The Pursuit of Christ

The Christian life may present many challenges and distractions, but in Philippians 3:12-14 the Apostle Paul turns our attention to living the Christian life with zeal, and how we should pursue Christ with fervent desire and focus.

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Philippians 3:12-14

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

I. The Influence of Imperfection

We are surrounded by images, influencers and ideologies that constantly battle to shape our minds to what is considered the true definition of what is ‘perfect.’ It is not a new doctrine.

A. Perfectionism – One of those profound paradoxes that constitute human experience is a deeply embossed image of the perfect, which rubs against constant reminders that life is imperfect. Everyone is aware of the completely pure, true, and beautiful without ever having such experiences. Denial of the perfect is a denial of something profoundly human, yet anyone claiming to be perfect is clearly deluded. At best this ideal serves Don Quixote as a noble friend and sure motivator, the goal of life’s quest. At other times it torments him as the anvil upon which his conscience hammers him into feelings of paralyzing guilt and worthlessness.

1. Analytic data obtained from personality-disordered patients center around turbulent inner experiences of early childhood in which real or imagined injuries are experienced in violent images of absolute good and evil. Personality distortions often originate in homes that do indeed inflict injuries but also in personalities that react excessively, probably for biological reasons. Good experiences are also intense, creating overwhelming yearning for unadulterated love and approval. More recent analytic thinkers conceptualize this violent polarity in terms of a failure in separation and individuation from mother. Part objects of self, other, good, and bad fail to fuse into realistic and distinct self and others that are capable of both good and evil. In this failure lies the roots of the splitting and the profound lack of self-esteem seen in disordered adult personalities.

2. The Christian ideal can be seen as an internal structure designed by God to maintain a constant awareness of God in our life. It serves to remind us of our failures and our need of a Savior. It also nourishes our hope and confidence in these promises: The course of the believer is destined to be perfect. While it never will be complete in the here and now, the end is certain—we will be perfected. For now, our perfection and our hope lies in Christ, not ourselves. Forgiveness is graciously offered for our sins; the guilt of our imperfection can be put behind us.

B. Doctrine of Perfection - Speaking generally, this doctrine is to the effect that religious perfection is attainable in the present life. It is taught in various forms by Pelagians, Roman Catholics or Semi-Pelagians, Arminians, Wesleyans. These all agree in maintaining that it is possible for believers in this life to attain to a state in which they comply with the requirements of the law under which they now live, or under that law as it was adjusted to their present ability and needs, and, consequently, to be free from sin. It is very significant that all the leading perfectionist theories (with the sole exception of the Pelagian, which denies the inherent corruption of man) deem it necessary to lower the standard of perfection and do not hold man responsible for a great deal that is undoubtedly demanded by the original moral law. The evidence they cite as follows:

1. The Bible commands believers to be holy and even to be perfect, 1 Pet. 1:16; Matt. 5:48; Jas. 1:4, and urges them to follow the example of Christ who did no sin, 1 Pet. 2:21 f. Such commands would be unreasonable, if it were not possible to reach sinless perfection. But the Scriptural demand to be holy and perfect holds for the unregenerate as well as for the regenerate, since the law of God demands holiness from the start and has never been revoked.

2. Holiness and perfection are often ascribed to believers in Scripture, Song of Sol. 4:7; 1 Cor. 2:6; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 5:27; Heb. 5:14; Phil. 4:13; Col. 2:10. When the Bible speaks of believers as holy and perfect, however, this does not necessarily mean that they are without sin, since both words are often used in a different sense, not only in common parlance, but also in the Bible

3. There are, it is said, Biblical examples of saints who led perfect lives, such as Noah, Job, and Asa, Gen. 6:9; Job 1:1; 1 Kings 15:14. But, surely, such examples as these do not prove the point for the simple reason that they are no examples of sinless perfection.

4. The apostle John declares explicitly that they who are born of God do not sin, 1 John 3:6, 8, 9; 5:18. But when John says that they who are born of God do not sin, he is contrasting the two states, represented by the old and the new man, as to their essential nature and principle. One of the essential characteristics of the new man is that he does not sin.

