Philippians 3:13

Php_3:13-14

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended

I.

Imperfection acknowledged. Those that have made greatest progress are usually most sensible of imperfections.

1. The reasons of this point.

(1) In respect of grace.

(a) As grace increases light increases, and so they are most sensible of defects. Novices who know little are most apt to be puffed up (1Ti_3:6). Plutarch tells us that when young men came to study at Athens they were wise men; after they had studied a little only lovers of wisdom, but afterwards found themselves fools.

(b) As grace increases love to God is increased, and so sin is more hated.

(c) They have more experience of the craft of Satan (2Co_2:11), and the rocks on which they may split.

(2) Because of the world, which they have proved to be vanity and vexation of spirit.

(3) Because of themselves. The longer they live the more they are acquainted with themselves, both by meditation and commerce with God, whose perfections should beget humility (Job_42:5-6).

(4) Their estate being changed they have now to look to progress in it; and good men cannot run fast enough in the heavenly race.

2. The uses.

(1) To teach us that growth in grace and humility usually go together. The laden boughs do most hang their heads.

(2) Let us be sensible of our imperfections.

(a) In point of knowledge (Pro_26:12).

(b) In point of daily practice (Mar_8:37).

(c) In point of perseverance (Eze_33:13).

II. Perfection desired.

1. The thing pursued after was the prize, etc. The prize of eternal glory is set before those whom God hath called in Christ.

(1) The calling is

(a) outward (Mat_22:14);

(b) inward by the operation of the Holy Ghost (1Co_1:9).

(2) In this calling God in Christ hath the greatest hand.

(3) The nature of this calling.

(a) The work of God is to give grace whereby the heart of man is changed and sanctified (2Co_4:6).

(b) The duty of man is to be obedient to the heavenly call (Joh_1:12; Jer_3:22; Psa_40:8; Psa_27:8; Act_9:6).

(c) The benefits flowing from both. There is a change in disposition, from sin to holiness; in condition, from misery to happiness.

2. The manner of the prosecution. Those that would be Christians indeed must make heavenly things their scope.

(1) The ways in which this is done.

(a) Habitually, when you have first fixed your end and renounced the devil, the world, etc., and chosen the better part (2Co_4:18; 2Co_5:9).

(b) Actually. It is not enough to choose this part, we must often actually think of it to renew lively affections (Pro_4:25).

(2) The intention of the end is either

(a) formal and explicit, by express thoughts of the world to come when the mind and heart are in heaven (Mat_6:21); or

(b) implicit and virtual, by the ready, unobserved act of a potent habit (Php_3:20). This is necessary that we may be sincere (2Co_1:12). To direct our way; when the eye is on the mark you may the better steer your course towards it. To quicken old endeavours (1Co_9:24). For joy and solace (Rom_5:2-3). To make us constant (Heb_10:39).

3. The earnestness of the pursuit.

(1) His diligence.

(2) His perseverance.

(a) Forgetting the past.

(b) Pressing onward. (T. Manton, D. D.)

Christian progress

I. The things behind which are to be forgotten.

1. Past sinful pleasures.

2. Past evil acquaintances.

3. Past good works.

II. The things before.

1. Increased holiness.

2. The prize of eternal glory. (W. P. Insley, M. A.)

Religion is a progressive principle, and that not merely by Divine appointment, but from its very nature. This is the only satisfactory evidence that religion exists at all. It is also the chief source of happiness here, and a large ingredient in it hereafter. It is not, however, always equally marked and measurable. The incoming tide has receding waves; so let no man judge his neighbour a hypocrite because he thinks he sees a retrograde movement. This progressive character may be argued--

I. From the nature of the subject in which the change is wrought. Man, an essentially active being. As previous to conversion the soul was in progress, going from one degree of evil to another, so it may be expected to make progress in the new direction given it.

II. From the nature of the power which effects the change. If the effect could be ascribed to chance, or to momentary impulse, it might be expected to be stationary, or even to cease or disappear, but when the power of God, almighty and unceasing, is the sole efficient cause of conversion, it is unreasonable to suppose that the life created can be at a standstill.

III. From the means employed to effect the change. Had these been of a natural or ordinary character, such as human wisdom might devise and human power set in motion, then we might infer that God intended us to rest contented with actual attainments. But could it be to keep piety alive without improvement or increase that God gave His Son, that that Son came to die, that the Spirit was given? From the prodigality and divinity of the agents and instrumentalities religion cannot he a stationary thing. The purpose must be adequate to the means.

IV. From the end for which the change is produced. That end is--

1. Not deliverance from present pain.

2. Not mere deliverance from future misery.

3. Nor, indeed, mans restoration by itself. If the end were in man he would usurp Gods place.

4. The end is for Gods glory. This cannot be adequately promoted by stationary religion.

V. From the nature of the change itself. As far as Scripture and experience reveal it, it is but an incipient change, and must be carried on forever. This change does not consist in anything corporeal, but in the mind, and not in the structure of the mind, in the creation of new faculties or the destruction of old ones, but in new desires, dispositions, and affections. These must have their objects, and their actings on those objects must increase their strength, enlarge their scope, and stimulate their energies.

VI. From the manner in which God has been pleased to enforce the obligation to progress.

1. The emptiness of past achievements.

2. The weight of future glory. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)

Christian progress by oblivion of the past

There are some views of the apostle which are discouraging. His almost superhuman career, and his calm superiority to temptation seem to place him far beyond the reach of imitation. But here we see him frail and struggling like the rest of us, a sight precious--

(1) To the man, because it tells him that what he feels Paul felt, imperfect, feeble, far from what he would wish to be, yet with sanguine hope expecting progress in the saintly life.

(2) To the minister, because it tells him that his very weakness may be his peoples strength.

I. The apostles aim--Perfection.

1. Less than this no Christian can aim at. There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the Divine nature. Not merely to be equal to the standard of our day or even to surpass it: but to be pure as Christ is pure, perfect as our Father in heaven.

2. It is easily conceivable why this perfection is unattainable here. Faultlessness is conceivable, being merely the negation of evil; but perfection is positive, the attainment of all conceivable excellence. Like truth, you may labour on for years and never reach it, yet your labour is not in vain. Every figure you add makes the fraction nearer than the last to the million millionth.

3. To this object the apostle gave himself with singleness of aim--this one thing.

4. In pressing towards this mark St. Paul attained a prize. The mark was perfection of character--the prize was blessedness. But he did not aim at the prize, but at the mark. In becoming perfect he attained happiness, but that was not his primary aim. In student life there are those who seek knowledge for its own sake, and those who seek it for the prize. To the first knowledge is its own reward, the second are not genuine lovers of knowledge. That is a spurious goodness which is good for the sake of reward. The child who speaks truth for the sake of the praise of truth is not truthful. The man who is honest because honesty is the best policy, has not integrity in his heart. He who endeavours to be holy, etc., to win heaven has only a counterfeit religion. God for His own sake, Goodness because it is good, Truth because it is lovely--are the Christians aim. The prize is only an incentive, inseparable from success, but is not the aim itself. With this limitation, however, it is a Christian duty to dwell much more on the thought of future blessedness than most men do. If ever the apostles step began to flag, the radiant diadem before him gave new vigour to his heart. It is our privilege, if we are on our way to God, to keep steadily before us the thought of home. It was so with Moses and with our Lord.

II. The means which st. Paul found available for the attainment of Divine and perfect character.

1. What are the things behind which are to be forgotten?

(1) The days of innocence. We come into the world with tendencies to evil; but there was a time when there were only tendencies. We call that innocence. And when men come bitterly to feel that it is gone they look back upon it with regret. In this there is much that is feeble and sentimental. Our early innocence is nothing more than ignorance of evil. Christian life is not a retaining of that or a returning to it. We lose our negative sinlessness and put on a firm, manly holiness.

(2) The days of youth. Up to a certain period it is our tendency to look forwards; but as we arrive at middle age it is the tendency to look back with the remorseful feeling that the days of youth are gone by half enjoyed. This is a natural feeling, but not the high Christian tone of feeling. We have an inheritance incorruptible, etc. What have we to do with things past? And so manhood in the Christian life is a better thing than boyhood, because riper; and old age ought to be brighter, calmer, and more serene than manhood. There is a second youth for man better and holier than the first, if he will look on and not back.

(3) Past errors. There is that rueful, self-accusing temper, which is always looking back. Something of this we ought to have, but not that only. Faith is having the heart to try again. Forget the things that are behind. We shall do better next time. Under this head we include all those mistakes which belong to circumstances. Some of these are irreparable. A wrong profession, e.g., has been chosen. It is wise to forget all that. It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is done, but by making the best of what we are. Poor mediocrity may secure the fewest false steps, but he is the best who wins victory by the retrieval of mistakes.

(4) Past guilt. Bad as the results have been of making light of sin, those of brooding over it have been worse. Remorse has done more evil than even hardihood. We want everything that is hopeful for our task, for it is not an easy one. And therefore it is that the gospel comes to the guiltiest with the inspiring news of pardon. Do not stop too long to weep over spilt water. Conclusion:

1. Christian progress is only possible in Christ. It is a high calling, and therefore seems impossible; but it is in Christ Jesus, and therefore to be achieved.

2. Out of Christ it is madness to look on. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The law of progress

1. The apostle here corrects a misapprehension, which might have been occasioned by his previous language. The mighty moral act which changed the whole tenor of his life did not so contain in itself his spiritual history as to make all further aspirations and efforts superfluous. Unspiritual men have thought to compound with heaven by one supreme sacrifice, and so to escape from the wearing trials of the daily struggle. St. Paul maintains that at his conversion he was laid hold of so that he might attain that for which he was still striving, and now with the whole history of the Acts behind him, and having written his greatest Epistles and founded his noblest Churches, and having been caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words, he yet forgets those things that are behind, etc.

2. In these words we catch the echo of the most familiar and potent watchword of modern times. The most opposite aspirations and determined antagonists; government, society, art, science, even religion, are ranged under the banner of progress.

(1) The source and motive of progress is a sense of want.

(2) This is kept alive by an ideal of possible perfection which haunts the soul, and is a relic of Eden. This is largely the distinction of man from the beast. It is the effort to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for the infinite.

(3) Allied to this is the mighty power of hope. It may fail, and be seduced and degraded, yet its very errors bear witness to its strength and the greatness of its origin.

(4) But is not this yearning joined to this hope of realization among the dispositions which welcome revelation to the soul? Was not revelation for ages a progress from Eden to Moriah, to Sinai, to Calvary? and although it is now complete (Jud_1:3), yet it has become the principle of progress. On the one hand, through the Church it leavens the world gradually; and, on the other, the apostle here is a sample of its progressive power within the soul, and that it has enriched and is still enriching human thought, ennobled character, and given an original impulse to entire sciences, and created virtues that are impossible without it, are simple matters of fact.

I. True progress must be the progress of man as distinct from anything which is properly outside him.

1. Contrast this with one of the most general conceptions of progress at the present day--that which ministers dignity and well being to mans outward life. Political reforms, great constructive efforts, rapid locomotion, sanitary improvements, vast accumulations of capital seconded by vast outlays, inventions which economize labour or relieve pain--these are progress. It is almost a marketable commodity; it can be measured, weighed, valued. Mental speculation that does not invent or cannot be utilized, morals which do not sanction economical theories or subserve epicureanism--these are the enemies of progress. We are bidden compare English life today with that of the time of our grandfathers. But forgetting the vast achievements of the past and present, we are bidden to look forward to the new triumphs which await us or our children. As contrasted with our grandfathers we are great and powerful; yet for our descendents there is reserved a land of promise, compared with which our modern civilization is but as the desert. To these enthusiasms the Church of God replies in no unfriendly spirit. She has not forgotten the blessing of Eden (Gen_1:28). Nay, material progress contributes real, if indirect service to the higher interests of man.

2. But at the same time society may be well organized, while man himself is barbarous and selfish. Mans conquests over matter are no adequate measure of the true progress of man. For he is a spiritual being, linked by his higher nature to an immaterial world. Man can rule matter because he is superior to it. Comprehend your matchless dignity in your Creators world. Each of you has, or rather is, that with which nothing material, atom or planet, can rightly challenge comparison. Each is in the depth of his personality a spiritual substance.

3. Let it be thankfully granted that as a means to a higher end, material improvement is a healthful condition of human life and a blessing from God. But its exaggeration at the expense of what it should subserve is fatal to the progress of man. When the sense of the eternal, and all the finer sensibilities have been crushed out by the worship of matter, man sinks in the creation of God, even though he should learn year by year to wield more and more power over the dead atoms around him. A high material civilization does but arm the human brute with new instruments of his lust or his ferocity, unless it go hand in hand with a power that can penetrate his heart and mould his will.

II. Must embrace the whole of human nature. It must not consist in the undue development of a single power or faculty.

1. To some progress is co-extensive with the growth of the mind. And it is our sacred duty to cultivate intellect long and well; not indeed that it may be a pledge of selfish temporal advancement, but as an instrument of religious work. And the religious development of intellect is unquestionably a prominent feature of true human progress. But it is only one feature.

2. When intellectual energy is substituted for moral and spiritual energy; when a mans mind is developed at the expense of his heart and will, he deserves compassion. Pure intellectualism is apt to fall short even of the lower measures of duty, and when unbalanced by a warm heart and a vigorous will, the mere cultivation of mind makes a man alternately selfish and weak.

III. Must include or at least recognize the attendant facts and outlying conditions of human life.

1. The Fall. How rarely do secular theories of human progress condescend to recognize this solemn fact, even when they do not in terms reject it. Yet there are witnesses to it beyond the precincts of theology. There is the pagan doctrine of the difficulty of virtue; there is the spontaneous tendency to evil profoundly imbedded in humankind, and admitted by unChristian writers; and there is mans undeniable aversion for his brother man when in a state of nature. So that when mans life is organized into human society, and society is furnishing itself into government, it can only secure itself against tyranny and corruption by a mechanical system of checks and counterchecks.

2. The wonderful phenomenon of grace. Grace is not that mere barren inoperative sentiment of good will or favour on the part of God. In God to will is to act, to favour is to bless, and thus grace is a positive boon conferred on man (Eph_3:20); the might of the everlasting Spirit renovating man by uniting him to Christ.

3. Immortality. Can any theory of progress dare to claim our attention which, while not venturing to reject this, in practice proceeds as if they were uncertain or improbable? What a poor, narrow conception of mans capacity for progress is that which sees no horizon beyond the tomb. This is worse than educating a child without training him for the duties or guarding him against the dangers of coming manhood. (Canon Liddon.)

The Christian race

Behold an excellent description of a Christian course, borrowed from the exercise of running a race, being a manlike and commendable exercise, fitting men and enabling them for war. The very heathen herein condemns us, whose ordinary chief exercises are but good company as we call them, continual lying at taverns, to the impoverishing of our estates and weakening our bodies? The kind I condemn not, but the excess is such as the heathen would be ashamed of; for which they shall even rise up in judgment against us, and condemn us. But from the simile, we may gather thus much, that Christianity is a race. The beginning of this race is at the beginning of our conversion. It should begin at our baptism. The first thing we should know ought to be God. The race is the performance of good duties, concerning our general calling, and concerning our particular. For the length of our races, some are longer, some shorter, but the end of every mans race is the end of his life. Some mens ways are plainer, some rougher. The prize is fulness of joy. The lookers on are heaven, earth, and hell. God is the institutor of this race, and the rewarder. The helpers are Christ, good angels, and the Church, which helps by prayer. The hinderers are the devil and his instruments, who hinder us by slanders, persecutions, and the like. For ground of this race in us, we are to know that man is created with understanding, directing him to do things to a good end and scope. Other creatures are carried to their end, as the shaft out of a bow, only man foreseeing his end, apprehends means thereto. His end is to receive reconciliation and union with God, to which he aims by doing some things, suffering others, and resisting others. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)

The laws and hindrances of the Christian race

I. For preparation.

1. The laws.

(1) As those who ran had to use such diet as did strengthen, not cloy, and such apparel as might cover, not clog them, so the Christian (Heb_12:1).

(2) We must consider the ways we are to run in, and what dangers we are like to meet with. The want of this is the ground of apostasy.

