Citizens of God's Kingdom: The Pursuit of Life Conclusion

In a previous article, we looked at Philippians 3:12-21. In this passage, Paul deals with the antinomians, those who took salvation-by-grace as an excuse to live sinful and self-indulgent lives. Paul makes it clear in this passage that, even when we become a Christian, we have to keep pressing forward following God. Even when we are “perfect,” we have more perfection to seek for. We'll pick up where we left off, this time going back over the passage in more detail.

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 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, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Philippians 3:12-21)

In verses 12-13, Paul makes it clear he had not “attained” or “apprehended.” These are nearly the same word in Greek and both have the idea “to obtain.” In other words, he didn't have everything yet. In verse 12 he adds that he was not already “perfect” which, as we saw before, means he was not complete, he had not yet reached the goal. But what was it that he hadn't obtained? What goal had he not yet reached? To know that you have to back to verses 9-11. Verse 10 especially: “That I may know [Christ], and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” This full knowledge of Christ, of His power, His suffering, and His death--Paul had made progress in this knowledge but he hadn't completed it. He still had more to learn, more to experience. A. T. Robertson sums the idea up by saying: “Paul pointedly denies that he has reached a spiritual impasse of non-development.” (NT Word Pictures, Phil 3:12) In verse 12 we also have this somewhat odd phrase Paul's desire to “apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” Or as the NET Bible translates it: “I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.” William Barclay explains it this way: “Paul felt that when Christ stopped him on the Damascus Road, he had a vision and purpose for Paul; and Paul felt that all his life he was bound to press on, lest he fail Jesus and frustrate his dream. Every man is grasped by Christ for some purpose; and, therefore, every man should all his life press on so that he may grasp that purpose for which Christ grasped him.” (The Letter to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians: Revised Edition, 66) His mission in life was not yet completed and really never would be until his death. He still had work to do. That is one side of it.

The other in verse 11--the resurrection of the dead, specifically, the resurrection unto eternal life. (There is also an eschatological idea in verse 9, the desire to be found righteous through the faithfulness of Christ, at the time of judgment.) Notice in verse 11 that Paul says “if by any means I might.” You might think a man like Paul who was so thoroughly dedicated to the fellowship of the Gospel, who had done so much for Christ, who had gone so far on the Christian journey was beyond the temptation of turning away from Christ; of falling away. But Paul was very much aware of the fact that he had not yet finished his race and that there was always a danger of losing out spiritually. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul speaks of how he was careful to live a disciplined life “lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” In Ephesians 6, Paul asked the Ephesians to pray for him that he would have the courage to preach the gospel boldly even while in prison, meaning that he felt at least some temptation to keep silent out of fear. Paul was a mature Christian, a full citizen of God's kingdom, but he also realized that he was still susceptible to temptation; that he was still in danger of falling.

So for Paul to say he had not already attained and was not already perfect means two things. On one hand, he hadn't yet reached his goal, he had not yet been resurrected and glorified, meaning that he still had to watch and pray over his soul and be on guard against temptation. On the other hand, even in this life, he still had progress to make and things to learn. Paul had come very far in his Christian life, but he knew he hadn't reached the end yet and there was still more to come.

And so “I follow after” (v. 12) and “I press toward the mark” (v. 14) These two phrases have the same verb in Greek, a word which means to pursue or to chase. Thayer gives one of its meanings as “to run after, follow after someone.” (#1377) Paul's life was a chase--a lifelong pursuit of God and God's will, a race to obtain “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (v. 14) Paul said that he pressed towards the “mark”. Thayer explains that this word means “The distant mark looked at, the goal or end one has in view.” (#4649) This all works together to build a picture--a picture of a man fully focused on reaching some goal and putting all his effort into obtaining it. Most people think Paul is picturing a runner in a race, running forward his eyes on the finish line. And this picture is even more vivid in verse 13.

Probably the most famous part of this passage is the phrase in verse 13: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” (For those of us with a bad memory, it is a great comfort to know that forgetting things is sometimes a good thing.) As I said, most people think that Paul is thinking of a runner. And when someone is in a race, the one thing they don't do is stop and look behind them. They put all their effort into going forward.

