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if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:11-14 sits inside this longer paragraph.
However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let’s walk by the same rule. Let’s be of the same mind.
if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
yf by eny meanes I myght attayne vnto the resurreccion from deeth.
Not as though I had all redy attayned to it Ether were all redy parfect: but I folowe yf that I maye comprehende that wherin I am comprehended of Christ Iesu.
Brethren I counte not my silfe that I have gotten it: but one thynge I saye: I forget that which is behynde and stretche my silfe vnto that which is before
and preace vnto the marke apoynted to obtayne the rewarde of the hye callynge of god in Christ Iesu.
If by any meanes I might attaine vnto the resurrection of the dead:
Not as though I had alreadie attained to it, either were alreadie perfect: but I follow, if that I may comprehend that for whose sake also I am comprehended of Christ Iesus.
Brethren, I count not my selfe, that I haue attained to it, but one thing I doe: I forget that which is behinde, and endeuour my selfe vnto that which is before,
And follow hard toward the marke, for the prise of the hie calling of God in Christ Iesus.
80 distinct cross-references across this passage (82 total citations).
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv12–13 12 Not as though I had already apprehended Paul…
12 Not as though I had already apprehended Paul insists upon this, that he may convince the Philippians that he thinks of nothing but Christ — knows nothing else — desires nothing else — is occupied with no other subject of meditation. In connection with this, there is much weight in what he now adds — that he himself, while he had given up all hinderances, had nevertheless not attained that object of aim, and that, on this account, he always aimed and eagerly aspired at something further. How much more was this incumbent on the Philippians, who were still far behind him?
It is asked, however, what it is that Paul says he has not yet attained? For unquestionably, so soon as we are by faith ingrafted into the body of Christ, we have already entered the kingdom of God, and, as it is stated in Ephesians 2:6, we already, in hope, sit in heavenly places. I answer, that our salvation, in the mean time, is in hope, so that the inheritance indeed is secure; but we nevertheless have it not as yet in possession. At the same time, Paul here looks at something else — the advancement of faith, and of that mortification of which he had made mention. He had said that he aimed and eagerly aspired at the resurrection of the dead through fellowship in the Cross of Christ. He adds, that he has not as yet arrived at this. At what? At the attainment of having entire fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, having a full taste of the power of his resurrection, and knowing him perfectly. He teaches, therefore, by his own example, that we ought to make progress, and that the knowledge of Christ is an attainment of such difficulty, that even those who apply themselves exclusively to it, do nevertheless not attain perfection in it so long as they live. This, however, does not detract in any degree from the authority of Paul’s doctrine, inasmuch as he had acquired as much as was sufficient for discharging the office committed to him. In the mean time, it was necessary for him to make progress, that this divinely-furnished instructor of all might be trained to humility.
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As also I have been apprehended This clause he has inserted by way of correction, that he might ascribe all his endeavors to the grace of God. It is not of much importance whether you read as, or in so far as; for the meaning in either case remains the same — that Paul was apprehended by Christ, that he might apprehend Christ; that is, that he did nothing except under Christ’s influence and guidance. I have chosen, however, the more distinct rendering, as it seemed to be optional.
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11–12 To life everlasting, which followeth the resurrection of the…
To life everlasting, which followeth the resurrection of the Saints.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11 If by any means I might attain unto…
11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Ver. 11. I might attain to the resurrection] That is (by a metonomy of the subject for the adjunct), that perfection of holiness that accompanieth the estate of the resurrection. True grace never aims at a pitch, but aspireth to perfection. It is a low and unworthy strain in some to labour after no more grace than will keep life and soul together, that is, soul and hell asunder (as one speaketh). But that man for heaven, and heaven for him, that sets up for his mark the resurrection of the dead, that would be as perfect now as the glorified saints shall be at the day of judgment.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–14 Being found in whom, after justification and sanctification, he…
Being found in whom, after justification and sanctification, he doubts not to be glorified, (by a figure of a part, resurrection of the body, for the whole), though he expresseth himself as one that must pass through difficulties ere he attain not only to a spiritual resurrection from sin, but a glorious one of the body from the grave, even such a one as will be an elevation or ascension of the body united to the soul, not only exempted from the grave, but exalted into the air, to be for ever with the Lord, 1Th 4:14,17; from whom he was assured no death should separate him, Rom 8:38,39; 2Ti 4:8; who lived by faith in expectation of the time and the manner of it, 1Co 15:14,19,30,32; 1Pe 1:6,7, that he should be then completely holy in his measure as Christ himself is.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv11–12 By the resurrection of the dead, here, is not…
By the resurrection of the dead, here, is not to be understood the general resurrection, for all men shall attain to that, whether they strive for it or no; but he intends that complete holiness, and absolute perfection in grace, which shall attend the state of the resurrection; so he explains it himself in the next verse, Not that I have already attained, &c. or am already perfect; and he shows how diligent he was in endeavouring, in the use of all possible means, to arrive at it, and attain unto it.