(3) We must enter the race betimes. The devils trick is to tell us we have plenty of time; but life is uncertain, and youth is the best time to get into training.

2. Hindrances.

(1) Hope of long life.

(2) A conceit that when we have given our names to Christ we must bid adieu to all delight.

(3) A despair of getting through.

II. For continuance.

1. Laws.

(1) You must resolve to hold on without failing in good duties.

(2) You must look to gain ground, and grow from grace to grace.

(3) You must do all things with all your might.

(4) You must run cheerfully and speedily.

2. Hindrances.

(1) Idle scruples which are as dust thrown in the eyes of runners, and temptations which are as stones to their feet.

(2) Sins against conscience.

(3) Ill and dull company.

(4) Wandering minds. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)

Onward

So far as acceptance with God is concerned a Christian is complete in Christ as soon as he believes. But while the work of Christ for us is complete, that of the Holy Spirit in us is not complete, but is continually carried on from day to day. The condition in which every believer should be found is that of progress. Nearly every figure by which Christians are described implies this. We are plants in the Lords field, but we are sown that we may grow. First the blade, etc. We are born into the family of God; but there are babes, little children, etc. Is the Christian a pilgrim? Then he must not sit down as if rooted to a place. Is he a warrior, wrestler, etc.? These figures are the very opposite of idleness. Admire our apostle as--

I. Forming a just estimate upon his present condition. I count, as if he had taken stock, made a careful estimate, and had come to a conclusion. The conclusion was dissatisfaction; nor was this to be regretted: it was a sign of true grace. And yet he was vastly superior to any of us. Shame then on us poor dwarfs if we are so vain as to account ourselves as having apprehended. Yet there are those who prate of having reached a higher life than this. But self-complacency is the mother of spiritual declension. We have observed--

1. That the best of men do not talk of their attainments. Their tone is self-depreciation, not self-content. Everybody could see their beauty of character but themselves. Shallow streams brawl and bubble, but deep waters flow on in silence.

2. That we, in our holiest moments, do not feel self-complacent. Job spoke up for his innocence till the Lord revealed Himself. We shall never see the beauty of Christ without perceiving our own deformity.

3. That whatever shape self-satisfaction may assume it is a shirking of the hardships of Christian soldierhood. Some shirk watchfulness and repentance by believing that the only sanctification they need is already theirs by imputation. Personal holiness, they say, is legal. Others believe they have perfection in the flesh, and others yet attain complacency by the notion that they have overcome all their sins by believing they have done so, as if believing a battle won could win it.

4. That complacency can be reached by many roads.

(1) Enthusiasts reach it by sheer intoxication of excitement.

(2) Antinomians by imagining that the law is abolished, and that sin is not sin in the saints.

(3) Cowards, who say we cannot conquer all sin, and, therefore, we need not aim at it.

5. That complacency has its root in forgetfulness of the awful holiness of Gods law, and the heinousness of sin.

II. Placing the past in its true light. Forgetting, etc.

1. He does not mean--

(1) That He forgot the mercy of God he had enjoyed.

(2) That he forgot the sins he had committed.

2. We must follow out his figure. If a racer were to pass most of his fellows, and then look round and rejoice over the distance covered he must lose the race. His only hope is to forget all behind.

(1) So must it be with past sins overcome. Perhaps at this moment you can honestly say, I have overcome a fierce temper, I have bestirred a naturally indolent spirit. Stop long enough to say, Thank God for that; but do not pause to congratulate yourselves, or it may be soon undone. The easiest way to give resurrection to old corruptions is to erect a trophy over their graves. Yonder friend is very humble, but if he were to boast of it there would be an end of it.

(2) So with all the work we have done. Some people have good memories as to their performances. They used to serve God wonderfully when they were young. In middle life they wrought marvels, but now they rest on their oars. As long as you are in the world forget what you have done, and go forward--individuals, churches, denominations.

III. Paul having put the past and present in their proper places goes on to the future, aspiring eagerly to make it glorious. We ought to be reaching forward, to be like Jesus. He who would be a great artist must not follow low models. Be ye perfect. Shall we ever reach it. Millions have who are before the throne, and we shall too by Gods good help.

IV. Putting forth all his exertions to reach that which he desires.

1. This one thing I do. He might have attempted other things, and did, but all with reference to this one purpose.

2. Why? Because he felt God had called him to it.

3. Moreover he saw the crown. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The great prize

I. The purpose of Paul: What is involved in it?

1. Supreme love to Christ and consecration to His service.

2. Deadness to all human ambitions and merely earthly good. So absorbed is the soul in this one idea that it becomes the master passion of life; and the world, the flesh, and all things else cease to have any attraction.

3. Not satisfied with any measure of past attainment, or service, or consecration, but continually reaching forth with ever-growing ardour. There, in full view, is the goal, and the racers eye is fixed on it.

II. Pauls meaning as to the prize was a personal resemblance to Christ, and a desire to be near him. His vision of Christ in the infinite attractiveness of His character, and in the glory and blessedness of His presence and reign in heaven, made him long to be like Him, and to have, not only a place in His kingdom, but a place hard by the throne of the Lamb. Multitudes of Christians are content just to be saved--to get inside the heavenly gate. But Paul rebukes this spirit. He had a higher and truer ambition.

III. How the great prize is to be won. In no other way than Paul won it.

1. The mind must contemplate it, the heart be fixed upon it, until the power of it shall overmaster all other objects and passions.

2. The purpose to gain it must be single as well as supreme. Divided affection, and allegiance, half-hearted strivings, will end in disappointment and disaster. The whole soul, purpose, and trend of life must be in the direct line of daily striving.

3. To insure success, all dead weights must be thrown off, all unnecessary hindrances avoided, all entangling alliances sacrificed, and the sins which do so easily beset or hinder us, put away. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

Lifes contests and prizes

Such was the language of the most masterful man that ever trod the earth, and this utterance is the keynote of his marvellously successful life.

I. Singleness of eye, unity of purpose, concentration of power. This one thing I do, he cries, and he does it.

II. His was a sanctified, but boundless ambition, forever reaching forth in the direction of higher acquisitions of spiritual truth and nobler results of Christian work.

III. Paul pressed even toward a definite work. Pauls mark was the highest that ever loomed up before a human soul.

IV. This was also the prize he sought. Earth has its prizes, its crowns, its plaudits, its splendid fortunes. Heavens real prize is Christ Himself, and so Pauls aspiration was, That I may win Christ and be found in Him. (P. S. Henson, D. D.)

Pauls view of life

Was what it should be.

I. Forgetful or oblivious towards the past.

1. Of course the figure is not strictly applicable to the reality. Life cannot break itself from the past. The continuity of life cannot be divided at any point. Nor would it be well if it could. Up to whatever point we have run our race we have accumulated experience which has entered into lifes texture and given it direction and colour which it will more or less always keep. And Paul did not mean it in this sense. There are dark days and bright faces that will never die away.

2. What the apostle means is that we are to forget the things which are behind as no longer practically concerning us. Nothing can now be altered.

(1) Did we stand well in the past? Then let us not take credit for it. There is no time for self-elation or self-sufficiency. As soon as you begin to dwell with self-complacency on the past you lose your ideal of duty, and your right sense of the claims of the future and the present. This is the mark of a small and never of a great life.

(2) Have we done imperfectly or ill in the past? Let us not brood or despair. The past is done with us, let us have done with it, and in putting off the old let us put on the new. The future is before you; the present is still yours.

II. Eager and full of aspiration towards the future.

1. Life by itself has a tendency to stagnate, to grow commonplace, bounded in desire and aim. The young live mainly in the future; but by and by the vision fades away or becomes limited. A definite prospect of duty opens up within which the man must work, and find his happiness in working. Many lives are wrecked at this point, just because they wilt not settle and go to some definite work. The world neglected, neglects them. The very dream of hope to do something better has been their rum.

2. But this is no reason why a hopeful eagerness towards the future should die out of life. All right-minded men should have their gaze so far on the future that they may hope to become better and have more enthusiasm and patient continuance in well doing. This is to stretch forth unto the things before; to have not merely an ideal, but to work out our character, by Gods help, more and more into the forms of that ideal.

3. In whatever respect we feel that we are offenders against the law of Divine perfection revealed in Christ let us be more active. It is too often the case as life goes on to get contented with our characters such as they are.

III. Energetic in the present.

1. Paul did not perplex himself with questions as to the meaning of life, or use of it. He was not found asking, as clever writers now are, Is life worth living? Such is only the case when a kind of sickness has come over human speculation. Paul had too much common sense and manliness, and moreover had a real work to do.

2. His example may be beyond us, but the spirit that moved him to work may be ours. It is not necessary that we should have any great work to do, although we have all such work in the improvement of our own characters, and in making life sweet around us.

3. Unlike many in our day, who have cast the hope of the future away from them, we have something for which to work--the mark for the prize of the high calling. (Principal Tullock.)

Memory, hope, and work

The future for the young, we say, the present for the middle-aged, the past for the old. But these words of sublime hopefulness are from Paul the Aged.

I. Live in the future.

1. The two objects of hope and effort are distinct though connected. The mark is reached by the runners effort, the prize is the reward given for victory. The former stands for being made conformable unto Christs death, the latter for attaining the resurrection; or the mark is likeness to Christ, and the prize whatsoever glory and felicity God shall give besides.

2. Then there is to be a distinct recognition of moral perfection as our conscious aim, and our efforts are allowably stimulated by the hope of the fair reward it ensures. If you want to be blessed you must be good; if you want to get to heaven you must be like Christ.

3. Our highest condition is not the attainment of perfection, but the recognition of heights above us as yet unreached.

(1) Such recognition is the condition of all progress. The artist who is satisfied with his transcript of his ideal will never grow any more. Unless we saw an ideal far above us, the actual would never approximate toward it. The unrest born of the contrast between these two marks man off from the happy contentment of the brutes beneath him, and the happy peacefulness of the angels of God.

(2) That is eminently true of growth in grace. The type for us is the express image of God in Christ. To that supreme beauty our nature is capable of unlimited approach. No bounds can be set to it.

(3) There are two ideas in that notion of perfection.

(a) Extirpation of sin;

(b) Attainment of the Divine likeness.

Sin may be extirpated, and yet the second process may be in its infancy. And we shall not stop growing in heaven, but through the eternities we shall be growing wiser, nobler, stronger, greater, and more filled with God.

(4) This grand future should draw our thoughts all the more to itself, because it is not only grand, but certain. We know that … we shall be like Him.

(5) And therefore that habit of living in the future should make us glad and confident. And that is the true temper for wider interests than our own. Live in the future for yourselves, and for the world. Believe in a millennium of some sort or other, because that faith is wrapped up in the confidence that God loves us all, and is shaping this earths history to His own perfect aim, and instead of lamenting the former days were better, let us believe that the time will come when our brethren with us will have reached the mark, and the purposes of God finished in a redeemed humanity and a perfected world.

II. Let that bright, certain, infinite future dwarf for us the narrow and stained past.

1. This advice goes dead against much experimental Christianity; but it is wise for all that. All sorts of backward looking are a positive weakness and impediment to a man in running a race. Time given to such occupation is withdrawn from the actual work of life. A man cannot run with his eyes over his shoulder; he is sure to knock against somebody, and so be delayed and hindered. And if you stand there looking backwards instead of making the best of your way out of evil, the evil will catch you up. Remembering always tends to become a substitute for doing. But take the injunction more specifically.

1. Forget past failures. They are apt to weaken you. You say, I shall never be any better. Experience teaches me my limits. So it does. There are certain things we shall never be able to do, but it says nothing about the limits in our line of things. There is no limit in that respect, and to take the past as proving it is to deny the power of Gods gospel, the expansibility of the soul, and the promise of the Divine Spirit.

2. Forget past attainments.

(1) They are apt to become food for complacency and every vain confidence. We are apt to say, At such and such a time I was converted and growing in Christian attainments. Then my heart was cleaving to the Lord, and filled with His fulness. Yes, and you ate your dinner twenty years ago; will that serve to strengthen you for today? The rain fell on the young spring wheat when you and I were boys; will that do anything towards this years harvest?

(2) These attainments, like failures, do very often become the measure of our notion as to what we shall be able to do in the future, and so cripple us.

2. Forget past circumstances, whether sorrows or joys. The one are not without remedy, the other not perfect. Both are past; why remember them? Why should you carry about parched corn when you dwell among fields white unto harvest? Why clasp a handful of poor withered flowers when the grass is sown with their bright eyes opening to the sunshine?

III. Let hopes for the future and lessons from the past lead to strenuous work for the present. This one thing I do.

1. Be the past and future what they may, I cannot reach the one nor forget the other except by setting myself with all my might to present duties and by reducing all duties to various forms of one life purpose.

2. How is that noble ideal reached? It is the spirit in which, not the work at which, we work that makes life one. A hundred processes may go to the manufacture of a pin. We may all be trying to be like Jesus Christ, whatever may be the material at which we toil. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Behind and before

1. This is the language of men who subdue the world, the motto of all heroes, the secret of all triumph.

2. We here observe one of those laws of compensation by which nature would atone for the inequality of her gifts. All men have not great talents: but all men may have great industry, and as talents are useless without diligence, one talent improved by honest labour will make a greater man than ten that rust unused.

3. Pauls entire life was an illustration of the text. As a lad he was bent on scholarship, and won honours at the feet of Gamaliel; as a member of the Jewish Church by his prodigal ability he soon placed himself beyond parallel. As a convert to Christianity he was the same man in singleness and intensity of purpose.

4. Another feature in Pauls character. He arrogates no particular saintship. His fellow disciples are not left to infer that his path is accessible to no traveller but himself, He preaches to sinners as the chief of sinners, to Christians as a fellow citizen; the race and fight were his no less than theirs.

I. What are those things which Paul left behind and forgot.

1. Whatever he had given up for Christ (verse 7). He forgot them in the sense of neglecting them. He not only never repented these sacrifices, he forgot them. The Israelites fondly recollected the fleshpots of Egypt, and there are Christians who dispute with themselves whether in the sensitive jealousy of their first love they did not make too many sacrifices for their Master. The man who calculates with even a tincture of discontent what he has suffered for Jesus, has never seen the Cross.

2. The errors and doubts that marked his first approach to Christ.

(1) He never said but once, Who art thou, Lord? What wilt Thou have me do? As soon as it pleased God to reveal His Son to Paul, he disentangled his mind forever from the elements or rudiments that typified and foreshadowed Christ, and never returned to those beggarly elements. Mark the confidence of his personal feelings when he finds occasion to impart them--I know whom I have believed. This is the language of a man who has laid aside forever the doubt of his acceptance with God, of Christs ability to save, of his Masters constant presence and guiding spirit. Doubts on other matters arising in the progress of his ministry he would discuss in their proper time, but those which had been once disposed of were forgotten forever.

(2) What a melancholy religion is theirs who are ever contending with old doubts. After the Lord has shown Himself to the eye of faith, they seem unable to let this matter rest. A conversation with an unbeliever, the perusal of a book, the pressure of a besetting sin, disturbs their assurance, and they go over the old ground.

(3) Having obtained faith in Jesus and adoption into Gods family, they ought to give all diligence to add to their faith courage to confess it. A bold utterance of our trust in Jesus is an excellent remedy for unbelieving fears. To this boldness of confession they should add knowledge, and follow on to know the Lord. This will multiply instances of His faithfulness. And then, lest knowledge should puff up, there should follow self-discipline, meek endurance, fervent piety towards God, and charity to men.

II. We have seen what Paul left behind: let us now come up to the front and look into the distance for the things towards which Paul is running, and reaching as he runs. These are all embraced in fellowship with Christ.

1. Few knew more of Christ than Paul, yet he considered his attainments but as the first steps in a path of ever-unfolding discovery. Jesus was a mine just opened; and he describes his prospects like a man almost bewildered by the sudden inheritance of wealth untold.

2. To win Christ was not to gain His favour simply, but to be conformed to His image. (E. E. Jenkins, LL. D.)

Spiritual barbarism

I. Two thoughts are here suggested.

1. The apostles principle is the very one which makes the civilized man distinct from the barbarian. The characteristic of the former is restless progressiveness; of the latter, supineness and stagnation..