Paul says he was forgetting those things which are behind. Exactly what was it that Paul was forgetting? There are four things that it could have been and possibly all of them are included: (1) His past credentials and honors which he had possessed under Judaism, as outlines in the first half of the chapter. These were things he had counted as lost and given up. (2) His past sins. Paul had been a persecutor of the church. He had been responsible for Christians being imprisoned, being beaten, and perhaps even being killed. He had tried to stamp out Christianity as a religion and had tried to force Christians to deny Christ. (Acts 9:1, 22:19, 26:11) With a past like that, it easy to see how dwelling on it could have caused him to give into to despair and guilt rather than pushing forward. (3) His past sufferings. Paul's life after his conversion was filled with a good deal of suffering and privation, as we've talked about before. Looking at that could have made him give into to self-pity or fear and prevented him from going forward. (4) His past successes as a Christian. Paul had been a Christian now for about 25 years. He had preached many places and seen many converts. His ministry had been, in some sense, successful, though not always of the kind of success we think of. He was an earnest, diligent Christian who had found great victories in his own life. He had been given visions and revelations, having been once caught up into Heaven. Through him, God had worked great miracles. That was all part of his past. He could have looked at these things and rested in them, become content, and so stopped pressing forward.

We should notice that he wasn't literally forgetting any of these things. We know about them only because he recorded them in his epistles (or told them to Luke who recorded them in Acts). But the point is that he wasn't looking at them; he wasn't focusing on them. His focus was forward. Albert Barnes summarizes it this way: “[Paul] would not allow any reference to the past to interfere with the one great effort to win the prize.” Barnes goes on to point that there is good reason to look back on our past sometimes, but adds, “But none of these things should be allowed, for one moment, to divert the mind from the purpose to win the incorruptible crown.” (Commentary, Philippians 3:13)

This was the mindset of the Apostle Paul. Unlike the antinomians, who were content in whatever measure of grace they had and had no intention of moving forward, Paul was forgetting everything in the past and stretching forward with all his might to the future, knowing that he had not yet obtained everything God had for him, and determined not to slacken or stop until he had received the prize. That was his mindset and it is the proper mindset of all Christians. Paul says in verse 15: “if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” In other words, this is a truth that God will show you if you really want to know. This isn't some deep, esoteric truth reserved for the mystics but something that should be obvious to anyone who truly knows the gospel. Anyone who is perfect, which in this context seems to mean mature and established (that is, not a new convert), should realize this. Paul will speak later in Philippians of being content, being content with God's will even when it means privations. But there is another sense of contentment, a contentment with our spiritual progress and unwilling to press forward. And a Christian experience which is, in that sense, content, is a very dangerous and doubtful kind of experience.

Verbs are very important for this passage. Note that “walk” occurs several times in this passage (3:16, 17, and 18). Verse 12 has “I follow” and “I press” which, as we noted before, both mean to pursue or chase. The key idea here is going forward. However, there are those who walk in the wrong way (v. 18-19), as we've already talked about. That's why it's important to note the two verbs found in verse 17. “Be followers” and “mark.” “Be followers” can also be translated “be imitators.” The idea of this is that you should look for good examples, for people you can follow. Man is an imitator. No matter how much we may talk about originality and self-reliance, the truth is that most people do look to other people for example. Paul knew that was a fact and so is just exhorting them to chose good examples, people who were dedicated to the fellowship of the gospel as Paul was. They were to “mark” such people--that is, look at and regard them as examples. And be very careful to avoid bad examples such as the antinomians described in verses 18-19. The point is that in our Christian walk, must we not only press on, refusing to be content with where we are, but we must take some care about our experience, by choosing the proper role models.

I mentioned the antinomians before and I don't want to go back over everything we saw before, but I do want to remind you of one fact about them. Paul describes them in verse 19 as those “whose God is their belly... who mind earthly things.” They used God's grace as an excuse to indulge in their own selfish desires. They were only concerned with the things of this world and used their Christianity as a defense for this attitude. And the entire thrust of this passage is that we, as Christians, must have the opposite attitude--an unwillingness to stop or give up until we reach the goal, setting our sights not on this world but on God. The whole passage reaches its sum in verses 20-21. In these verses, Paul says 3 things:

(1) “Our conversation is in heaven.” That word “conversation” is very misleading.  We talked about this back in chapter 1, where nearly the same word is found and is also translated conversation. The word literally means “community” or “citizenship” (Strong #4175) and nearly all translations give it the idea of citizenship here. The Twentieth Century New Testament translates the phrase: “But the State of which we are citizens is in Heaven.”