Learn, That the glorious resurrection of the just, or grace consummated in glory, is attainable, and deserves and requires the utmost care and diligence of the most holy and zealous Christians to be exerted and put forth, in order to the attaining of it: If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–14 If by any means I, might attain unto the…
If by any means I, might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not in a figurative sense, the resurrection from the death of sin to a life of grace, of which Christ is the efficient cause, for this the apostle had attained to; unless the consummation of that spiritual life, in perfect holiness, should be intended, than which nothing was more desirable by him; nor in a representative sense, for this also he enjoyed in Christ his head, being risen with him, and in him, when he rose from the dead; but in a literal sense and designs not the general resurrection of the just and unjust, which he believed; for he knew that everyone must, and will attain to this, even Pharaoh, Judas, and the worst of men; but the special and particular resurrection of the righteous, the better resurrection, which will be first, and upon the personal coming of Christ, and by virtue of union to him, and in a glorious manner, and to everlasting life and happiness: and when the apostle says, "if by any means" he might attain to this, it is not to be understood as if he doubted of it, which would be inconsistent with his firm persuasion, that nothing should separate him from the love of God, and with his full assurance of faith, as to interest in Jesus Christ; but it denotes the difficulty of attaining it, since through various afflictions and great tribulations a believer must pass, before he comes to it; and also the apostle's earnest desire of it, and strenuous endeavour for it; not caring what scenes of trouble, or sea of sorrow what fiery trials, severe sufferings, or cruel death he went through, so be it he obtained as he believed he should, the glorious and better resurrection; he counted not his life dear to himself, he loved it not unto death, having in view the blissful and happy state after it.
If by any means I, might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not in a figurative sense, the resurrection from the death of sin to a life of grace, of which Christ is the efficient cause, for this the apostle had attained to; unless the consummation of that spiritual life, in perfect holiness, should be intended, than which nothing was more desirable by him; nor in a representative sense, for this also he enjoyed in Christ his head, being risen with him, and in him, when he rose from the dead; but in a literal sense and designs not the general resurrection of the just and unjust, which he believed; for he knew that everyone must, and will attain to this, even Pharaoh, Judas, and the worst of men; but the special and particular resurrection of the righteous, the better resurrection, which will be first, and upon the personal coming of Christ, and by virtue of union to him, and in a glorious manner, and to everlasting life and happiness: and when the apostle says, "if by any means" he might attain to this, it is not to be understood as if he doubted of it, which would be inconsistent with his firm persuasion, that nothing should separate him from the love of God, and with his full assurance of faith, as to interest in Jesus Christ; but it denotes the difficulty of attaining it, since through various afflictions and great tribulations a believer must pass, before he comes to it; and also the apostle's earnest desire of it, and strenuous endeavour for it; not caring what scenes of trouble, or sea of sorrow what fiery trials, severe sufferings, or cruel death he went through, so be it he obtained as he believed he should, the glorious and better resurrection; he counted not his life dear to himself, he loved it not unto death, having in view the blissful and happy state after it.