(1) The civilizing man has his caravan track, but he will have one directer and easier. He has turnpikes and stage coaches, but he must level or tunnel the mountain, and lay a pavement of iron, and chain his ear to a horse of fire. The earth yields him enough to eat, but he will not live by bread alone; he must eat bread enough to bring with it a better provided life; so he contrives steam ploughs and threshers to make the arm of the farmer equal to the productive power of the sun and field. He finds the pen too slow, hence his types and cylinders scatter libraries. On the other hand, the barbarian is content to live in a hut, to scratch the ground with a stick, to trudge on foot with a trail for a road. He takes the world as he finds it, and leaves it as he found it.

(2) But the one sort do not all live where civilization prevails, nor do the others in lands where barbarism is dominant. Every civilized region has risen out of barbarism, and we see the barbarian spirit in stagnant conservatism resisting improvement.

(3) None the less does the old barbarian strain come to the surface. When a man thinks of his moral condition, he says, I am as good as the average of my neighbours. It is this from which man has to be saved.

2. A rule which God has made fundamental in the world, we must make so in individual life.

(1) Since the day when man first lighted a fire to boil his pot, and hollowed out his first canoe, up to the day when the latest development of these contrivances appears in the steamship which can sail three thousand miles a week, the world has never rested in its advance. What achievements has the world made and forgotten in achieving better. Again and again it would seem as if the men of Babylon, of Memphis, of Athens, and Rome must have said to themselves, No more beyond. Modern men have said this, and prophesied dire results from setting up of power instead of hand looms, sewing machines instead of needles, locomotives instead of coach horses. But the world moved on to forget the things behind, etc.

(2) Said the popes to those who saw a purer Church and truth attainable, No more beyond, except the fire for those who would disturb our established order. So said the English kings of the seventeenth century to the uprising spirit of liberty. So say the theologians today; but the world and the Church move on. There are branches to spring from the ever-growing trees that have not yet even budded.

(3) What God works in the great whole, we are to work in our part. He in the man, we as the molecules of the man are to be of one mind--forgetting, etc.

II. From these thoughts we may draw fresh convictions for the realizations of the spiritual capabilities of our nature.

1. While we derive inspirations of confidence from contemplating the grand law of the worlds increasing progress, must we not see a stern rebuke upon every life not in harmony with this law?

2. On what principle is our personal life and thought conducted? So far as relates to our worldly condition, our constant endeavour for betterment as the necessity of an undecaying life. How then about the far more important thing? All unimproveable life must sooner or later run out. When the law of development will not work, the law of decay and dissolution is the only one that will. Work, then, with the better law intelligently, consistently, perseveringly.

3. The great reproach of Christianity is its passive content with an average morality, and a life devoid of aspiration to higher levels--in a word, its spiritual barbarism, stagnant, supine, and poor in power. (J M. Whiton, Ph. D.)

Winter leaves

Trees have their winter as well as their summer foliage. Every one is familiar with the buds which tip the extremities of every branch in spring. On the outside they are covered with dry, glossy scales, which are true leaves of the lowest type. They are formed in spring, and grow during the whole summer, though very slowly, owing to the diversion of the sap from them to the foliage, behind which they are hid. As the season advances, the sap gradually ceases to flow to the summer leaves, which therefore ultimately fade and fall from the tree; and the last movements of it, at the end of autumn, are directed towards the buds, in order to prepare them for taking at the proper time the place of the generation of leaves that has just perished. But in spring, the buds, stimulated by the unwonted sunshine, begin to open at their sharp extremities. And as the young green leaves within expand in the genial atmosphere, the services of the bud scales, or covering leaves, are no longer needed, and by and by they roll away, and fall one by one from the tree, strewing the ground beneath till it looks like a threshing floor. Thus every tree has a double leaf fall every year. The winter leaves, which are designed for the protection of the bud during winter, are pushed off by the growth of the summer leaves from the bud in spring; and the summer leaves, which are designed for the nourishment and growth of the tree in summer, wither and fall off in autumn. Cold is fatal to the summer leaves; warmth is fatal to the winter leaves. Inactivity renders useless the summer leaves; and growth supersedes the winter leaves.

I. The apostles life affords many striking illustrations of this.

1. In his unconverted state, there were many things on which he prided himself--the scenes and associations of his youth, the eager sympathies of his opening intellect, and his ardent affection for the polity and religion of his fathers. But all these natural qualifications of the man belonged to the winter or unregenerate state of his soul; were winter leaves that hid and confined the germ of spiritual life.

2. But although worthless as grounds of justification, they had their own value in training and fitting him for his work. Like the bud scales, they afforded protection and nourishment. All that he had acquired, he laid on the altar.

3. And when the great crisis of his life came--the spring time of his conversion, a light exceeding the brightness of the noonday sun shone upon him; and in this warm genial atmosphere of grace, the germ of spiritual life unfolded itself within, and burst its wrappings. Old forms ceased to have any hold upon his affections and homage. He died to his former self and all its experiences, and lived a new life in Jesus. The winter leaves having served their purpose, now dropped off, and the summer leaves of grace--the blossoms of holiness, the fruits of righteousness--had full liberty to grow and develop themselves.

4. But we must not suppose that the dropping was without effort or pain. It sometimes needs a severe gust of wind to shake off the scales that still linger around the bud. And it was with a sore wrench that St. Paul tore himself away from all his former cherished associations.

5. But even in his converted state there were many things which Paul required to forget. The branch of a tree puts forth bud after bud in its gradual growth anal enlargement. These summer leaves, having added a cubit to the stature of the branch, pass away; and the added growth in its turn puts forth a new bud covered with its scales or winter leaves, which drop off the following spring, and allow the imprisoned summer leaves once more to unfold themselves in the sunny air. And so was it with St. Paul. His spiritual life from the beginning to the end was a series of fresh beginnings. Not once merely at conversion, but often in his converted state, had he to form and to drop the winter leaves in the process of spiritual growth. There were many things by which his spiritual life was nourished and guarded--which had to be blotted out if he would go on to perfection. And so he reached forth unto those things which were before.

II. Are not the lessons of such a life very broad and intelligible.

1. Forgetfulness of what is behind is an essential element in the progress of every believer. In our conversion we must separate ourselves from the associations of our unregenerate state, and count those things that were gain to us, loss, so that we may be found in Christ. These winter leaves must fall off, when the vernal season of grace has come, and we who were dead in trespasses and sins are made alive unto God.

2. But not at this initiatory stage merely is there to be a discarding of the things that are behind. At every subsequent stage of our growth there must be the same process. By a course of prosperity our souls are made to unfold in gratitude to God and beneficence to men. In a season of sorrow we are made more heavenly reminded. But these means are not to be cherished as if they were the end. We are to keep them in the background, and prize the character they have formed for the glory of God, and not for self-complacency. These winter leaves that cherished and nourished our growth in grace must drop off from time to time, with each new attainment that we may rise on stepping stones of our dead selves to nobler things.

3. But not the means of growth and formative processes of the Christian character only, must be left behind and forgotten; the very ends, the growths themselves, must also be superseded. In a certain sense each attainment must be the bud covering of a succeeding attainment, and fall away when it is matured. There must be a double leaf fall from the soul as well as from the tree. The summer leaves that are cherished must drop off as well as the winter leaves that cherished them. And so the beautiful blossoms of grace must be left behind. To rest satisfied with attainment is to check development. It is amazing how soon when we cease to forget the things that are behind, and remain stationary we degenerate. When means become ends, they encase us with a hard covering impervious to the tender influences of heaven.

III. St. Paul exhorted the Hebrew Christians to leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and to go on to perfection. And such an exhortation is still greatly needed.

1. Very many believers stop short at the very initial processes of grace, and imagine that these are the final ends--that nothing more can be desired or attained. It is as if the life of the tree always remained in the bud, instead of casting off its wrappings and expanding into summer foliage and fruit. Conversion is indeed all essential, for while the heart is unchanged there can be neither life nor growth; but it is merely the commencement of a course. Conversion, justification, and peace are the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. They are not, indeed, to be dropped as mere bud scales, as mere means to an end--for they are the basis upon which all the subsequent efforts of the spiritual life are to be made. But just as in the unfolding buds of the lilac and horse chestnut tree, the covering leaves of winter, pass through intermediate changes--in the one into the blades of the leaf, and in the other into the leaf stalks--so the principles of the doctrine of Christ are to be carried on in the growth, and their substance is to be used up and modified, as it were, in the expansion of the soul. In this sense the things that are behind are to be forgotten.

2. It is vain to tell the believer to forget the things that are behind, to discard the preparatory means by which he advances in piety by a mere temporary effort of will. He cannot do so. It is only by growing that he can get rid of the things no longer essential; and what he cannot remove, except by a violent destructive wrench, will fall off easily, and of its own accord, when superseded and rendered effete by growth.

3. To this development we should be further stimulated by the consideration that the bud whose growth is arrested becomes transformed into a thorn. If our winter leaves--the experiences that contribute to form our character, and which are appropriate to the various stages of our growth--be allowed to remain unchanged and unforgotten, and to choke up our spiritual life so as to arrest its advancement, they will be changed into thorns. The peace that we trust in will vanish in sorrow. The attainment with which we are satisfied becomes a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet us lest we be exalted above measure. It is no unusual thing to see a branch of a tree whose vital activity is so enfeebled that its growth is arrested. Its terminal bud loses the power of throwing off its winter leaves, because no summer leaves form in its interior. The bud then dies, and the branch withers and becomes fit for the burning. And so it is, alas! no unusual thing to see branches in Christ whose spiritual life is so weak that their growth is at a standstill. They lose the power of forgetting the things that are behind, because they are not reaching forth unto those things which are before. They are therefore in danger of perishing. There is a sense, indeed, in which we cannot forget the things that are behind, strive as we may. The winter leaves or bud scales of a tree leave behind them when they drop off a peculiar mark or scar on the bark, just as the summer leaves do when they fall. On every branch a series of these scars, in the shape of rings closely set together, may be seen, indicating the points where each growing shoot entered on the stage of rest. And so every experience through which we pass, every act we perform, goes into the very substance of our being, and we can never be after it what we were before it. But though these things cannot in this sense be forgotten, they should not be allowed to hang around us to impede our efforts at improvement, any more than the development of the tree is impeded by its scars. We must remember the failures and sins of the past in order to magnify the mercy that forgave.

Conclusion:

1. Taking a comprehensive view of the universe, we find that everything has a special object to perform, and when that object is accomplished, the agency perishes. The material system of nature will some day be dissolved. Life on earth is not an end, but a means--a state of discipline and preparation for something higher and nobler beyond, and is therefore transitory in its duration. So, too, the means of grace are the scaffolding by the aid of which the spiritual life is built up, and will be removed as a deformity when the building is completed. Everything that is purely subordinate and distinctive in religion--that is extraneous to the spiritual nature, however necessary to educate it--will vanish as the winter leaves of time from the expanding bud of everlasting life. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three.

2. It is through loss that all gain in this world is made. But in heaven a different law of development will prevail. In the trees of warm climates the buds have no winter leaves or protective scales, being simply formed of the ordinary leaves rolled up; consequently they expand in growth without losing anything. And so it will be in the eternal summer above. There will be a constant unfolding of the fulness of immortal life from glory to glory; but there will be no loss of the processes and experiences through which the unfolding will take place. The means and the end will be one and the same. There will be a constant reaching forth unto those things which are before, but there will be no forgetting the things that are behind. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)

This one thing I do--

Concentration

The secret of all moral force, of all spiritual success, of all reality, is concentration. And what is concentration? The whole man gathering himself up to a point--oneness of being, body, soul, spirit--the will, judgment, energy in unity. And what is unity? The reflection of the one great God. What a beautiful thing is unity, where all the attributes of God meet together in love; beautiful is the world of harmonies in the home where there is no jarring element, in the knit Church, in the man who, having learned the pervading power of the love of Jesus, says henceforth, This one thing I do.

I. There are two ways in which we may make religion one thing.

1. The exclusive way. A man may determine to have nothing to do with anything not essentially religious.

2. The inclusive way, when a man makes a wide circle of engagements converge towards religion.

II. To make life, as it ought to be, one, the great requisite is to have one fixed aim. It is the want of this that makes the life of so many weak, uncertain, capricious. The far, high, gathering point, high enough to sustain life, is only one--the glory of God. Some of you did once live for another object--pleasure, self, sin. You served your master with good service. What you have to do now is to throw as much heart into the new purpose as you did once into the old.

III. The glory of God is the right end of man, because--

1. All the lines of life go up to it. You can eat and drink to it, and do whatever you do to it.

2. It is Gods end: the end for which God is, for which He gave Christ, for which He does everything.

IV. Under this end of ends and subservient to it it is the duty of every one to have some distinct Christian purpose always before him. It is marvellous how, when you have a work in hand for God, it will brace up your whole being. If you are troubled with wandering thoughts in prayer or in Church, it is because your outer life is not concentrated. If you would live a braced life everywhere you would find fixedness of thought in your devotions. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Concentration the secret of dispatch

The famous De Witt, one of the greatest statesmen of his age, being asked how he was able to dispatch the multitude of affairs in which he was engaged, replied that his whole art consisted in doing one thing at a time. (S. Budgett.)

Devotion to a single purpose essential to success

That was a grand action of old Jerome when he laid all his pressing engagements aside to achieve a purpose to which he felt a call from heaven. He had a large congregation--as large a one as any of us need want; but he said to his people, Now, it is of necessity that the New Testament should be translated; you must find another preacher. The translation must be made; I am bound for the wilderness, and shall not return till my task is finished. Away he went with his manuscripts, and prayed and laboured, and produced a work--the Latin Vulgate--which will last as long as the world stands; on the whole, a most wonderful translation of Holy Scripture. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

One point best

I asked Sir James Scarlett what was the secret of his preeminent success as an advocate. He replied that he took care to press home the one principal point of the case without paying much regard to the others. He also said that he know the secret of being short. I find, said he, that when I exceed half an hour I am always doing mischief to my client; if I drive into the heads of the jury unimportant matter, I drive out matter more important which I had previously lodged there. (Sir T. F. Buxton.)

Want of application

A Frenchman hit off in a single phrase the characteristic quality of the inhabitants of a particular district, in which a friend of his proposed to settle and buy land. Beware, said he, of working a purchase there; I know the men of that department; the students who come from it to our veterinary school in Paris do not strike hard upon this anvil; they want energy, and you will not get any satisfactory return on the capital you may invest there. (S. Smiles, LL. D.)

A lifes purpose

He has a purpose that miners son. That purpose is the acquisition of knowledge. He speedily exhausts the resources of Mansfeld, reads hard, devours lectures at Magdeburg, and at the age of eighteen has outstripped his fellows, has a university for his admirer, and professors predicting for him the most successful career of the age. He has a purpose that scholar of Erfurt. That purpose is the discovery of truth, for in an old library he has stumbled on a Bible. Follow him out into the new world which that volume has flashed upon his soul. With Pilates question on his lip and in his heart, he foregoes his brilliant prospects--parts without a sigh with academical distinctions--takes monastic vows in an Augustine convent; until at last Pilates question answered on Pilates stairs--then comes the thrice repeated gospel whisper, The just shall live by faith, and the glad evangel scatters the darkening and shreds off the paralysis, and he rises into moral freedom, a new man in the Lord! He has a purpose that Augustine monk. That purpose is the Reformation. Waiting with the modesty of the hero until he is forced into the strife, with the courage of the hero he steps into the breach to do battle for the living truth. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)

An indomitable purpose

On one bright summer day the boy, then just seven years old, lay on the bank of the rivulet which flows through the old domain of his house to join the Isis. Then, as threescore and ten years later he told the tale, rose in his mind a scheme which through all the turns of his eventful career, was never abandoned. He would recover the estate which belonged to his fathers. He would be Hastings of Daylesford. This purpose formed in infancy and poverty, grew stronger as his intellect expanded and his fortunes rose. He pursued his plan with that calm but indomitable force of will which was the most striking peculiarity of his character. When, under a tropical sun, he ruled 50,000,000 of Asiatics, his hopes, amidst all the cares of war, finance, and legislation, still pointed to Daylesford, the possession of it being the summit of his ambition. At length the wish was accomplished; and the domain, alienated more than seventy years before, returned to the descendants of its old lords, and when his public life was closed forever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to die. (Lord Macaulay.)