C. Objections to the theory of Perfectionism

1. In the light of Scripture, the doctrine of Perfectionism is absolutely untenable. The Bible gives us the explicit and very definite assurance that there is no one on earth who does not sin, 1 Kings 8:46; Prov. 20:9; Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:10; Jas. 3:2; 1 John 1:8.

2. According to Scripture there is a constant warfare between the flesh and the Spirit in the lives of God’s children, and even the best of them are still striving for perfection. Paul gives a very striking description of this struggle in Rom. 7:7–25, a passage which certainly refers to him in his regenerate state.

3. Confession of sin and prayer for forgiveness are continually required. Jesus taught all His disciples without any exception to pray for the forgiveness of sins and for deliverance from temptation and from the evil one, Matt. 6:12, 13. And John says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9.

4. The Perfectionists themselves deem it necessary to lower the standard of the law and to externalize the idea of sin, to maintain their theory.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

12 Οὐχ ὅτι ἤδη ἔλαβον ἢ ἤδη τετελείωμαι, διώκω δὲ εἰ καὶ καταλάβω, ἐφʼ ᾧ καὶ κατελήμφθην ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ.

II. Overcoming Spiritual Insecurity

A. Acknowledge Imperfection

1. He starts with a denial – Spoken from a negative: The adv. ἤδη (“already” [EVV]; “now, already, by this time” shows that ἔλαβον (1 sg. aor. act. indic. from λαμβάνω) does not denote a single past event, e.g., Paul’s Damascus Road encounter. Rather, the vb. sums up Paul’s past experiences (particularly those described in vv. 8–11) and views them as a whole.

2. “obtained” (elabon) to receive — to get something or come into possession of; whether physical or abstract.

3. Τετελείωμαι (“perfect”) is 1 sg. perf. pass. indic. from τελειόω, used only here by Paul (he prefers τελέω or ἐπιτελέω). Eschatological consummation (“have … arrived at/reached the/my goal” [NRSV, NJB, NIV]; “been brought to completion). The cognate noun, τέλος, bears the primary sense of a “goal” or “aim” toward which something is pointing. Τετελείωμαι thus clarifies the previous ἔλαβον (with its implied obj.), in terms of the future, when Paul arrives at his final goal (via the resurrection) of “the ultimate apprehension of Christ” Most agree, however, that Paul here takes over the terminology of his opponents for the purpose of correcting their false views, so the erroneous teachers in Philippi may well have used τελειόω as well.

B. Progress starts with ownership.

1. He moves toward action - Many Christians can identify with the first point. We’re not perfect. Check. But many Christians use this point as an excuse to be complacent. The δέ (BUT) is strongly adversative or oppositional, highlighting Paul’s unrelenting determination to press on despite the limitations caused by his present imperfection. (James 3:2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body)

2. The primary sense of διώκω (“pursue, press”) is “to move rapidly and decisively toward an objective”, “hasten (toward the goal)” The objective can be bad (e.g., “persecute” [v. 6]) or good (“I press on” [most EVV]; “I make every effort” [HCSB]; “hasten, run, press on”.

3. Some take εἰ καί together, “if indeed”. The two conjs. (καὶ καταλάβω … καὶ κατελήμφθην) are better taken in parallel, with their respective verbs (“both/and” or “also/also”), expressing a reciprocal relationship: “I on my part, Christ on his part”. Paul’s point is not to express doubt (implied by taking εἰ καί together) but precisely the opposite, to communicate “expectancy”.