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Philippians 3:12
phi 3:12
phi 3:12
phi 3:12Not as though I had already attained,.... Or "received"; he had received much grace out of the fulness of it in Christ; he had received the gift of righteousness, the forgiveness of his sins, and the adoption of children; he had attained to a lively hope of the incorruptible inheritance, and had received a right unto it, and had a meetness for it; but as yet he had not received the thing itself, nor was he come to the end of his race, and so had not received the crown of righteousness laid up for him; he had not yet attained to perfect knowledge, nor perfect holiness, nor perfect happiness: wherefore he adds,
either were already perfect; he was perfect in comparison of others, that were in a lower class of grace, experience, and knowledge, in which sense the word is used in Phi 3:15, and in Co1 2:6; he was so, as perfection intends sincerity, uprightness, and integrity; the root of the matter, the truth of grace was in him; his faith was unfeigned, his love was without dissimulation, his hope was without hypocrisy, his conversation in the world was in godly simplicity, and his preaching and his whole conduct in his ministry were of sincerity, and in the sight of God: he was perfect as a new creature with respect to parts, having Christ formed in him, and all the parts of the new man, though not as to degrees; this new man not being as yet grown up to a perfect man, or to its full growth, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; he was perfect with respect to justification, being perfectly justified from all things, by the righteousness of Christ, but not with respect to sanctification; and though his sanctification was perfect in Christ, yet not in himself; his knowledge was imperfect, something was wanting in his faith, and sin dwelt in him, of which he sometimes grievously complained: now this he says, lest he should be thought to arrogate that to himself, which he had not:
but I follow after; Christ the forerunner, after perfect knowledge of him, perfect holiness from him, and perfect happiness with him: the metaphor is taken from runners in a race, who pursue it with eagerness, press forward with all might and main, to get up to the mark, in order to receive the prize; accordingly the Syriac version renders it, , "I run", and so the Arabic: the apostle's sense is, that though he had not yet reached the mark, he pressed forward towards it, he had it in view, he stretched and exerted himself, and followed up very closely to it, in hope of enjoying the prize:
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus; he was apprehended of Christ, when he met him in his way to Damascus, stopped him in his journey, laid him prostrate on the ground, and laid hold on him as his own, challenged and claimed his interest in him, Act 9:3, as one that the Father had given him, and he had purchased by his blood; he entered into him, and took possession of him, and took up his residence in him, having dispossessed the strong man armed, and ever since held him as his own; and he apprehended, or laid hold on him, to bring him as he had engaged to do, to a participation of grace here, and glory hereafter; that he might know him himself, and make him known to others; that he might be made like unto him, have communion with him, and everlastingly enjoy him: and these things the apostle pursued after with great vehemence, that he might apprehend them, and be in full possession of them; and which he did, in the way and manner hereafter described.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv11–14 The resurrection of the dead - That is, the…
The resurrection of the dead - That is, the resurrection to glory.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11–14 Verse 11. The resurrection of the dead.] That is,…
Verse 11. The resurrection of the dead.] That is, the resurrection of those who, having died in the Lord, rise to glory and honour; and hence St. Paul uses a peculiar word which occurs no where else in the New Testament, εξαναστασις. The words, as they stand in the best MSS., are as follow: εις την εξαναστασιν την εκ νεκρων, to that resurrection which is of the dead. This glorious resurrection, and perhaps peculiarly glorious in the case of martyrs, is that to which St. Paul aspired. The word αναστασις signifies the resurrection in general, both of the just and unjust; εξαναστασις may signify that of the blessed only.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Php 3:12. Not as though I had already attained…
Php 3:12. Not as though I had already attained — Ουχ οτι ηδη ελαβον, literally, not that I have already received, namely, the blessings which I am in pursuit of, even that complete knowledge of Christ, of the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and conformity to his death just mentioned; either were already perfect — Τετελειωμαι, perfected, completed: or had finished my course of duty and sufferings. It appears from Php 3:15, that there is a difference between one that is τελειος, perfect, and one that is perfected; the one is fitted for the race, the other has finished the race, and is ready to receive the prize. But I follow after — Διωκω, I pursue, what is still before me. The apostle changes his allusion from a voyage to a race, which he continues through the two next verses. That I may apprehend that perfect holiness, that entire conformity to the will of God, for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus — Appearing to me in the way to Damascus, (Act 26:14,) whose condescending hand graciously laid hold on me when I was proceeding in my mad career of persecuting him and his followers, and in the extraordinary manner of which you have often heard, brought me to engage in running that very different race which I am now pursuing.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11–14 If by any means - Implying, that he meant…
If by any means - Implying, that he meant to make use of the most strenuous exertions to obtain the object.
I might attain unto - I may come to, or may secure this object.
