the runner from winning the race. After all, you can’t run a race by looking backward.
I am reminded of that scene in the movie, Chariots of Fire, where the American runner, Jackson Scholz, at the last moment in a race, looks back to see if one of the other runners is gaining on him. And in that moment, he loses the race.
Paul urges us to let go of both past failure and past success. To forget what is behind means to no longer be controlled by our past. Jesus can set us free from our past so that we can be propelled by a future focus.
Paul obviously knew something about the Greek games, the ancient predecessor of our modern Olympic Games. Paul would have known how the “agonothetes” in the Greek games would call each winning runner up to the dais to receive his prize, just like modern athletes receive their medals in the Olympic Games. Paul sees this event as a good metaphor for what God is going to do in the future for us. Paul was looking forward to the day when Christ would reward him for a life-race well run.
I wonder: are we controlled by our past? Or are we running our race with eyes set on future glory, chest stretched out, ready to break through the tape at the finish line?
When the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen was asked which of his statues was the greatest, he replied, “The next one!” Evidently, he was never content to rest upon his laurels. He sought continual improvement. His constant hope and his driving desire were that his most noble achievement was still ahead.
A fourth essential to pressing on in the Christian life is determination. Paul says, “I press on to take hold… I press on toward the goal.” There is a deep sense of determination in Paul’s words.
There are two extremes we need to avoid in this regard. One extreme is to say: “I must do it all myself.” The other extreme is to say, “God must do it all for me.” What quarterback would say to his team, “OK men, just let go and let the coach do it all!” On the other hand, no good quarterback would say, “Listen to me and we will win this game without the coach’s help.” Both extremes are unhelpful.
Growth in the Christian life depends upon the synergy of God and us working together. My father used to remind me, “Work as if everything depends upon you and pray as if everything depends upon God.”
The saying, “press on to take hold”, was used in Paul’s time of one army pursuing another. If we are going to press on in our race as Christians, then we need to have guts, we need to have determination, we need to be aggressive and progressive.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”
A fifth essential to pressing on in the Christian race is discipline. Paul says, “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”
Warren Wiersbe once said, “Anyone who has come to be mature in the faith and knows what Christianity is must recognize the discipline and the effort and the agony of the Christian life.”
Someone else paraphrased Paul by saying, “The Christian is to be the athlete of Christ.” All true athletes recognize the necessity of discipline.
Now, it is important to recognize something Paul is quite aware of. We do not all mature as Christians at the same rate of speed. So long as the church is composed of fallible people, we are bound to try one another’s patience from time to time. How does Paul handle this situation? He does not scold the immature. Paul expects God to bring people to maturity. And to reach maturity takes discipline.
That word “discipline” is so appropriate to the Christian life because it has a smaller word within it: “disciple”. And a disciple is a “learner”. What are the disciplines of disciples of Jesus Christ? There are many, but two of the most important, I think, are to spend time in reading Scripture, learning from the Jesus we read of there. And the other all-important discipline of disciples is prayer. Spending time daily, hearing from Jesus through the Scriptures and speaking to him in prayer are, I believe, essential disciplines of the Christian life. After all, how is God going to make our way clear if we are not in communication with him?
A sixth essential to pressing on in the Christian race is the decision to follow a positive example. Paul invites us to… “Join with others in following my example, brothers and sisters, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”
Paul sets himself up as a positive example to follow in the Christian life. Not many preachers can do that, but Paul does it.
Many people today ask, “Where are the heroes that we can look up to and follow in a positive direction?” Well, there are many heroes worthy of following whose stories are told in the Bible and I think Paul is one of them.
Paul also warns us against following negative examples…
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
Who are these enemies of the cross of Christ of whom Paul speaks? He says that they are those whose minds are set on earthly things. Wow! That could be a description of any one of us on any given day.
My parents used to talk about people who were “so heavenly minded they were no earthly good”. And that can be a problem. But the converse is also a problem. There are people who “are so earthly minded they are no heavenly good”!
Personally, I think if we have a proper focus on heaven, on eternity, we will be doers of good deeds here on earth in this life. I think of the English evangelicals like William Wilberforce. They were very focused on heaven. But because of that heavenly focus, they felt an obligation to make earth more like heaven. That’s why and how they were able to bring an end to the slave trade in the British Empire. I believe if we too keep our focus on eternity, we will make a difference in this world.
And that leads to the final essential to pressing on in the Christian race. We need to delight in our heavenly citizenship. Paul says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Many of the Philippians took pride in being Roman citizens. Philippi was founded as a Roman colony with victorious Roman soldiers and their families. Even though the descendants of these original Philippians lived many miles from Rome, they delighted in dressing like Romans and talking like Romans, obeying Roman law, and having their names on the record as Roman citizens. And if they ran into trouble in Philippi, they would not have thought of escaping to Rome; rather, they would have expected the Roman emperor to come to Philippi and settle the problem.
The Christian hope is similar. We are citizens of heaven, yes. We belong to him who is in heaven, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. But our great hope is not that of escaping this world. Our great hope is that one day, Jesus will return from heaven to establish his eternal kingdom fully and forever here on earth. Jesus is coming again, to settle accounts, to straighten out the mess we have made of this world. That’s why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are praying for Jesus to come back and do his will on earth as in heaven. And we are praying that he will help us do his will on earth NOW, just as it is done in heaven. Jesus calls us to live as heavenly citizens here on earth.
Do we speak heaven’s language, or do we get caught up in worldly ways of thinking and speaking? Do we follow the example of our Lord who is in heaven now? Are we loyal to his cause? Are we looking forward to his return?
As Christians we need to represent the interests of heaven in this world. There is tremendous energy in the present power of a future hope. If we are expecting Jesus to return and establish his kingdom fully and forever here on earth, then we will not treat his creation as if it does not matter. We will seek to preserve it and care for it.
Charles Paul Conn once said, “Looking through a peephole is no way to stay motivated when you’re moving toward a goal. The big view is important. It takes big dreams—big goals—big rewards—big faith—to keep us moving through obstacles and fatigue and discouragement. To maintain momentum requires constantly reminding ourselves what we are looking toward.” As Christians we need to have that sort of expansive worldview.
And it all begins with meeting Jesus in a personal way. If you invite Jesus to come into your life today, he will make you a citizen of heaven. He will give you the long view, an eternal perspective. And if you have already invited Jesus into your life, then I urge you to renew your commitment to pressing on in the Christian life by the power of God’s grace and joy. And while we renew that commitment, let us all remember that the Christian race is not a competitive event to see who comes in first, but an endurance run that is all about finishing faithfully.
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