Forgetting the things that are behind--

Things past

I. Victories.

II. Errors.

III. Sins.

IV. Joys.

V. Griefs. (Professor Hollard.)

Things behind

The things behind and the memory of them may be helpful or hurtful. We often find the former, e.g., Gods mercies are to be remembered as a theme of gratitude; past sins to produce penitence; former history as ground of warning and hope (Deu_4:9; Deu_8:2; Deu_9:7; Psa_77:5; Psa_103:2; Eze_16:63). Paul speaks of the past as hurtful, a hindrance. He speaks as a runner; perfect as regards equipment, consecration, aim; but not perfected as having attained the goal; he looks not behind him but hurries on. The memory of things behind--

I. May cause declension. Israel remembered the fleshpots of Egypt and turned back and tempted God. Lots wife looked back and perished. Many in answer to Christs call say, Suffer me first to--. Rich young ruler.

1. Former character and prospects have to be forgotten.

2. Former sins.

3. Former companionships, or they may draw the soul back to perdition.

II. May foster self-satisfaction and pride.

1. Victories achieved; temptations resisted elated Samson to his hurt. Even when the glory is given to God there is apt to be a ring of self-satisfaction, I am not as other men. If we have taken a gun from the enemy, let us go and take another, and not sit idly down.

2. Sacrifices may become a cause of pride--Lord, we have left all and followed Thee. Yet what does the all amount to.

3. So of trials.

4. Of attainments. We may say of ourselves, Well done, good and faithful servant. But whatever they are, they are as nothing compared with what is before; and inasmuch as they are all of grace, we have nothing to glory of.

5. Past enjoyments.

6. The people we have left. If any man love father or mother more than Me, etc.

III. May lead to discouragement.

1. Falls and failures: no use trying any more.

2. Difficulties and dangers: David thought he would one day fall by the hand of Saul.

3. Guilt contracted; time lost; work undone; salvation neglected; resolutions broken; convictions stifled--all this and much more may be behind. But brooding is no more to be encouraged than boasting. Start afresh. (J. Smith, M. A.)

Forgetting the things that are behind

We are as children taught as in a play; instructed by toys and pictures. But the day does come when the form should be lost to us in the reality, the letter lost in the spirit. The bird must forget its nest, the seed its husk, the flower its bud. The tree may be full of bloom, and an orchard is a beauteous sight, but the blossom must wither away and be forgotten in the fruit. These things get behind, they pertain to the past, and are of it. The bud must burst, the flower blow, the nest foul. That in which the seeds of things were bound and nourished must become a dried and worthless skin; and the finest foliage must fade; and to such things it is unwise to hold. They should be forgotten, and, whether you forget them or not (and some men never do), they are sure to get behind; and if you do not forget them you are behind also, and can never reach the goal. (W. Hubbard.)

Look not at the past

We are like one sailing down rapid stream, intensely anxious as to the issue of our voyage, and fearful of the dangers which await us, and yet turning our backs on both, and trying to derive encouragement from gazing at that portion of our course already past, and every moment growing less and less visible. Of what avail, to such a mariner, is even distinct view of some distant point long since swept by, when his vessel is approaching some perilous pass, or passing through some vast and foaming estuary into the deep sea. Oh, surely it is then time to forget what is past, and to bend forward to reach forth to that which is before. (J. W. Alexander, D. D.)

Forget past sorrows

A writer tells how years, long years before, he cut the initials of his name in the bark of a tree, and after many years he came and trod through the tasselled grass to the grey old beech tree where he had whittled his boyish name. The blackbirds were singing among the alders, the green foliage of the branches spread above, the green carpet spread a sward below, and through the interlacing boughs were glimpses of the ancient blue of the firmament; but when he found the tree he could not discover the letters of his name, only a curious scar in the bark. So the scars of the heart heal over; and, indeed, however sorrowful and bitter a mans experiences, he must be a woeful and a miserable man who, in this world of great interests, can find nothing to talk of but his own griefs, the neglect he has received, the extortions and vexations by which he has suffered. What a petty world such a man must live in; under what a low sky he must walk; in what, a muggy atmosphere he must breathe. Oh, let us remember that hate is transitory, is temporal, like the sear on the bark of a tree; but love, goodwill, is eternal, like the grey old firmament, which, old as it is, was never younger than it is today. Forget the things which are behind. There is strength in forgetting; let the dead bury their dead. We can only be cheerful while we forget. (Paxton Hood.)

The memory of past sorrows not to obliterate the appreciation of present mercies

I once crossed the Warm Spring Mountain in the early morning. The sun was just rising. All the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies was filled with a silvery mist, level at the surface as a sea line. But above the horizontal sea, three or four mountain peaks projected themselves like islands dotting the expanse. Thus it is with the memories of past sorrows. They emerge from the sea which has swallowed up so much else. We cannot forget our early griefs and bereavements. But we must not permit them to obliterate the appreciation of present mercies. We must hear the voice of the Master, saying, Thy brother, thy sister, thy child shall rise again. Remembered griefs are prophetic of coming joys. Forgetting the things which are behind we press forward to the time when we shall be ever with one another and with the Lord. (M. D. Hoge, D. D.)

The sense in which the past cannot be forgotten

Paul could not have meant that he literally forgot the past, for had he done so, both present and future would have been alike useless to him. The past is the sculptor, the ten thousand touches of whose chisel have given to our present lives the shapes they wear; it is the painter too that has coloured these forms with every tint and hue they bear. All the influences that have made our actual characters what they now are came out of the past, just as the seed sown in earlier seasons, with their sunshine and rain, make the subsequent harvest. Were we to forget past knowledge, ours would be the ignorance of infancy; if past experiences were obliterated, our imbecility would be that of idiocy. If history is philosophy teaching by example, the erasure of the remembrance of the events of our own history would strip both philosophy and religion of the power to teach at all. (M. D. Hoge, D. D.)

The hindering force of past habit

You find some certain type of Christian character, or exercise of Christian grace, that is easy and natural to you, and you come to know how to do it. It becomes your special habit, which is all right, but it also tends to become your limit, which is wrong. Habits are like fences, very good to guard the soul from sudden incursions of trespassers, but very bad when the trunk has grown up and presses against their stubborn rings. And many of us simply keep on doing the narrow round of things that we fancy we can do well, or have always been in the way of doing, like barrel organs, grinding our poor little set of tunes, without any notion of the great sea of music that stretches all round about us, and which is not pegged out upon our cylinders at all. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The danger of looking back

There may have been floating in the apostles mind, combined with the image of the racer, some remembrance of the old story in the Book of Genesis about Lots wife. She looked back, and as she stood there gazing behind her, precious time was irrevocably lost, the fugitives swept on in front, and the swift-flying death that struck her with terror, as she saw it pressing close behind, caught her up. She was whelmed in the fiery destruction that filled the air; and as the shower of ashes at Pompeii moulded themselves over the forms of the poor wretches that were smothered by them, and preserved till today the print of the very waves of their hair and the texture of their dress, salt was crusted round that living core, and she perished, because she wasted in trembling retrospect the flying moments which, rightly used, would have set her in safety. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Reaching forth to the things which are before--

All things are prospective

The impulse of a river is ever onward. So of all things physical and intellectual. The worlds building was prospective. Animal organism reads onward toward the image of God. Everything in earths geology, and everything on earths surface, point towards a future. The little child is telling what he intends when he is a man. Thoughts fly on wings toward the tomorrow. The affections, the adhesive powers of the soul, speak the same language. Now, why all this? What does it mean? It must mean something. It means that there is a future and a God. God has gone that way. He has passed through, and these are His footprints. If there is no God, no future, let the atheist tell us what the meaning is. (Homiletic Monthly.)

The things that are before

I. There are things before every Christian towards which he is proceeding. There is childhood, youth, manhood in Christian life. Here you see the difference between a self-deceiver and a Christian. There is no growth before a hypocrite any more than there is in an artificial flower. He may change, but there is no life in him, and therefore he cannot advance. There are things before him.

1. As one endowed with talents which must be ceaselessly used. God gives him opportunities. He must use them. Some do not see their opportunities because their eyes are shut: some see their opportunities but do not use them, because they are indolent or their talents rusty from long disuse.

2. As one exposed to fresh demands on principles and powers of all kinds. The exhibition of new phases of character is before him. He may not have known much trouble, but he has to undergo the discipline of suffering. Then in working there has not been much demand made on patience.

3. As one must continue to the end.

4. Death.

5. The everlasting kingdom.

II. There are certain things before every church. The body is not one member but many. Before the Church, therefore, is--1 The real, conscious, manifested unity of all its members. To join the Church is not sufficient, you must contribute to its life.

2. Continued and ever improving mutual service. Each is to help the others.

3. The increase of itself.

4. An extending and improving influence on society.

5. An increasing ministration to the whole body of Christ.

6. The preaching of the gospel to every creature.

III. While certain things are before every Christian and every Church, particular things are before particular Christians and Churches. Every mineral is not a diamond. Every star is not a sun. (S. Martin.)

Paul reached forth to the things before.

I. As regarded his own improvement. He sought--

1. Absolute pardon. Continued demerit calls for continued mercy.

2. Absolute assurance of forgiveness.

3. Absolute conformity to the Divine character and will as immediately and specifically exhibited in Christ.

4. The fellowship of the Spirit in all its perfection.

5. A perfect accordance in present action with the prospect of the great day.

II. As regarded a diffusive usefulness. The same perfection he aimed at for himself he aimed at for every man (Col_1:28). (D. King, LL. D.)

The racer as charioteer

St. Paul is like one of those eager charioteers of whom his guardsmen so often spoke to him when they had returned from the contests in the Circus Maximus, and joined their shouts to those of the myriads who cheered their favourite colours--leaning forward in his flying car, bending over the shaken rein and the goaded steed, forgetting everything--every peril, every competitor, every circling of the meta in the rear, as he pressed on for the goal by which sat the judges with the palm garlands that formed the prize. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

The racer as runner

The picture is that of a racer in his agony of struggle and hope. You see him!--every muscle strained and every vein starting--the quick and short heaving of his chest--the big drops gathered on his brow--his body bending forward, as if with frantic gesture he already clutched the goal--his eye, now glancing aside with a momentary sparkle at objects so rapidly disappearing behind him, and then fixing itself on the garland in eager anticipation. The apostle is not leaving, he is forgetting the things behind; he is not merely looking, he is reaching forth unto the things before; not only does he run, he presses toward the mark; nor was he occupied, weakened, or delayed by a variety of pursuits--This one thing I do. (Professor Eadie.)

Pressing forward

The idea is that of a man stretching himself out towards something as a runner does, with his body straining forward, the hand and the eye drawn onward towards the goal. He does not think of the furlongs that he has passed, he heeds not the nature of the ground over which he runs. The sharp stones in the path do not stay him, nor the flowerets in the grass catch his glance. The white faces of the crowd around the course are seen as in a flash as he rushes past them to the winning post, and the parsley garland that hangs there is all that he is conscious of. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. Let us, with eye and hand flung forward, stretch out towards the things that are before, and imitate that example--not in the fierce whirl of excitement, indeed, but in fixed regard to, and concentrated desire of, the mark and the prize. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christian perfection

is like those problems in mathematics where we can never find the true answer. We may go on working the sum for years, and though each succeeding figure brings us nearer to it, we can never actually reach it. (H. Melvil, B. D.)

The varied means of obtaining perfection

Perfection is being, not doing--it is not to effect an act but to achieve a character. If the aim of life were to do something, then, as in an earthly business, except in doing this one thing the business would he at a standstill. The student is riot doing the one thing of student life when he has ceased to think or read. The labourer leaves his work undone when the spade is not in his hand, and he sits beneath the hedge to rest. But in Christian life, every moment and every act is an opportunity for doing the one thing of becoming Christ-like. Every day is full of a most impressive experience. Every temptation to evil temper which can assail us today will be an opportunity to decide the question whether we shall gain the calmness and the rest of Christ, or whether we shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation of the world. Nay, the very vicissitudes of the seasons, day and night, heat and cold, affecting us variably, and producing exhilaration or depression, are so contrived as to conduce towards the being which we become, and decide whether we shall be masters of ourselves, or whether we shall be swept at the mercy of accident and circumstance, miserably susceptible of merely outward influences. Infinite as are the varieties of life, so manifold are the paths to saintly character; and he who has not found out how directly or indirectly to make everything converge towards his souls sanctification, has as yet missed the meaning of this life. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Practice necessary to perfection

A neighbour near my study persists in practising upon the flute. He bores my ears as with an augur, and renders it almost an impossibility to think. Up and down the scale he remorselessly runs, until even the calamity of temporary deafness would almost be welcome to me. Yet he teaches me that I must practise if I would be perfect; must exercise myself unto godliness if I would be skilful; must, in fact, make myself familiar with the Word of God, with holy living, and saintly dying. Such practice, moreover, will be as charming as my neighbours flute is intolerable. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Singleness of aim

Confucius son once said to him, I apply myself with diligence to every kind of study, and neglect nothing that could render me clever and ingenious; but still I do not advance. Omit some of your pursuits, replied Confucius, and you will get on better. Among those who travel constantly on foot, have you ever observed any who run? It is essential to do everything in order, and only grasp that which is within the reach of your arm; for otherwise you give yourself useless trouble. Those who, like yourself, desire to do everything in one day, do nothing to the end of their lives, while others who steadily adhere to one pursuit find that they have accomplished their purpose.

Singleness of aim

Mr. A. often laughs at me, said Professor Henry once, in Princeton College Laboratory, because I have but one idea. He talks about everything, aims to excel in many things; but I have learned that if I ever make a breach, I must play my guns continually on one point.

The power of a single aim

Pauls experience teaches us that one unmutilated and entire idea is as much as a man can entertain in his soul, or actualize in his lifetime. Nor herein was Pauls experience anomalous. Such has been the experience as well of all truly efficient men. None of them ever entertained more than one great aim or purpose of being. Noah was a man of one idea. His idea was an ark! And though he did other things, yet the one great thought, moving as a glorious dream through all his chambers of imagery, was something that would float upon stormy and shoreless seas! And this one thing he did--he built. Abraham was of this class. His one idea was a city. He, too, did other things; he trained his servants, commanded his household after him, etc. But amidst his fairest dreams by the ancestral waters, a great voice out of heaven spake to him of a city which hath foundations, whose builder was God. And evermore afterwards he journeyed towards that city. Nor of regenerated men only is the thought true--of all men who retain amid their moral ruins some lines of the mutilated Divine image--is this a characteristic. A singleness of aim and effort ever hath been--ever will be--the secret of all noble human accomplishment. Napoleon was the most efficient man of his own time, not because gifted above his fellows, either physically or intellectually, but because universal empire was his single aim--he lived only to conquer! Demosthenes was the prince of all earths orators, not because God gave him a splendid voice, and exquisite grace of motion, but because eloquence was his one idea. He lived only to sweep, as with a roused tempest, over all the AEolian sympathies of the human heart. Newton was the king of astronomers, not because his eye was keener as it scanned the heavens, nor because God gave him mighty wings to sweep through the empyrean, but because, with the power of an omnipresent dream, the constellations of heaven were flashing on his soul! The stars were in his heart. His life was in the stars. So is it ever: singleness of aim, oneness of effort--the gathering of thought, feeling, heart, soul, life into one intense absorbing passion--is the secret of all greatness. And no wonder that Paul was the very chief of the apostles, so that the earth shook at his tread, as when a giant goes on pilgrimage; not because he had read Grecian lore in Cilician schools, and mastered the Hebrew law at Gamaliels feet, but because, with his heart all afire within him, and his eye, as the eagles on the sun, fixed on one sublime purpose--in that one thing he gloried--to that one thing he tended. (C. Wadsworth.)