4. Καταλάβω (“make it my own”) is 1 sg. aor. act. subjunc., the first of three forms of καταλαμβάνω in the passage (brought out in NRSV [“make it my own/made me his own/made it my own”] and NIV [“take hold/took hold/have taken hold”; cf. HCSB]). The compound vb. means “to take aggressively,” hence, “grasp” or “seize”; “make someth[ing] one’s own” [NRSV, ESV]; “lay/take hold” [NASB, NIV, HCSB]), positively (1 Cor 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.) or negatively (Mark 9:18; 1 Thess 5:4). The literal connotation “grasp” passes over to the sense “understand” or “grasp an idea with one’s mind”

C. Find motivation in Christ.

1. Do you recall why you were arrested in the first place? See above, on καταλάβω, for the basic meaning of κατελήμφθην (1 sg. aor. pass. indic.), which changes slightly here. Instead of mental or spiritual apprehension, the reference is to Paul’s Christ encounter on the Damascus Road, the point at which Christ “laid hands on him, so to speak, forcefully arresting him and setting him off in a new lifelong direction” Acts 9:15 A chosen instrument of mine to carry my name

Ephesians 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

2. We move on now to consider the ways in which literal slavery was entered and metaphorical slavery is entered. In the ancient world a person became a slave, the disposable property of another, in one of four basic ways: (a) by birth into a family of slaves; (b) by self-sale; (c) by capture; and (d) by purchase.

slavery by birth is unlikely to be so linked, since the New Testament clearly indicates that by nature, that is, by literal birth, we become, figuratively speaking, ‘slaves of sin’ (Rom. 6:17; cf. Eph. 2:3; Titus 3:3).

Self-sale was not an uncommon practice in the first century ad. There were three main motives behind self-sale into slavery, whether it was temporary enslavement or became permanent: to relieve economic pressure or prevent financial disaster; to gain special posts that might prove lucrative; and even (on occasion) to climb the social ladder and so gain prestige and ultimately wealth. Paul may allude to this practice when, in Romans 6:16, he writes: ‘Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves as someone’s slaves to obey him, you are the slaves of the one you obey?’ Christian slavery, then, is unlike self-sale into slavery in that Christ bought his slaves (Rev. 5:9) and they did not sell themselves; but it is like self-sale into slavery in that they voluntarily embraced slavery to Christ and were not forced into slavery against their will.

slavery through capture. We could surmise that the practice of slavery began when prisoners of war were not slain (as had been the practice ex hypothesi) but were spared and retained as a free labour force for the victors. We have seen that Paul excoriates kidnapping or dealing in slaves (1 Tim. 1:10). Consequently, he is unlikely to portray conversion as an act of divine brigandage or as spiritual kidnapping! Nevertheless, there are several places where he appears to depend on the notion of ‘capture’ in describing conversion or the Christian life. The first is Philippians 3:12, where referrring to his own conversion, Paul says that Christ ‘laid hold of him’ or had ‘made him his own’. This graphic verb, katalambanō, means ‘seize with a firm grip’, as when a person is apprehended as a wrongdoer. It was as though Paul had been overtaken and arrested in his flight from God. To use Petrine terminology, Christ had ‘mastered’ Paul, so that Paul became Christ’s possession or slave, on the principle that ‘a person is a slave to whatever has mastered him’ (2 Pet. 2:19).

The fourth way in which a person became enslaved was by purchase, usually at a slave market. The main New Testament verb denoting purchase is agorazō, meaning ‘buy in the marketplace’, and more generally, ‘buy’, ‘acquire as property’. Most of its twenty-five New Testament uses are in the gospels, with purely commercial overtones; but on several occasions it depicts the ‘purchase’ of Christians. Twice the purchaser is indicated, viz. Christ (2 Pet. 2:1; Rev. 5:9); once, the purchase price, viz. the blood of Christ (Rev. 5:9); once, the ultimate possessor, viz. God (Rev. 5:9); and once, the thing from which the purchase separates, viz. the earth (Rev. 14:3 of the 144,000).

B. Our salvation was a seizure: For which also I am apprehended. Rev., correctly, was apprehended. American Rev., laid hold on. Paul’s meaning is, “I would grasp that for which Christ grasped me. Paul’s conversion was literally of the nature of a seizure. That for which Christ laid hold of him was indeed his mission to the Gentiles, but it was also his personal salvation, and it is of this that the context treats. Some render, seeing that also I was apprehended.