At the very beginning of this series, I mentioned the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen. And Philippi was a Roman colony, meaning that those who lived there were Roman citizens. Philippi was some distance away from Rome. And yet they were citizens of Rome. This is was William Barclay says about the Roman colonies. “The great characteristic of these colonies was that, wherever they were, they remained fragments of Rome. Roman dress was worn; Roman magistrates governed; the Latin tongue was spoken; Roman justice was administered; Roman morals were observed. Even in the ends of the earth they remained unshakeably Roman.” (The Letter to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians: Revised Edition, 69) The point is that as Christians, our ultimate loyalty, the source and pattern of our life, is not this world. It is not found here; it is found in God, for we are sitting with Christ in heavenly places. I remember reading some book about life in pioneer times, of people living remote settlement in the midwest during the westward expansion. Despite their isolated location, they would still receive mail from more civilized locations, including fashion magazines from the east and the women would try to model their clothes off those in the magazines. They were basing the pattern for their behavior off models far away. And that is what, as Christians, we should do. Even though we live in this world, our citizenship is in Heaven and that is where we should look for a pattern about how to live.

(2) “From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Some of the Greek philosophers had taught the idea that we should look to heaven, to a realm of ideal truth, and base our life off that. But to them the heavens were distant and God was silent and impersonal. However, to Paul heaven was not distant because he had had an encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. And that same Christ was now in heaven and would someday return.

(3) And it wasn't just that Jesus would return, but when he did, it would be to produce a change. “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” It is interesting that Paul both begins and ends this passage by speaking of the resurrection. This was a very important part of Paul's hope. At present, our bodies are “vile” or, as the NET Bible translates it, “humble.” They are prey to all sorts of diseases and injuries and are continually wearing out and will, for all of us, eventually decay completely. Paul was a middle-aged man at this point who had experienced more than his normal share of physical injuries and who was living under the shadow of possible death, so it makes sense that this idea would be very much on his mind. But at Christ's return, our humble body will be changed, transformed, fashioned anew like “his glorious body.”

Jesus was crucified. The process of crucifixion was physically debilitating. There were cases of crucified men being rescued from the cross while they were still alive--and even so they still died, because of the injury that had been done to their body. The body that was buried in Joseph's tomb was not only dead but badly injured. But when Jesus reappeared three days later, it was in perfect health, though it still retained some of the scars of the crucifixion. His body had been transformed into something different, though still with continuity with his old body. We don't know much more about the resurrection body than that, and we don't know how that will work for us; but the basic principle is clear. Our body now, with all his humility and limitations, will be transformed into something new and glorious, just as Jesus' body was.

Paul speaks in verse 11 about his desire to attain the resurrection from the dead. He ends the passage in verse 21 with the same hope, the hope of the resurrection. But many people might challenge the possibility of such a thing. The dead returning to life seems impossible. When Jesus promised to raise Jairus's daughter, the mourners laughed because they knew perfectly well that dead people don't come back to life. And that is especially true when people have been dead for thousands of years. In many cases, there might be nothing left of their body. How is it possible for them to be raised again? We don't know fully how it is going to happen, but we do see what makes it possible, at the end of verse 21. “According to the working [effeciency, energy, power] whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Jesus is able to raise the dead because Jesus is omnipotent. Not only is Christ the victor over death but over everything else too. Raising the dead is a small thing compared to everything else that Jesus can do and will do when He brings in His kingdom at the last day. Theologians and philosophers have spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how the Resurrection will happen, but God hasn't been worried about figuring it out. It's something God can do without even breaking a sweat. Jesus can conquer the physical limitations of death because Jesus is conquerer over all things.

And that is significant because it helps us understand an odd contrast that exists in this passage. On one hand, we have these verbs: “walk” “pursue” “be imitators” “mark.” These are all words connected to our life on earth, to the way we live here and now. And then on the other hand we have the three facts of verses 20-21: (1) Our citizenship is in heaven, (2) from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (3) who shall change our humble body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.

Too many people think that because, as Christians, our identity and our hope lie in another world, we don't have to worry that much about how we live in this world. But Paul makes it clear the truth is exactly opposite. We have to be careful how we walk, we have to pursue Gods will, we have to mark good examples and be imitators of them--BECAUSE our citizenship is in heaven. The antinomians were only interested in earthly things. But Christians look beyond this world and so live differently in this world. People all around us are trying to escape this world, though drugs, through entertainment, through suicide. But we are not trying to escape this world because this world has no hold on us--for our citizenship is in heaven and we serve him who is able to subdue all things to himself and fashion our humble body like unto his glorious body. Because we have this identity and this hope we can live in this world, but live differently. We can live in this world and serve God in this world because our citizenship is in heaven from whence we also look for the Savior who is the creator and the conqueror of this world. Our hope, rather than leading us away from this world, should change the way we live in this world.