The nobility of a single aim

What a noble thing any life becomes that has driven through it the strength of a uniting single purpose, like a strong shaft of iron bolting together the two tottering walls, of some old building! (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The importance of a high aim

The life of man is a vagrant, changeful, desultoriness; like that of children sporting on an enameled meadow, chasing now a painted butterfly, which loses its charm by being caught--now a wreath of mist, which falls damp upon the hand with disappointment--now a feather of thistledown, which is crushed in the grasp. In the midst of all this fickleness, St. Paul had found a purpose to which he gave the undivided energy of his soul. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Progress

Look at the machine stamped with the date of half-a-dozen different patents in consecutive years, and see there the image of the diligent inventor bent on alternate excellence, to whom each improvement makes a stepping stone to another improvement, and each difficulty mastered gives greater skill to master the remaining difficulty, until the original creative idea is rounded out in a consummate instrument. Such is the true life of the spirit conformed to the Divine law of progress--not a drift, but a race; not a dream, but a study; not self-contentment, but self-criticism and self-improvement, with the eye on the Divine model, and constantly saying to itself, This one thing I do. (J. M. Whiton, Ph. D.)

Progress more than motion

Progress is the great law of life, but by those even who say so, its principle is not always seen. Progress--what do you mean by that?--is it in the increase of the quantity of material productions? is it in the growth of a nation in the numbers of its population, or in its territory? is it in the advance of agriculture or manufactures? is it in the increase of the superior quality of material appliances? is it in the increase of knowledge, of science, of art? is it in the evolution of the man from the child? the philosopher from the savage? Oh, there is something more and higher than all this and these. Men forget it is with us as it is with our planet. There is a circular movement in which all motions turn on themselves, and return to the point from whence they first set out, and then there is an onward movement, as when the whole system is borne upward into infinite space. It is so with man; he is the subject of a succession of events, that which hath been is now and shall be. How wonderfully the preacher in Ecclesiastes describes this circular movement (chap. 1:5). (Paxton Hood.)

The onward movement of the soul

Man is the creature of the same senses; he beholds the same sun, the same streams, and flying clouds; youth succeeds to infancy, and the festival of nature is followed by decay. We live on food, the blood circulates through the frame; and all these motions return on themselves; but there is another motion in man, there is an onward movement--he is a being of religious instincts; and to foster and fan their flames is the end of all religious services and exercises. Oh, is it not sad when the onward movement of the soul is forgotten! The world is good for an inn; but an inn is not a home; and it is unwise to lay any plan of life in which provision is not made for the infinite future of the soul. Do you not see how every good thing takes hold of and leans upon a higher thing? how civilization leans on morality? As a child leans on a parent, and a wife on a husband, and a husband on a wife, and so at last all things lean on God; and well it is that it is so, for he can at any time take off the wheels of the most rapid chariot, He can break the wings of the proudest ambition, and He is, in fact, constantly saying, Arise, this is not your rest. (Paxton Hood.)

Christian progress as it nears its end

Rivers do not grow shallower as they roll away from their sources, and so it has been well said, the hearts river ought not to be an exception. It should flow on widening and deepening till it meets the ocean and mingles with it. (M. D. Hoge, D. D.)

Christian progress impelled by a single purpose

You have stood upon our shores, and seen a ship under full press of sail making for her destination. How she throws aside the seaweed and the waves--how straight amidst the currents she holds her bow--how she strains upon her way, and goes resolutely to her point! The winds are strong, hut the helm overrules the winds, and turns them to account. Life is going on onboard that vessel in many forms, but they are all moving on together to the port--there is a master principle which everything obeys, and they all delight to have it so. And as that ship pursues her bent and often homeward course, it is an emblem to you every day you look at it, of the condition of the life of that man who has had the grace given him to say, This one thing I do. For so, by just such singleness of purpose, such independence of external things, such a straight, unbending way, the great purpose of life is to be gained, heaven is to be won, and God glorified. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The enemy will advance if the Christian does not

The Confederate General Longstreet, during the battle of Gettysburg, had one of his generals come up to him and report that he was unable to bring up his men again so as to charge the enemy. Very well, said the general, just let them remain where they are; the enemys going to advance, and will spare you the trouble. (W. Baxendale.)

Progress inevitable to the Christian

If the spark which grace has kindled had been left to itself, or to the feeble breath of mortals to preserve it, we might well suppose that nothing more than its continued existence was intended; but when we find an unbroken current of life-giving air from the breath of the Almighty brought to play upon that spark, we may conclude with safety that it was meant to glow and kindle to a flame, and that the flame was meant to rise and spread, and to become a conflagration; so that what at first was but a seed of fire, smothered in ashes, drenched in rain, or blown at random by the viewless winds, shall yet light up the whole horizon, and dye the very heavens with its crimson. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)

Progress unlimited for the Christian

No bounds can be set to that progress of growth. There is no point on that happy voyage, beyond which icy cliffs and a frozen ocean forbid a passage; but before us, to the verge of our horizon of today, stretch the open waters; and when that furthest point of vision lies as far astern as it now gleams ahead, the same boundless sapphire sea will draw our yearning desires, and bear onwards our advancing powers. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Progress in heaven

I believe that we shall live through all the eternities that are before us, growing wiser, nobler, stronger, greater; plunging deeper into God, and being more and more filled with more and more of Him. So we shall move forever as in ascending spirals that rise ever higher, and draw ever closer to the throne we compass and to Him that dwells alone; ever perfect, yet ever growing, for we have an inexhaustible Saviour to absorb into our hearts, and we have hearts that never reach the ultimate term and bound of their indefinite possibility of receiving. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Dissatisfaction the motive of progress

Dissatisfaction is always the first step in improvement. Dissatisfied with the pen, man invented the printing press. Dissatisfied with the chariot, man careers on the locomotive. Dissatisfied with the velocity even of steam, man links his thoughts to Gods thunderbolts! This, in regard of all things, is the true inspiration. A being fully contented with present attainments, with no aspirations unto things above and beyond him, should be either a god or an idiot! Heavens pity on the poor soul on this earth all restful and satisfied! Genius--the most Godlike of intellectual gifts, is only this restless creative agony--an impulse driving the spirit to beat its wings like an imprisoned eagle, till there be blood on the plumes and the wires of the prison house; forcing the yearning heart abroad like an unblessed spirit, away from the actual in search of the possible; to dig in every desert for a living spring; to climb every mountain top for a farther look into heaven. Caesar was the very demi-god of his generation, because a possessed world could not satisfy him. Paul was the very chief of the apostles, because, sick of all present attainments, he counted himself not to have apprehended. (C. Wadsworth.)

A noble despair

During the nine years that I was his wife, says the widow of the great artist Opie, I never saw him satisfied with one of his productions, and often, very often, have I seen him enter my sitting room, and throwing himself in an agony of despondence on the sofa, exclaim, I never, never shall be a painter as long as I live! It was a noble despair, such as is never felt by the self-complacent daubers of sign boards, and it bore the panting aspirant up to one of the highest niches in the artistic annals of his country. The selfsame dissatisfaction with present attainments is a potent force to bear the Christian onward to the most eminent degree of spirituality and holiness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The passion for progress

It has been said that no other word turns up so often in the speeches of Albert the Good as that of progress, no other idea was so constantly in his mind; and that no sacrifice of time, thought, money, or responsibility seemed to him too great when he could make it the cause of national or individual progress. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)

Forward the true direction

Livingstone having broken fresh ground among the Bakhatlas, wrote to the London Missionary Society explaining what he had done, and expressing the hope of their approval. At the same time he said he was at their disposal to go anywhere--provided it be forward. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)

The unreasonableness of non-progressiveness

To stay complacently where we are in the religious life is as if a tree should congratulate itself on being higher than the shrubs, on its green leaves, on its glowing blossoms, whilst all the time it has not known the supreme coronation of the summer fruits; or it is as if a caterpillar should stay exultant with its spots and stripes, its fine silks, its succulent cabbage leaf, whilst all the glorious life of the butterfly on the burning roses is untasted. The best we have known is low, poor, dim, narrow, insipid, compared with the larger experiences which await us in Christ. Say not you will rest on your laurels. Your moral laurels today are only bits of straw and flowers of grass. Keep putting those laurels from you; look up, toil on, press forward, until your brow wear the amaranth of full and immortal perfection. (W. L. Watkinson.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php 3:13-14. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended — To have already attained those high degrees of holiness, internal and external, of usefulness and conformity to my blessed Master, which I have in view. But this one thing I do — I make this my chief business. Or rather, (which the phraseology of the original seems to require,) this one thing I can say, though I cannot say that I have attained what I am aiming at; forgetting those things which are behind — Even that part of the race of Christian experience, duty, and suffering, which is already run; and reaching forth, &c. — Greek, τοις δε εμπροσθεν επεκτεινομενος, stretching forward toward those things which are before — Toward still higher attainments in grace, and the further labours and sufferings which remain to be accomplished, pursuing these with the whole vigour of my soul; I press toward the mark — Which God hath placed before me, even a full conformity to the image of his Son in my heart and life, Rom 8:29; for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus — The felicity, honour, and glory, which I am called of God in Christ to contend for: a noble prize indeed! The reader will easily observe, that there is all along in this passage a beautiful allusion to the foot-races in the Grecian games; and in this last clause, to that particular circumstance respecting the prize, that it was placed in a very conspicuous situation, in order that the competitors might be animated by having it still in their view. Add to this, that the judges sat on a high seat, and from thence, by a herald, summoned the contenders into the stadium, or place where they were to contend. In allusion to which elevated situation of the judges, Macknight thinks the apostle here terms God’s calling him by Christ to run the Christian race, ανω κλησις, a high calling, or a calling from above. The phrase, however, seems rather to mean a calling or invitation to very high things, even to dignity and happiness, great beyond all that we can now conceive. For to every faithful servant shall it be granted, partly at death, and more especially at the day of final judgment, to enter into the joy of his Lord, Mat 25:23; to sit down with him on his throne, as he overcame and is set down with his Father on his throne; and to inherit all things, even all that God has and is, Rev 3:21; Rev 21:7. “From the description which the apostle gives in this passage of his stretching all the members of his body while running the Christian race, and from his telling us that he followed on with unremitting strength and agility, till he arrived at the prize which was placed at the end of the course, we may learn what earnestness, diligence, and constancy, in the exercises of faith and holiness, are necessary to our faith’s being counted to us for righteousness at the last day.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Philippians

THE RACE AND THE GOAL

Php 3:13-14.

This buoyant energy and onward looking are marvellous in ‘Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.’ Forgetfulness of the past and eager anticipation for the future are, we sometimes think, the child’s prerogatives. They may be ignoble and puerile, or they may be worthy and great. All depends on the future to which we look. If it be the creation of our fancies, we are babies for trusting it. If it be, as Paul’s was, the revelation of God’s purposes, we cannot do a wiser thing than look.

The Apostle here is letting us see the secret of his own life, and telling us what made him the sort of Christian that he was. He counsels wise obliviousness, wise anticipation, strenuous concentration, and these are the things that contribute to success in any field of life. Christianity is the perfection of common sense. Men become mature Christians by no other means than those by which they become good artisans, ripe scholars, or the like. But the misery is that, though people know well enough that they cannot be good carpenters, or doctors, or fiddlers without certain habits and practices, they seem to fancy that they can be good Christians without them.

So the words of my text may suggest appropriate thoughts on this first Sunday of a new year. Let us listen, then, to Paul telling us how he came to be the sort of Christian man he was.

I. First, then, I would say, make God’s aim your aim.

Paul distinguishes here between the ‘mark’ and the ‘prize.’ He aims at the one for the sake of the other. The one is the object of effort; the other is the sure result of successful effort. If I may so say, the crown hangs on the winning post; and he who touches the goal clutches the garland.

Then, mark that he regards the aim towards which he strains as being the aim which Christ had in view in his conversion. For he says in the preceding context, ‘I labour if that I may lay hold of that for which also I have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ.’ In the words that follow the text he speaks of the prize as being the result and purpose of the high calling of God ‘in Christ Jesus.’ So then he took God’s purpose in calling, and Christ’s purpose in redeeming him, as being his great object in life. God’s aims and Paul’s were identical.

What, then, is the aim of God in all that He has done for us? The production in us of God-like and God-pleasing character. For this suns rise and set; for this seasons and times come and go; for this sorrows and joys are experienced; for this hopes and fears and loves are kindled. For this all the discipline of life is set in motion. For this we were created; for this we have been redeemed. For this Jesus Christ lived and suffered and died. For this God’s Spirit is poured out upon the world. All else is scaffolding; this is the building which it contemplates, and when the building is reared the scaffolding may be cleared away. God means to make us like Himself, and so pleasing to Himself, and has no other end in all the varieties of His gifts and bestowments but only this, the production of character.

Such is the aim that we should set before us. The acceptance of that aim as ours will give nobleness and blessedness to our lives as nothing else will. How different all our estimates of the meaning and true nature of events would be, if we kept clearly before us that their intention was not merely to make us blessed and glad, or to make us sorrowful, but that, through the blessedness, through the sorrow, through the gift, through the withdrawal, through all the variety of dealings, the intention was one and the same, to mould us to the likeness of our Lord and Saviour! There would be fewer mysteries in our lives, we should seldomer have to stand in astonishment, in vain regret, in miserable and weakening looking back upon vanished gifts, and saying to ourselves, ‘Why has this darkness stooped upon my path?’ if we looked beyond the darkness and the light to that for which both were sent. Some plants require frost to bring out their savour, and men need sorrow to test and to produce their highest qualities. There would be fewer knots in the thread of our lives, and fewer mysteries in our experience, if we made God’s aim ours, and strove through all variations of condition to realise it.

How different all our estimate of nearer objects and aims would be, if once we clearly recognised what we are here for! The prostitution of powers to obviously unworthy aims and ends is the saddest thing in humanity. It is like elephants being set to pick up pins; it is like the lightning being harnessed to carry all the gossip and filth of one capital of the world to the prurient readers in another. Men take these great powers which God has given them, and use them to make money, to cultivate their intellects, to secure the gratification of earthly desires, to make a home for themselves here amidst the illusions of time; and all the while the great aim which ought to stand out clear and supreme is forgotten by them.

There is nothing that needs more careful examination by us than our accepted schemes of life for ourselves; the roots of our errors mostly lie in these things that we take to be axioms, and that we never examine into. Let us begin this new year by an honest dealing with ourselves, asking ourselves this question, ‘What am I living for?’ And if the answer, first of all, be, as, of course, it will be, the accomplishment of the nearer and necessary aims, such as the conduct of our business, the cultivating of our understandings, the love and peace of our homes, then let us press the investigation a little further, and say, What then? Suppose I make a fortune, what then? Suppose I get the position I am striving for, what then? Suppose I cultivate my understanding and win the knowledge that I am nobly striving after, what then? Let us not cease to ask the question until we can say, ‘Thy aim, O Lord, is my aim, and I press toward the mark,’ the only mark which will make life noble, elastic, stable, and blessed, that I ‘may be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, but that which is of God by faith.’ For this we have all been made, guided, redeemed. If we carry this treasure out of life we shall carry all that is worth carrying. If we fail in this we fail altogether, whatever be our so-called success. There is one mark, one only, and every arrow that does not hit that target is wasted and spent in vain.

II. Secondly, let me say, concentrate all effort on this one aim.

‘This one thing I do,’ says the Apostle, ‘I press toward the mark.’ That aim is the one which God has in view in all circumstances and arrangements. Therefore, obviously, it is one which may be pursued in all of these, and may be sought whatsoever we are doing. All occupations of life except only sin are consistent with this highest aim. It needs not that we should seek any remote or cloistered form of life, nor sheer off any legitimate and common interests and occupations, but in them all we may be seeking for the one thing, the moulding of our characters into the shapes that are pleasing to Him. ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life’; wheresoever the outward days of my life may be passed. Whatsoever we are doing in business, in shop, at a study table, in the kitchen, in the nursery, by the road, in the house, we may still have the supreme aim in view, that from all occupations there may come growth in character and in likeness to Jesus Christ.