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

13 ἀδελφοί, ἐγὼ ἐμαυτὸν οὐ λογίζομαι κατειληφέναι· ἓν δέ, τὰ μὲν ὀπίσω ἐπιλανθανόμενος τοῖς δὲ ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος,

III. The Influence of Perspective

A. Consideration and Counting, or the retrospective view

1. What about you? Paul repeats his disclaimer and emphatically reinforces it by means of (a) two expressed prons. (ἐγὼ ἐμαυτόν), (b) a switch to pres. tense, and (c) the arresting voc. ἀδελφοί. That this is all being told for the Philippians’ sake is evidenced by “the sudden—and surprising—appearance of the vocative,” ἀδελφοί (lit., “Brothers” [NJB, HCSB, ESV], but semantically including both genders, “Brothers and sisters” [NIV, cf. NLT]). Paul addresses the Philippians directly for the first time since vv. 2–3, in the middle of his own personal story. The elimination of the sibling metaphor in the service of a gender-neutral rendering (“Beloved” [NRSV] and “My friends” [CEV]) blunts the paraenetic force of Paul’s address. The expressed ἐγώ provides further emphasis, as does the “syntactically unnecessary” ἐμαυτόν “I (Paul) in contrast to others,” “I, for my part”. The contrast is not with opinions others have of Paul but, rather, with opinions others have of themselves.

2. The word “count” is from a Greek word which has the force of looking back upon the process of a discussion and calmly drawing a logical conclusion. the subject’s cognitive faculties are at the forefront of the vb., which was used (a) in commercial transactions and (b) for the “non emotional” reflections of the philosopher. Paul had, after much deliberation and consideration arrived at the conclusions which he stated in verse twelve. It is evident that some of the Philippian saints had arrived at the opposite conclusion regarding themselves, for Paul uses the personal pronoun (I myself) in the Greek in connection with the verb here, and which, because it is not necessary as in English to show the person of the verb, is therefore used for emphasis and to show contrast.

3. Past, present and future- The words “attained” and “apprehended” in verse twelve merely refer to a past fact, the word “apprehend,” to a present process. But the word “apprehended” in this verse speaks of a past completed process with present results, the strongest way Paul had of stating the fact. That settled the question.

B. (One Thing)

1. Ἕν is the neut. sg. of the numeral “one” (εἷς, μία, ἕν). Most EVV (NIV, HCSB, ESV) supply ποιῶ [I do] (making ἕν acc.) to this “short but forceful interjection”. But this reduces the strength of Paul’s rhetoric, which lies precisely in the ellipsis and leaves the rest of the sentence to define the ἕν -“just one thing!”

2. What one change could you make to pursue the one thing that matters the most?” Negatively stated, what sin or habit or activity could you throw off to run the race better (Heb 12:1–2)? Positively, what could you begin doing that you aren’t doing right now?

3. Don’t underestimate the power of making one change. – Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.

C. Forgetting and reaching, or the prospective view

1. The Christian life is lived “between the ‘no longer’ and the ‘not yet’. O’Brien notes that epilanthanomai means “to forget” (Matt 16:5; Mark 8:14; Jas 1:24), or “to neglect, overlook, or care nothing about” (Luke 12:6; Heb 6:10; 13:2, 16;). What exactly is Paul to forget? O’Brien puts it succinctly and powerfully: He will not allow either the achievements of the past (which God has wrought) or, for that matter, his failures as a Christian to prevent his gaze from being fixed firmly on the finish line. In this sense he forgets as he runs. (Luke 9:62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”)

2. “Forgetting” is stronger in the Greek, “completely forgetting.” Paul uses an illustration here of a Greek runner completely forgetting his opponents whom he is leading in the race. Just as a runner’s speed is slackened should he think of those behind him, and the thud, thud of their pounding feet, so the Christian’s onward progress is hindered should he dwell on the past full of failures and sins, full of heartaches and discouragements, full of disappointments and thwarted hopes and plans. If a Christian has made things right with God and man, he should completely forget the past. Like the Eng. vb. “forget,” ἐπιλανθάνομαι can also mean being “inattentive to,” here “disregard, put out of mind” (“Not amnesia, but what Paul concentrates on”). Paul still remembers past experiences and achievements, of course, but pays no attention to them to concentrate on what lies ahead.

Forget failures.

Forget past achievements.

3. The words “reaching forth” (only here in the N.T.) are from another Greek athletic term which describes the runner whose “eye outstrips and draws onward the hand, and the hand the foot.” The word means “to stretch forth after.” A double compound found nowhere else in the Gk. Bible, comes from ἐπεκτείνομαι, “to exert oneself to the uttermost”. The translation “straining” (NRSV, NJB, ESV, NIV) is properly more forceful than “reaching” (NASB, HCSB). The metaphor pictures a runner extending himself or herself by leaning toward the goal.

14. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

14. κατὰ σκοπὸν διώκω εἰς τὸ βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

IV. The Influence of The Call

A. The Productive View -- What you fix your gaze on is your goal. Make sure that gaze is fixed on the Gospel.

1. “Press” is literally “pursue.” “Mark” refers to a target for shooting, here a moral and spiritual target. “Toward” is from the preposition meaning “down,” and has the idea of “bearing down upon” in the direction of the goal. The mark is Christlikeness. Σκοπός means “goal” or “mark” “goal-marker” and was used of an archer’s target (Job 16:12; Lam 3:12) or of a goal or marker that controls a person’s life. Here σκοπόν refers to the post at the end of the race upon which a runner fixed his gaze (O’Brien 430; Reumann 540). Κατά + acc. is used in the sense “toward, to, up to”; “toward the goal” [NRSV, NASB, NIV; BDAG 254a]).

a. Note, “toward the mark” is Christ; To miss the mark is an illustration of sin.

2. Βραβεῖον (“prize”) is acc. sg. neut. from βραβεῖον, -ου, τό, “an award for exceptional performance,” a “prize”. It occurs elsewhere in the NT only at 1 Cor 9:24, where it also signifies the “prize” in a foot race, typically a wreath of wild olive or celery branches given to a winning runner. The cognate βραβεύς was used of an umpire or official at the games (βραβεύω means “to order, rule, control” [cf. Col 3:15]). The imagery would have been familiar in Philippi for champions at the games and, perhaps, for awards granted to civic benefactors. The “prize” in v. 14 consists of what Paul will gain at the return of Christ, whether understood, narrowly, as the resurrection (cf. v. 11; or, more broadly, as the full apprehension of Christ and his benefits). Verses 20–21 will fill out the picture.

3. The κλήσεως (“call”) is the believer’s initial call to faith, which promises an ultimate “prize” that will be received only at the eschaton (“the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus” [cf. NIV]; “the prize that is the object of (and can only be attained in connection with) the upward call”. God’s call to “the whole work of salvation—with all its implications” The gen. is (loosely) subj. (“indicative of belonging” or, perhaps, a gen. of “result-means,” the call being the means that has brought about the promised result, the prize). This view retains the common Pauline meaning of κλῆσις, “a nearly technical term for God’s call of the believer to himself”, which occurs at the beginning of the race, when God “brings the one called into fellowship with Christ (1 Cor 1:9) and at the same time into fellowship with other members of his body.”

4. The words “the high calling” have the idea of “a calling which is from heaven and to heaven.” The word is not to be construed as meaning “a calling in life,” but “a call from heaven to which the apostle must ever give heed.”

Compare Heb. 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession The prize is bound up with the calling; promised when the call is issued, and given when the call is fulfilled.

In Colossians Paul says, “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him” (Col 2:6). The Colossians were trying to move on to something else, and Paul effectively says, “There is nothing else!” Just as you received Jesus—desperately, and in faith—so walk in Him. Keep looking to Him. Keep treasuring His grace. Keep relying on His power. The Philippians faced the threat of false teachers who promoted a sort of maturity that was divorced from the gospel of grace.

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