Only, to keep this supreme aim clear there will require far more frequent and resolute effort of what the old mystics used to call ‘recollection’ than we are accustomed to put forth. It is hard, amidst the din of business, and whilst yielding to other lower, legitimate impulses and motives, to set this supreme one high above them all. But it is possible if only we will do two things: keep ourselves close to God, and be prepared to surrender much, laying our own wills, our own fancies, purposes, eager hopes and plans in His hands, and asking Him to help us, that we may never lose sight of the harbour light because of any tossing waves that rise between us and it, nor may ever be so swallowed up in ends, which are only means after all, as to lose sight of the only end which is an end in itself. But for the attainment of this aim in any measure, the concentration of all our powers upon it is absolutely needful. If you want to bore a hole you take a sharp point; you can do nothing with a blunt one. Every flight of wild ducks in the sky will tell you the form that is most likely to secure the maximum of motion with the minimum of effort. The wedge is that which pierces through all the loosely-compacted textures against which it is pressed. The Roman strategy forced the way of the legion through the loose-ordered ranks of barbarian foes by arraying it in that wedge-like form. So we, if we are to advance, must gather ourselves together and put a point upon our lives by compaction and concentration of effort and energy on the one purpose. The conquering word is, ‘This one thing I do.’ The difference between the amateur and the artist is that the one pursues an art at intervals by spurts, as a parergon --a thing that is done in the intervals of other occupations--and that the other makes it his life’s business. There are a great many amateur Christians amongst us, who pursue the Christian life by spurts and starts. If you want to be a Christian after God’s pattern--and unless you are you are scarcely a Christian at all--you have to make it your business, to give the same attention, the same concentration, the same unwavering energy to it which you do to your trade. The man of one book, the man of one idea, the man of one aim is the formidable and the successful man. People will call you a fanatic; never mind. Better be a fanatic and get what you aim at, which is the highest thing, than be so broad that, like a stream spreading itself out over miles of mud, there is no scour in it anywhere, no current, and therefore stagnation and death. Gather yourselves together, and amidst all the side issues and nearer aims keep this in view as the aim to which all are to be subservient--that, ‘whether I eat or drink, or whatsoever I do, I may do all to the glory of God.’ Let sorrow and joy, and trade and profession, and study and business, and house and wife and children, and all home joys, be the means by which you may become like the Master who has died for this end, that we may become partakers of His holiness.

III. Pursue this end with a wise forgetfulness.

‘Forgetting the things that are behind.’ The art of forgetting has much to do with the blessedness and power of every life. Of course, when the Apostle says ‘Forgetting the things that are behind,’ he is thinking of the runner, who has no time to cast his eye over his shoulder to mark the steps already trod. He does not mean, of course, either, to tell us that we are so to cultivate obliviousness as to let God’s mercies to us ‘lie forgotten in unthankfulness, or without praises die.’ Nor does he mean to tell us that we are to deny ourselves the solace of remembering the mercies which may, perhaps, have gone from us. Memory may be like the calm radiance that fills the western sky from a sun that has set, sad and yet sweet, melancholy and lovely. But he means that we should so forget as, by the oblivion, to strengthen our concentration.

So I would say, let us remember, and yet forget, our past failures and faults. Let us remember them in order that the remembrance may cultivate in us a wise chastening of our self-confidence. Let us remember where we were foiled, in order that we may be the more careful of that place hereafter. If we know that upon any road we fell into ambushes, ‘not once nor twice,’ like the old king of Israel, we should guard ourselves against passing by that road again. He who has not learned, by the memory of his past failures, humility and wise government of his life, and wise avoidance of places where he is weak, is an incurable fool.

But let us forget our failures in so far as these might paralyse our hopes, or make us fancy that future success is impossible where past failures frown. Ebenezer was a field of defeat before it rang with the hymns of victory. And there is no place in your past life where you have been shamefully baffled and beaten, but there, and in that, you may yet be victorious. Never let the past limit your hopes of the possibilities and your confidence in the certainties and victories of the future. And if ever you are tempted to say to yourselves, ‘I have tried it so often, and so often failed, that it is no use trying it any more. I am beaten and I throw up the sponge,’ remember Paul’s wise exhortation, and ‘forgetting the things that are behind . . . press toward the mark.’

In like manner I would say, remember and yet forget past successes and achievements. Remember them for thankfulness, remember them for hope, remember them for counsel and instruction, but forget them when they tend, as all that we accomplish does tend, to make us fancy that little more remains to be done; and forget them when they tend, as all that we accomplish ever does tend, to make us think that such and such things are our line, and of other virtues and graces and achievements of culture and of character, that these are not our line, and not to be won by us.

‘Our line!’ Astronomers take a thin thread from a spider’s web and stretch it across their object glasses to measure stellar magnitudes. Just as is the spider’s line in comparison with the whole shining surface of the sun across which it is stretched, so is what we have already attained to the boundless might and glory of that to which we may come. Nothing short of the full measure of the likeness of Jesus Christ is the measure of our possibilities.

There is a mannerism in Christian life, as there is in everything else, which is to be avoided if we would grow into perfection. There was a great artist in the last century who never could paint a picture without sticking a brown tree in the foreground. We have all got our ‘brown trees,’ which we think we can do well, and these limit our ambition to secure other gifts which God is ready to bestow upon us. So ‘forget the things that are behind.’ Cultivate a wise obliviousness of past sorrows, past joys, past failures, past gifts, past achievements, in so far as these might limit the audacity of our hopes and the energy of our efforts.

IV. So, lastly, pursue the aim with a wise, eager reaching forward.

The Apostle employs a very graphic word here, which is only very partially expressed by that ‘reaching forth.’ It contains a condensed picture which it is scarcely possible to put into any one expression. ‘Reaching out over’ is the full though clumsy rendering of the word, and it gives us the picture of the runner with his whole body thrown forward, his hand extended, and his eye reaching even further than his hand, in eager anticipation of the mark and the prize. So we are to live, with continual reaching out of confidence, clear recognition, and eager desire to make our own the unattained.

What is that which gives an element of nobleness to the lives of great idealists, whether they be poets, artists, students, thinkers, or what not? Only this, that they see the unattained burning ever so clearly before them that all the attained seems as nothing in their eyes. And so life is saved from commonplace, is happily stung into fresh effort, is redeemed from flagging, monotony, and weariness.

The measure of our attainments may be fairly estimated by the extent to which the unattained is clear in our sight. A man down in the valley sees the nearer shoulder of the hill, and he thinks it the top. The man up on the shoulder sees all the heights that lie beyond rising above him. Endeavour is better than success. It is more to see the Alpine heights unscaled than it is to have risen so far as we have done. They who thus have a boundless future before them have an endless source of inspiration, of energy, of buoyancy granted to them.

No man has such an absolutely boundless vision of the future which may be his as we have, if we are Christian people, as we ought to be. We only can thus look forward. For all others a blank wall stretches at the end of life, against which hopes, when they strike, fall back stunned and dead. But for us the wall may be overleaped, and, living by the energy of a boundless hope, we, and only we, can lay ourselves down to die, and say then, ‘Reaching forth unto the things that are before.’

So, dear friends, make God’s aim your aim; concentrate your life’s efforts upon it; pursue it with a wise forgetfulness; pursue it with an eager confidence of anticipation that shall not be put to shame. Remember that God reaches His aim for you by giving to you Jesus Christ, and that you can only reach it by accepting the Christ who is given and being found in Him. Then the years will take away nothing from us which it is not gain to lose. They will neither weaken our energy nor flatten our hopes, nor dim our confidence, and, at the last we shall reach the mark, and, as we touch it, we shall find dropping on our surprised and humble heads the crown of life which they receive who have so run, not as uncertainly, but doing this one thing, pressing towards the mark for the prize.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:13-14 the race: See study note on 2:16. • Paul was willing to give up everything else for the ultimate goal, the heavenly prize of eternal life.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Php 3:13. Ἀδελφοὶ, brethren) He makes his confession in a familiar manner.—ἐγὼ, I) Others might easily think this of Paul.—οὐ λογίζομαι, I count not) It is proper for the saints, and conducive to their activity, to consider themselves inferior to what they really are.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php_3:13-14. Once more, and with loving earnestness (ἀδελφοί), Paul says what he had already said in Php_3:12 with οὐχ ὅτι … καταλάβω; and in doing so, he brings more into relief in the first portion the element of self-estimation, which in his own case he denies; and, in the second part, he sets forth more in detail the idea: διώκω δὲ εἰ κ. καταλ.

ἐγὼ ἐμαυτόν] ego me ipsum, an emphatic mode of indicating ones own estimation, in which one is both subject and object of the judgment. Comp. Joh_5:30 f., Joh_7:17, Joh_8:54; Act_26:9, et al. A reference to the judgment of others about him (Bengel, Weiss, and others; comp. also Hofmann) is here out of place.

λογίζομαι] I judge, I am of opinion,[168] Rom_3:28; Rom_8:18; Rom_14:14; 2Co_11:5, et al.; Xen. Anab. ii. 2. 13; Dem. lxiii. 12.

ἛΝ ΔΈ] Comp. Anthol. Pal. vii. 455: ἛΝ Δʼ ἈΝΤῚ ΠΆΝΤΩΝ, also the frequent ἓν μόνον; see Stallbaum, ad. Plat. Symp. p. 184 C, Rep. p. 548 C. It is here usually supplemented by ποιῶ (Chrysostom appears to have understood ποιῶν). So also Winer, Buttmann, de Wette, Wiesinger, Ellicott. But how arbitrarily, seeing that the context by what immediately precedes suggests simply the supplying of ΛΟΓΊΖΟΜΑΙ (not ΛΟΓΊΖ. ΚΑΤΕΙΛΗΦΈΝΑΙ, Oecumenius, Weiss), and this is in perfect harmony with the sense! Hence we take it thus: but one thing I think, unum censeo. This one thing which Paul thinks regarding the matter in question, in contrast to the previous negative (δέ, as in Php_3:12), is then directly expressed by all that follows from τὰ μὲν ὀπίσω to ἐν Χ. Ἰ. Nearest to this contextual supplement comes the Syriac, which has added οἶδα, and Luther, who has added λέγω. The supplying of λογίζομαι is confirmed by the cognate φρονῶμεν, Php_3:15. Without supplying anything, ἛΝ ΔΈ has either been connected with διώκω (thus Augustine, Serm. de divers. i. 6, Pierce, Storr, van Hengel, and others), or has been taken absolutely: unum contra! see Hoelemann, comp. Rheinwald. But the former is to be rejected, because the subsequent διώκω carries its own complete definiteness; and the latter would render the discourse abrupt without reason, since it is not written under emotional excitement, and would, withal, require a supplement, such as Beza gives by ἘΣΤΊ. Hofmann also comes at length in substance to this latter supplement, mixing up an imaginary contrast to that which the adversaries imputed to the apostle: over-against this, his conduct subsequently described was the only thing which was quite right (?).

τὰ μὲν ὀπίσω] what is behind, cannot be referred to what has been mentioned in Php_3:5-6 and the category of those pre-Christian advantages generally (so in substance, Pelagius; ΤΙΝῈς in Theodoret, Vatablus, Zeger, Wolf, and others, also Ewald and Hofmann); this would be at variance with the context, for ΤᾺ ΜῈΝ ὈΠΊΣΩ ἘΠΙΛΑΝΘ. corresponds to the negation of the having already attained or being perfect in Php_3:12, and must therefore apply to the previous achievements of the Christian life, to the degrees of Christian moral perfection already reached, which are conceived as the spaces already left behind in the stadium of the runner still pressing forward; and not to what had belonged to his pre-Christian conduct (Hofmann). Comp. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact.

ἘΠΙΛΑΝΘΑΝ.] forgetting, like the runner who dismisses from his mind the space already traversed, and fixes his thoughts only on what still lies before him. This is surely no break in the internal connection (as Hofmann objects); on the contrary, like the runner pressing forward, Paul in his continuous restless striving overlooks the degree of moral perfection already attained, which he would not do, if he reckoned it already as itself perfection. ἘΠΙΛΑΝΘΆΝΕΣΘΑΙ is joined with the genitive and accusative; the simple verb, on the contrary, only with the genitive. See Kühner, II. 1, p. 313. On the use of the word in the sense of intentional forgetting, comp. Herod, iii. 75, iv. 43; 1Ma_1:49. It thus amounts to the sense of nullam rationem habere (Sturz, Lex. Xen. II. p. 294).

τοῖς δὲ ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμ.] but stretching myself out towards that which is before. The dative is governed by the verb compounded with ἐπί (Krüger, § 48. 11. 5; Nägelsbach, zur Ilias, p. 30, ed. 3), the ἐπί intimating the direction. In the case of such an one running prono et quasi praecipiti corpore (Beza), oculus manum, manus pedem praevertit et trahit, Bengel. On the verb, comp. Strabo, xvii. p. 800; Aristot. Poet. 21; Plut. Mor. p. 1147 A. ΤᾺ ἜΜΠΡ. represent the higher stages of Christian perfection not yet attained.[169]

κατὰ σκοπὸν διώκω] I hasten towards the goal, therefore in a straight course towards the prize of victory. The opposite: ἀπὸ σκοποῦ, Hom. Od. xi. 344, xxii. 6; Plat. Theaet. p. 179 C, Tim. p. 25 E; Xen. Conv. ii. 10; Lucian, Icarom. 2; and παρὰ σκοπόν, Pind. Ol. xiii. 144. On διώκω without an accusative of the object (in opposition to van Hengel), comp. Xen. Anab. vii. 2. 20, vi. 5. 25 (δρόμω διώκειν); Aesch. Sept. 89; Buttmann, Lexil. p. 219; Jacobs, ad Anthol. IX. p. 213. Comp. on Php_3:12. The prize of victory (τὸ βραβεῖον, see on 1Co_9:24; Clem. Cor. I. 5; Schol. min. ad Soph. El. 680; Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 196; Lycophr. 1154) represents the salvation of the Messiahs kingdom (see on Php_3:12), to which God has called man. Hence: τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως, a genitive which is to be taken not as appositional (de Wette, Schenkel), but as the genitive of the subject: the βραβεῖον, to which the calling relates. Comp. Luther: which the heavenly calling holds out. This is therefore the object of the ἐλπὶς τῆς κλήσεως (Eph_1:18; Eph_4:4; comp. the Platonic καλὸν τὸ ἆθλον καὶ ἡ ἐλπὶς μεγάλη, Phaed. p. 114 C).

ἡ ἄνω κλῆσις τοῦ Θεοῦ is the calling which issued from God above in heaven (on ἄνω, comp. Col_3:2, Gal_4:26; and on the subject-matter, Heb_3:1), by which He has called us to the σωτηρία of His kingdom. The general form of expression, not even limited by a pronoun (such as τῆς ἐμῆς), does not allow us to think only of the miraculous calling of the apostle himself; this is rather included under the general category of the ἄνω κλῆσις τοῦ Θεοῦ, which in the individual cases may have taken historically very different forms. The ἄνω, which in itself is not necessary, is added, because Paul is thoroughly filled with the consciousness of the divine nature of the κλῆσις in its exaltedness above everything that is earthly. Lastly, the κλῆσις itself is, as always (even in 2Th_1:11), the act of calling; not that whereto one is called (de Wette), or le bonheur céleste même (Rilliet); and the general currency of the idea and expression forbids us also, since no indication of the kind is given, to conceive of God as βραβευτής or βραβεύς, as the judge of the contest (Pollux, iii. 145; Blomf. Gloss, ad Aesch. Pers. 307), who through the herald summons the runners to the race (Grotius, Wolf, Rosenmüller, am Ende, Hoelemann, van Hengel, Wiesinger); τῆς ἄνω κλ. τ. Θ. serves to define more accurately that which is figuratively denoted by βραβεῖον, but does not itself form a part of the allegory.

ἐν Χ. Ἰ.] is rightly (so also Weiss) joined by Chrysostom to διώκω: ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τοῦτο ποιῶ, φησίν. οὐ γὰρ ἔνι χωρὶς τῆς ἐκείνου ῥοπῆς τοσοῦτον διελθεῖν διάστημα. Comp. Theodoret and Oecumenius. This thought, that the διώκειν just described is done by him in Christ, as the great upholding and impelling element of life in which amidst this activity he moves, is emphatically placed at the end as that which regulates all his efforts. The usual connection of these words with τ. ἄνω κλήσεως τ. Θεοῦ, in which the calling is understood as brought about through Christ (rather: having its causal ground in Christ), yields a superfluous and self-obvious definition of the κλήσις already so accurately defined; although the connecting article would not be necessary, since, according to the construction καλεῖν ἐν Χ. (1Co_7:22; 1Pe_5:10), ἐν Χ. Ἰ. might be joined with κλήσεως so as to form one idea; comp. Clem. Cor. I. 46. A contrast to the calling issued to Israel to be Gods people on earth, is groundlessly suggested by Hofmann.

[168] Οὐ belongs to λογίζομαι. The erroneous reference to κατειληφέναι produced the reading οὔπω (A D א min. vss. and Fathers), which Tischendorf 8. has adopted.

[169] Τὰ ἔμπροσθεν is thus conceived by the apostle as that which still lies further in prospect after every advance in the ethical course; not as that which lay before him in consequence of his conversion (contrasting with his pre-Christian efforts), as Hofmann thinks. It is the ever new, greater, and loftier task which he sees before him, step after step.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Phi 3:13 . ἀδελφοί . This direct appeal to them shows that he is approaching a matter which is of serious concern both to him and them. ἐγὼ ἐμαυτόν . Why such strong personal emphasis? Is it not a clear hint that there were people at Philippi who prided themselves on having grasped the prize of the Christian calling already? Paul has been tacitly leading up to this. He will yield to none in clear knowledge of the difference between the old and the new life. He knows more surely than any how completely he has broken with the past. Yet, whatever others may say, he must assume the lowly position of one who is still a learner. It makes little difference whether οὐ or οὔπω be read. The authorities are pretty evenly balanced. λογίζομαι . The word (often used by Paul) has the force of looking back on the process of a discussion and calmly drawing a conclusion. Cf. Rom 8:18 (with note of Sanday and Headlam ( Romans ). The Apostle expresses his deliberately formed opinion. ἕν δέ . There is no need to supply a verb. His Christian conduct is summed up in what follows. Never has there been a more unified life than that of Paul as Apostle and Christian. “When all is said, the greatest art is to limit and isolate oneself” (Goethe). τὰ μὲν ὀπ . ἐπιλανθ . There are a few exx. in classical Greek of ἐπιλανθ . with the accusative, e.g. , Aristoph., Nub. , 631. But in the later language there was an extraordinary extension of the use of the accusative. (See Hatz., Einl . , p. 220 ff.) Does τὰ ὀπ . mean the old life, or the past stages of Christian experience? If the metaphor were strictly pressed, no doubt the latter alternative would claim attention. But pressing metaphors is always hazardous. And parallel passages seem rather to justify the first meaning, e.g. , Jer 7:24 , ἐγενήθησαν εἰς τὰ ὄπισθεν καὶ οὐκ εἰς τὰ ἔμπροσθεν (of disobeying God’s commands); Luk 9:62 , βλέπων εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω ; Joh 6:66 , πολλοὶ τῶν μαθητῶν … ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω . τοῖς ἔμπρ . ἐπεκτ . τὸ and τὰ ἔμπρ . are found in Herodot. and Xenoph. Wetstein quotes most aptly from Luc., de Cal. , 12, οἷόν τι καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς γυμνικοῖς ἀγῶσιν ὑπὸ τῶν δρομέων γίγνεται · κᾀκεῖ γὰρ ὁ μὲν ἀγαθὸς δρομεὺς τῆς ὕσπληγος εὐθὺς καταπεσούσης , μόνον τοῦ πρόσω ἐφιέμενος καὶ τὴν διάνοιαν ἀποτείνας πρὸς τὸ τέρμα κᾀν τοῖς ποσὶ τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς νίκης ἔχων , τὸν πλησίον οὐδὲν κακουργεῖ . In using this comparison, Paul, of course, adapts himself, as among Greeks and Romans, to a custom of their national life. On this kind of adaptation see an excellent discussion in Weizsäcker, Apost. Zeitalter , pp. 100 104.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I--whatever others count as to themselves. He who counts himself perfect, must deceive himself by calling sin infirmity (Jo1 1:8); at the same time, each must aim at perfection, to be a Christian at all (Mat 5:48).

forgetting those things . . . behind--Looking back is sure to end in going back (Luk 9:62): So Lot's wife (Luk 17:32). If in stemming a current we cease pulling the oar against it, we are carried back. God's word to us is as it was to Israel, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward" (Exo 14:15). The Bible is our landmark to show us whether we are progressing or retrograding.

reaching forth--with hand and foot, like a runner in a race, and the body bent forward. The Christian is always humbled by the contrast between what he is and what he desires to be. The eye reaches before and draws on the hand, the hand reaches before and draws on the foot [BENGEL].

unto--towards (Heb 6:1).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 13. I count not myself to have apprehended] Whatever gifts, graces, or honours I may have received from Jesus Christ, I consider every thing as incomplete till I have finished my course, got this crown, and have my body raised and fashioned after his glorious body.

This one thing I do] This is the concern, as it is the sole business, of my life.

Forgetting those things which are behind] My conduct is not regulated nor influenced by that of others; I consider my calling, my Master, my work, and my end. If others think they have time to loiter or trifle, I have none: time is flying; eternity is at hand; and my all is at stake.

Reaching forth] The Greek word επεκτεινομενος points out the strong exertions made in the race; every muscle and nerve is exerted, and he puts forth every particle of his strength in running. He was running for life, and running for his life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13 I reckon not myself to have as yet apprehended He does not here call in question the certainty of his salvation, as though he were still in suspense, but repeats what he had said before — that he still aimed at making farther progress, because he had not yet attained the end of his calling. He shews this immediately after, by saying that he was intent on this one thing, leaving off everything else. Now, he compares our life to a race-course, the limits of which God has marked out to us for running in. For as it would profit the runner nothing to have left the starting-point, unless he went forward to the goal, so we must also pursue the course of our calling until death, and must not cease until we have obtained what we seek. Farther, as the way is marked out to the runner, that he may not fatigue himself to no purpose by wandering in this direction or in that, so there is also a goal set before us, towards which we ought to direct our course undeviatingly; and God does not permit us to wander about heedlessly. Thirdly, as the runner requires to be free from entanglement, and not stop his course on account of any impediment, but must continue his course, surmounting every obstacle, so we must take heed that we do not apply our mind or heart to anything that may divert the attention, but must, on the contrary, make it our endeavor, that, free from every distraction, we may apply the whole bent of our mind exclusively to God’s calling. These three things Paul comprehends in one similitude. When he says that he does this one thing, and forgets all things that are behind, he intimates his assiduity, and excludes everything fitted to distract. When he says that he presses toward the mark, he intimates that he is not wandering from the way.

Forgetting those things that are behind He alludes to runners, who do not turn their eyes aside in any direction, lest they should slacken the speed of their course, and, more especially, do not look behind to see how much ground they have gone over, but hasten forward unremittingly towards the goal, Thus Paul teaches us, that he does not think of what he has been, or of what he has done, but simply presses forward towards the appointed goal, and that, too, with such ardor, that he runs forward to it, as it were, with outstretched arms. For a metaphor of this nature is implied in the participle which he employs.

Should any one remark, by way of objection, that the remembrance of our past life is of use for stirring us up, both because the favors that have been already conferred upon us give us encouragement to entertain hope, and because we are admonished by our sins to amend our course of life, I answer, that thoughts of this nature do not turn away our view from what is before us to what is behind, but rather help our vision, so that we discern more distinctly the goal. Paul, however, condemns here such looking back, as either destroys or impairs alacrity. Thus, for example, should any one persuade himself that he has made sufficiently great progress, reckoning that he has done enough, he will become indolent, and feel inclined to deliver up the lamp to others; or, if any one looks back with a feeling of regret for the situation that he has abandoned, he cannot apply the whole bent of his mind to what he is engaged in. Such was the nature of the thoughts from which Paul’s mind required to be turned away, if he would in good earnest follow out Christ’s calling. As, however, there has been mention made here of endeavor, aim, course, perseverance, lest any one should imagine that salvation consists in these things, or should even ascribe to human industry what comes from another quarter, with the view of pointing out the cause of all these things, he adds — in Christ Jesus

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(13) I count not myself . . .—The “I” is emphatic, evidently in contrast with some of those who thought themselves “perfect.” (See Php_3:15.) Not only does St. Paul refuse to count that he has ever yet “attained;” he will not allow that he is yet in a position even to grasp at the prize. (Comp. 1Co_9:27.)

Forgetting those things which are behind . . .—The precept is absolutely general, applying to past blessings, past achievements, even past sins. The ineradicable instinct of hope, which the wisdom of the world (not unreasonably if this life be all) holds to be a delusion, or at best a condescension to weakness, is sanctioned in the gospel as an anticipation of immortality. Accordingly hope is made a rational principle, and is always declared to be, not only a privilege, but a high Christian duty, co-ordinate with faith and love (as in 1Co_13:13; Eph_4:4). St. Paul does not scruple to say that, if we have it not, for the next life as well as this, we Christians are “of all men most miserable” (1Co_15:19). Hence past blessing is but an earnest of the future; past achievements of good are stepping-stones to greater things; past sins are viewed in that true repentance which differs from remorse—“the sorrow of this world which worketh death” (2Co_7:10)—in having a sure and certain hope of the final conquest of all sin. The “eternal life” in Christ is a present gift, but one test of its reality in the present is its possession of the promise of the future.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. Brethren] A direct loving appeal, to restate and enforce what he has just said.

I count not myself] “I” and “myself” are both emphatic in the Greek. Whatever others may think of themselves, this is his deliberate estimate of himself. He has in view the false teachers more clearly indicated below, Php_3:18-19.

but this one thing I do] “One thing” is perhaps in antithesis to the implied opposite idea of the “many things,” of experience or attainment, contemplated by the teacher of antinomian perfection.

forgetting] Avoiding all complacent, as against grateful, reflection.

behind] He does not say “around” or “present.” The unwearied runner is already beyond any given point just reached.

reaching forth] The Greek (one compound verb) gives the double thought of the runner stretching out his head and body towards his goal. Lightfoot remarks that the imagery might apply to the racing charioteer, bending, lash in hand, over his horses (Virgil, Georg. iii. 106); but that the charioteer, unlike the runner, would need often to look back, and that this, with the habitual use by St Paul of the simile of the foot-race, assures us that the runner is meant here.

those … before] “more and more, unto the perfect day” (Pro_4:18). Each new occasion, small or great, for duty or suffering, would be a new “lap” (to translate technically St Chrysostom’s word here) of the course; would give opportunity for “growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2Pe_3:18). “To increase more and more” (1Th_4:10) was his idea of the life of grace for others; but above all, for himself.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I press toward the mark,.... The allusion is to the white line, or mark, which the runners in the Olympic games made up to, and to which he that came first received the prize; and by which the apostle intends the Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the scope", or "mark", of all the thoughts, purposes, and counsels of God, to which they all aim, and in which they all centre; and of the covenant of grace of which he is the sum and substance, the Mediator, surety, and messenger, in whom are all the blessings and promises of it; and of the Scriptures of truth, the writings of the Old and New Testament, which all testify of him, and agree in him; and of both law and Gospel, he is the end of the law, and the substance of the Gospel; and of all the graces of the Spirit, in the hearts of his people, faith looks at him, hope is concerned with him, and love has him for its object; and of all the duties believers are concerned in, they all point at him, they are done in his name and strength, through faith in him, and from a principle of love to him, and with a view to his glory; and so he is of their thoughts, affections, and desires: and to this mark they press, or "run", as the Syriac version renders it; they look to Jesus, while they are running their Christian race; they keep him in their view, and follow after him, because he is their forerunner, Heb 6:20, and the Captain of their salvation, Heb 2:10; they set him before them as their guide to direct them, according to whom they steer their course, that so they may not lose their way, nor move out of it, to the right hand or the left; and from whom they take great encouragement to go on, and press through the difficulties they do; and besides, they know that there is no coming at the prize, but through the mark, for there is salvation in no other, Act 4:12; and that whoever comes up to the mark, or believes in Christ, shall enjoy the prize of eternal life, which is next mentioned:

for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: by which is meant, the incorruptible crown; the crown of life, righteousness, and glory, that fadeth not away, Jam 1:12, styled "the prize of the calling of God"; because it is what God in the effectual calling calls his people to, even to a kingdom and glory, and to eternal glory and happiness; of which they have a sight, though but a glimmering view of it, and are blessed with hope in it; in which they rejoice, and see their right unto it, in the righteousness of Christ, and have a meetness for it: this is named "the high calling of God", because God is on high, who calls them to it, in allusion to the judge in the Olympic games, who was placed in an exalted situation, near the mark, with the crown in his hand, which he gave to him that came first; and because the grace by which the saints are called is from above, as every good and perfect gift is, Jam 1:17; and because the prize they are called unto consists of things above, where Jesus is, and is the hope laid up in heaven, Col 1:5, and the inheritance reserved there, Pe1 1:4; and expresses the great honour and dignity of called ones, who are called to a crown and kingdom, are raised from the dunghill, to sit among princes, and to inherit the throne of glory, and are made kings and priests unto God: and may also denote, that the calling to such high honour is from above, and not below; and is owing to the special grace and favour of God, and not to any merits of men; nor is the prize to which they are called, of him that willeth and runneth, but of God's grace and mercy, Rom 9:16, and moreover, this calling is said to be "in Christ Jesus"; for both the purpose and grace, according to which men are called, are in him; the grace by which they are called, and which is implanted in them when called, is all in and from Christ; the blessings of grace, which they then in person enjoy, are spiritual blessings in him; and even the glory they are called unto is in his hands; not only the promise of eternal life, but that itself; the gift of it is with him, and it comes through him; yea, they are called by him, and said to be the called of Christ Jesus; now the prize of this calling, which is what God has prepared from all eternity, which Christ has in his hands, and will give to all his, and which is of immense richness and eternal duration, and shall be bestowed on all Christian runners, or true believers, is what the apostle was pressing for, pursuing after, with much difficulty, through great toil and labour, diligent searching of the Scriptures, frequent wrestling with God in prayer, and constant attendance on the means of grace, and ordinances of the Gospel.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Ver. 13. I count not myself] Si dixisti satis est, periisti. Satiety is a dangerous disease, and the next step to a declension. The eagle’s emblem is sublimius; a loftier position, the sun’s celerius, swifter, Psa 19:3; the wheat’s perfectius, more ripened, Mar 4:28; Ezekiel’s profundius, more depth, Eze 47:4; Christ’s superius, more exaltation, Luk 14:10; and Paul’s ulterius more humiliation.

Reaching forth] επεκτεινομενος, straining and stretching out head and hands and whole body to lay hold on the mark or prize proposed. A manifest metaphor from runners in a race, qui caput, totumque corpus, et vires exerunt, ae praecipites ad scopum ruunt, who throw themselves forward like a dart, and stretch out their arms to take hold of the mark. Prone et quasi praecipiti corpore ferri ad scopum. (Beza a Lapide.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended - That is, to have obtained that for which I have been called into the service of the Redeemer. There is something which I strive after which I have not yet gained. This statement is a confirmation of the opinion that in the previous verse, where he says that he was not “already perfect,” he includes a moral perfection, and not merely the obtainment of the prize or reward; for no one could suppose that he meant to be understood as saying that he had obtained the crown of glory.

This one thing I do - Paul had one great aim and purpose of life. He did not attempt to mingle the world and religion, and to gain both. He did not seek to obtain wealth and salvation too; or honor here and the crown of glory hereafter, but he had one object, one aim, one great purpose of soul. To this singleness of purpose he owed his extraordinary attainments in piety, and his uncommon success as a minister. A man will accomplish little who allows his mind to be distracted by a multiplicity of objects. A Christian will accomplish nothing who has not a single great aim and purpose of soul. That purpose should be to secure the prize, and to renounce everything that would be in the way to its attainment. Let us then so live that we may be able to say, that there is one great object which we always have in view, and that we mean to avoid everything which would interfere with that.

Forgetting those things which are behind - There is an allusion here undoubtedly to the Grecian races. One running to secure the prize would not stop to look behind him to see how much ground he had run over, or who of his competitors had fallen or lingered in the way. He would keep his eye steadily on the prize, and strain every nerve that he might obtain it. If his attention was diverted for a moment from that, it would hinder his flight, and might be the means of his losing the crown. So the apostle says it was with him. He looked onward to the prize. He fixed the eye intently on that. It was the single object in his view, and he did not allow his mind to be diverted from that by anything - not even by the contemplation of the past. He did not stop to think of the difficulties which he had overcome, or the troubles which he had met, but he thought of what was yet to be accomplished.

This does not mean that he would not have regarded a proper contemplation of the past life as useful and profitable for a Christian (compare the notes at Eph 2:11), but that he would not allow any reference to the past to interfere with the one great effort to win the prize. It may be, and is, profitable for a Christian to look over the past mercies of God to his soul, in order to awaken emotions of gratitude in the heart, and to think of his shortcomings and errors, to produce penitence and humility. But none of these things should be allowed for one moment to divert the mind from the purpose to win the incorruptible crown. And it may be remarked in general, that a Christian will make more rapid advances in piety by looking forward than by looking backward. Forward we see everything to cheer and animate us - the crown of victory, the joys of heaven, the society of the blessed - the Saviour beckoning to us and encouraging us.

Backward, we see everything to dishearten and to humble. Our own unfaithfulness; our coldness, deadness, and dullness; the little zeal and ardor which we have, all are fitted to humble and discourage. He is the most cheerful Christian who looks onward, and who keeps heaven always in view; he who is accustomed much to dwell on the past, though he may be a true Christian, will be likely to be melancholy and dispirited, to be a recluse rather than a warm-hearted and active friend of the Saviour. Or if he looks backward to contemplate what he has done - the space that he has run over - the difficulties which he has surmounted - and his own rapidity in the race, he will be likely to become self-complacent and self-satisfied. He will trust his past endeavors, and feel that the prize is now secure, and will relax his future efforts. Let us then look onward. Let us not spend our time either in pondering the gloomy past, and our own unfaithfulness, or in thinking of what we have done, and thus becoming puffed up with self-complacency; but let us keep the eye steadily on the prize, and run the race as though we had just commenced it.

And reaching forth - As one does in a race.

Unto those things which are before - Before the racer there was a crown or garland to be bestowed by the judges of the games. Before the Christian there is a crown of glory, the eternal reward of heaven. There is the favor of God, victory over sin and death, the society of the redeemed and of angelic beings, and the assurance of perfect and eternal freedom from all evil. These are enough to animate the soul, and to urge it on with ever-increasing vigor in the christian race.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I do not count myself. That is, I do not suppose that vain security is sufficient to put my salvation out of doubt, and that Christ having died, nothing remains for me to do. No; I consider myself as a wrestler at the games, uncertain of success. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; he repeats, in somewhat a different manner of expression, what he had written in the former verse, with a friendly compellation, gently and kindly to insinuate a caution against the false teachers’ suggestion about perfection in this state, from the instance of himself, so eminently called to be an apostle of Christ, {1Co 10:12} who, after all his labours and sufferings for his sake, did reckon he had not yet arrived to the height of what he was called to.

But this one thing I do; but he would have them to understand that he was so intent upon this one thing, for which he was brought by the Spirit into communion with Christ, as if there were not any thing else worthy of his thoughts: as Psa 27:4; Luk 10:42.

Forgetting those things which are behind; like a true spiritual racer, not minding what he had received by grace from him who had took hold of him, or how much he had run of his Christian race, reckoning it was much short of the whole, or the main intended by Christ in taking hold of him.

And reaching forth unto those things which are before; but straining forward, as it were, with all his force and skill, casting himself like a dart towards the mark, so running that he might obtain {1Co 9:24} all and the whole, that was his particular portion for ever, to be received from God, as the purchase of Christ, even the total that God had in and by Jesus Christ designed him, and in Christ bestowed upon him, out of his rich grace, as his special allotment.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Count not myself—Whatever estimate the Philippians may have put upon the apostle, or whatever may be ours of him, his estimate of himself was a very humble one. Perhaps to avoid misapprehension on the part of those whom he has (Php_2:3) rebuked for their self-conceit, he reiterates with greater plainness what he has already said, both as to what he has gained, and his striving for something higher.

One thing—All else is secondary. Then arises before Paul’s mind the image of one running a race.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; rather, perhaps, I reckon. Two of the best manuscripts read "not yet" (oupw). The pronouns are emphatic: whatever others may think of me or of themselves, "I reckon not myself to have apprehended." But this one thing. The ellipse here is forcible; some supply "I reckon;" others, "I say;" others, as A.V, "I do," which seems best suited to the context. I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. St. Paul concentrates all his thoughts and all his energies on the one great end of life, the one thing needful. He forgets those things which are behind; that is, not, as some explain, his Jewish privileges and distinctions, but that part of his Christian race already past. So Chrysostom, Kai gazetai diaulouv all osouv leipetai ... Ti ga anusye leipomenon mh prosteyh ; Reaching forth. The Greek word mh prosteyh ; is singularly emphatic: it means that the athlete throws himself forward in the race with all his energies strained to the very utmost. Compare Bengel, "Oculus manum, manus pedem praevertit et trahit.

Forward.

Like the runner who will lose the prize if he mistake any point short of the goal for the end, or if he waste his time in looking back on the course traversed, the Christian must press forward with his face towards Christ, unresting till the great race is won.

I WE MUST NOT CONSIDER ANY PRESENT ATTAINMENT SUFFICIENT, St, Paul was no novice when he wrote this Epistle. An old man, rich and ripe in many graces, far and away beyond the experience of most Christians, he still felt that he had not reached the great end of his efforts. How much less can inferior Christians allow themselves to be satisfied with what they have as yet acquired! The end is to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. (Mat_5:48) We are not blamed if we have not yet reached that crown of goodness. But we are blamed if we are not pressing on to it and rest contented with anything short of it. Height above height rises before us. Let no inferior aim lull us to unfaithful indolence with its soothing prospects.

II WE MUST LOOK FORWARD, NOT BACKWARD. Some men stand with their faces to the west, regretting the lost radiance of the setting sun. Others turn their gaze on the east, eager to catch the first streak of dawn. Surely the latter are the wiser. Our faces look forwards that we may see the path we are about to tread instead of looking only on the path already trodden.

1. We must forget past attainments. Otherwise they will be a snare, and out of the very fruit of good deeds may be distilled the poisonous narcotic that will prevent the repetition of them. Let the sweet fruit be cast away that the seed may be sown to produce future fruit.

2. We must forget past failures. It is foolish to dwell in idle regrets, for thus we neglect the duty of to-day in lamenting the neglect of yesterday"s duty! It is positively wrong to clog our future efforts by carrying the burden of past sin. If God has forgiven our sin we should forget it.

3. We must forget past joys and sorrows this only in a measure, of course. We are human, and there are wholesome uses of memory. But still the dreamy life of reflection is sadly hindering to progress. Greater joys open before us even before the saddest, most desponding of us, if we are truly following Christ than any that lie buried in the graves of the past. They who may hope for the joy of the resurrection reunion do foolishly to weep for ever at the tomb.

III WE MUST STRETCH FORWARD TO THE THINGS WHICH ARE BEFORE. The picturesque figure represents the eager runner who stretches out his hand and bends his body towards the long-sought end of his endeavors. The eye must precede the foot. If our hearts are not already in heaven our souls cannot be travelling thither. Great effort is also necessary. The Christian must put forth all his energies. His life is a battle, a wrestling, a race.

IV CHRIST IS THE END OF THE RACE.

1. He is the Goal. We are to strive to attain unto him. The Christian course is marked out by the footprints of. Christ. Every right step brings us nearer Christ, both in resemblance and in fellowship. Perfection is absolute Christ-likeness.

2. Christ is also the Prize. The end of the race is its own reward. And it is enough. To possess Christ is worth the loss of all earthly possessions (ver. 7). It is, however, in the end, to give us the inheritance of all things. W.F.A. (2Co 2:22, 2Co 2:23)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I do not account myself to have apprehended this already; to be already possessed of perfect holiness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

13. I count not myself yet, etc. The prize is yet before. Constant effort is still required. This one thing I do. His whole life is given to one purpose. Forgetting the things which are behind. Especially the things which he once counted gain (verse 7), and even all the hardships and sufferings of the apostolic lot. And reaching forth. The image is of one so eager for what is before him that hands and body are stretched to lay hold of it.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

13. οὔπω. So אAD2*, 17 47 73 80 and many other cursives, copt syr (harkl*) æth, Clem Bas. BD2cG2, 37 and most other cursives, vulg syr (pesh and philox text) goth arm, Orig Tert read οὐ. Tisch WH [text: marg οὐ] οὔπω. Treg Ell Alf Ltft οὐ.

13. ἀδελφοί. A personal address, to bring home and enforce the truth.

ἐγὼ ἐμαυτὸν κτλ. Whatever others may think of themselves. He has the antinomians of Php 3:18-19 in his mind.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13.] Emphatic and affectionate re-statement of the same, but not merely so;—he evidently alludes to some whom he wishes to warn by his example. Brethren, I (emphatic: cf. Joh 5:30; Joh 7:17; Joh 8:33; Act 26:9) do not reckon myself (emphatic) to have laid hold: but one thing (I do: not λογίζομαι, nor διώκω, nor φροντίζω, none of which correspond to the epexegesis following: nor can we say that nothing requires to be supplied (Grot., al.), for even in τοῦτο δέ this would not be so—the sense must have a logical supplement: nor will it do to join ἕν to διώκω (Aug., al.), or to supply ἐστι (Beza)): forgetting the things behind (me, as a runner in the course; by which image, now fully before him, the expressions in this verse must be explained: καὶ γὰρ ὁ δρομεὺς οὐχ ὅσους ἤνυσεν ἀναλογίζεται διαύλους, ἀλλʼ ὅσους λείπεται … τί γὰρ ἡμᾶς ὠφελεῖ τὸ ἀνυσθέν, ὅταν τὸ λειπόμενον μὴ προστεθῇ; Chr. Thdrt. explains it περὶ τῶν τοῦ κηρύγματος πόνων: but this seems insufficient), but ever reaching out towards (as the runner whose body is bent forwards in his course; the ἐπί giving the continual addition of exertion in this direction (Mey.) or perhaps merely the direction itself. ὁ γὰρ ἐπεκτεινόμενος, τοῦτʼ ἐστιν, ὁ τοὺς πόδας καίτοι τρέχοντας τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι προλαβεῖν σπουδάζων, ἐπεκτείνων ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸ ἔμπροσθεν, κ. τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτείνων, ἵνα κ. τοῦ δρόμου πλέον τι ἐργάσηται. Chr.) the things before (i.e. the perfection not yet reached), I pursue (on διώκω absolute, see note, ver. 12) towards the goal (the contrary of ἀπὸ σκοποῦ, beside the mark, Plato, Tim. p. 25 al.) for (to reach, with a view to; or perhaps simply in the direction of: see reff. for both) the prize (see 1Co 9:24; 2Ti 4:8; Rev 2:10) of my heavenly (reff. and κλῆσις ἐπουράνιος Heb 3:1, Ἱερουσ. ἐπουράνιος Heb 12:22. Not, ‘from above,’ = ἄνωθεν: but the allusion is to his appointment having been made directly in heaven, not by delegation on earth) calling (not as we familiarly use the word,—‘calling in life,’ &c.—but to be kept to the act of his being called as an Apostle: q. d. ‘the prize consequent on the faithful carrying out of that oummons which I received from God in heaven’) of God (who was the caller: but we must not think of Him, as Grot., al.,—as the arbiter sitting above and summoning to the course,—for in these last words the figure is dropt, and ἡ ἄνω κλῆσις represents real matter of fact) in Christ Jesus (to what are these last words to be referred? Chrys., al., join them with διώκω:—ἐν χ. Ἰ. τοῦτο ποιῶ, φησιν. οὐ γὰρ ἔνι χωρὶς τῆς ἐκείνου ῥοπῆς τοσοῦτον διελθεῖν διάστημα· πολλῆς δεῖ τῆς βοηθείας, πολλῆς τῆς συμμαχίας. But I own the arrangement of the sentence thus seems to me very unnatural—and the constant practice of St. Paul to join θεός and things said of θεός with ἐν χριστῷ weighs strongly for the other connexion, viz. that with τ. κλήσεως τοῦ θεοῦ. The objection that then τῆς or τοῦ would be required before ἐν, is not valid; the unity of the idea of the κλῆσις ἐν κυρίῳ, 1Co 7:22, would dispense with it).

15,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. ἐγὼ ἐμαυτὸν οὔπω λογίζομαι κατειληφέναι: ‘I count not myself yet to have grasped.’

ουπω, WH. [], Tisch., R.T., with א ADP, 17, 31, 47, 80, Cop., Syr.P, Æth.; BDFGKL, Vulg., Goth., Arm., read ου.

Both ἐγὼ and ἐμαυτὸν are emphatic, expressing strongly his own estimate of himself. (Comp. Luk 7:7; Joh 8:54; 1Co 4:3.) It is quite superfluous to introduce an implied comparison with the judgment of others, either of those who think too highly of him, or of those who think too highly of themselves. Such an estimate, in itself, is in strong contrast with self-righteousness and religious conceit.

λογίζομαι: ‘I count’ or ‘reckon,’ very often in Paul, and almost confined to his epistles. Only four times elsewhere in N.T. The idea of a process of reasoning always underlies it.

ἕν δέ: Supply ποιῶ, not λογίζομαι, as Mey., for ἕν refers to what follows, which is a matter of doing, not of reckoning.

Others supply φροντίζω, μεριμνῶ, διώκω, οἶδα, λέγω. Such ellipses of the verb are common in Paul; e.g. 2:3, 5; Rom 4:9, Rom 4:5:18; Gal 3:5; 2Co 6:13. (See Win. lxvi. I b.)

τὰ μὲν ὀπίσω: ‘the things which are behind.’ The portion of his Christian course already traversed. Not his experience as a persecutor of the church. With τὰ ὀπίσω, comp. τοῦ νῦν (1:5); τὰ κατʼ ἐμὲ (1:12); τὰ περὶ ὑμῶν (1:27, 2:19, 20); τὰ περὶ ἐμέ (2:23). Ὀπίσω only here by Paul.

The metaphor of the race now first enters.

ἐπιλανθανόμενος: ‘forgetting.’ The word nowhere else in Paul; sparingly in Synop., Heb., and Jas.; often in LXX. No special emphasis attaches to the compound. In class. it occurs sometimes, but rarely, in the sense of ‘forgetting wilfully’ (Hdt. iii.147, iv. 43). But so also does the simple verb (Hom. Il. ix.537; Æsch. Ag. 39). Not to be understood as if Paul were ashamed of what lay behind him in his Christian career, or as if he did not emphasise it as exhibiting the grace of God. (See 1Co 4:11-16, 1Co 4:15:10; 2Co 11:23-6.) Rather that he does not use the memory of what God has wrought in him and through him to encourage self-satisfaction and relaxation of effort. He is stimulated by the past to renewed energy in Christian self-development and in the building-up of Christ’s church. (See 1Co 9:19-27.)

τοῖς δὲ ἔμπροσθεν: The higher attainments in the Christian life. Only here.

ἐπεκτεινόμενος: ‘stretching forward.’ A graphic word from the arena. The body of the racer is bent forward, his hand is outstretched towards the goal, and his eye is fastened upon it. “The eye outstrips and draws onward the hand, and the hand the foot” (Beng.). The metaphor is from the foot-race, not from the chariot-race. Lightf. observes that not looking back would be fatal to the charioteer. The word has passed into sporting language—‘the home-stretch.’ Ἐπεκ., nowhere else in Bib. Ἐκτείνειν, often in Synop. with χείρ. (Comp. ἐκτένεια, Act 26:7; ἐκτενής, 1Pe 4:8; ἐκτενῶς, Act 12:5; 1Pe 1:22.)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Myself. As others count themselves.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.