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The resurrection of the dead - Paul believed that all the dead would be raised Act 24:15; Act 26:6-8; and in this respect he would certainly attain to the resurrection of the dead, in common with all mankind. But the phrase, “the resurrection of the dead,” also might be used, in a more limited sense, to denote the resurrection of the righteous as a most desirable object; and this might be secured by effort. It was this which Paul sought - this for which he strove - this that was so bright an object in his eye that it was to be secured at any sacrifice. To rise with the saints; to enter with them into the blessedness of the heavenly inheritance, was an object that the apostle thought was worth every effort which could he made. The doctrine of the resurrection was, in his view, that which distinguished the true religion, and which made it of such inestimable value Act 26:6-7; Act 23:6; 1 Cor. 15; and he sought to participate in the full honor and glory of such a resurrection.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv11–14 If by any means I may attain to the…
If by any means I may attain to the resurrection, which is from the dead; i.e. may attain to a happy resurrection, when the dead shall rise again. (Witham) --- This manner of expression does not betray any distrust or fear, but merely insinuates the difficulty of the enterprise, the uncertainty of success, and the ardent desire of the apostle, who sought by every means to arrive at this happiness, either by sufferings and labours, or even by martyrdom. (St. John Chrysostom; Estius)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–14 If by any means--not implying uncertainty of the issue,…
If by any means--not implying uncertainty of the issue, but the earnestness of the struggle of faith (Co1 9:26-27), and the urgent need of jealous self-watchfulness (Co1 10:12).
attain unto the resurrection of the dead--The oldest manuscripts read, "the resurrection from (out of) the dead," namely, the first resurrection; that of believers at Christ's coming (Co1 15:23; Th1 4:15; Rev 20:5-6). The Greek word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. "The power of Christ's resurrection" (Rom 1:4), ensures the believer's attainment of the "resurrection from the (rest of the) dead" (compare Phi 3:20-21). Compare "accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead" (Luk 20:35). "The resurrection of the just" (Luk 14:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11. Attain unto the resurrection—No doubt is implied of…
11. Attain unto the resurrection—No doubt is implied of the resurrection of all men, “both of the just and unjust,” for on this point the apostle had put himself on record. Act_24:15. But as Paul here uses for resurrection not simply the ordinary Greek word anastasis, uprising, but exanastasis, out-uprising, millenarians have found a reference to a supposed first resurrection in order of time. Note, 1Co_15:24.
This they find confirmed in the Greek preposition before the dead, a true rendering of the phrase being the out-uprising from (without the article) deads. But of the phrase from deads we have shown that the meaning may be a resurrection from their own dead selves, (Luk_20:35; 1Co_15:12,) that is, a resurrection from being dead. The prefix ex in exanastasis is, we suppose, as is often the case, simply intensive or emphatic, and brings out the meaning of extra-resurrection; that is, the glorious resurrection, or glorious side of the resurrection simultaneous with the inglorious resurrection of the wicked, as in Joh_5:26-29. It was to this glorious extra-resurrection that St. Paul aspired.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11. if by any means] For the strong language…
11. if by any means] For the strong language of contingency here cp. 1Co_9:27. Taken along with such expressions of exulting assurance as Rom_8:31-39; 2Ti_1:12; and indeed with the whole tone of “joy and peace in believing” (Rom_15:13) which pervades the Scriptures, we may fairly say that it does not imply the uncertainty of the final glory of the true saint. It is language which views vividly, in isolation, one aspect of the “Pilgrim’s Progress” towards heaven; the aspect of our need of continual watching, self-surrender, and prayer, in order to the development of that likeness without which heaven would not be heaven. The other side of the matter is the efficacy and perseverance of the grace which comes out in our watching; without which we should not watch; which “predestinates” us “to be conformed to the image of the Son of God” (Rom_8:29). The mystery lies, as it were, between two apparently parallel lines; the reality of an omnipotent grace, and the reality of the believer’s duty. As this line or that is regarded, in its entire reality, the language of assurance or of contingency is appropriate. But the parallel lines, as they seem now, prove at last to converge in glory (Joh_6:39-40; Joh_6:44; Joh_6:54; Joh_10:27-29; Rom_8:30; 1Th_5:23-24).
See Hooker’s Sermon Of the Certainty and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect, especially the closing paragraphs.
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I might] Lit., and here better, with R.V., I may.
the resurrection of the dead] The better supported reading gives, as R.V., the resurrection from the dead. The phrase implies a certain leaving behind of “the dead”; and this is further emphasized in the Greek, where the noun rendered “resurrection” is the rare word exanastasis, i.e. the common word (anastasis) for resurrection, strengthened by the preposition meaning “from.” This must not, however, be pressed far; later Greek has a tendency towards compounding words without necessarily strengthening the meaning. It is the setting of the word here which makes an emphasis in it likely.—It has been inferred that St Paul here refers to a special and select resurrection, so to speak, and that this is “the first resurrection” of Rev_20:5-6, interpreted as a literal resurrection of either all saints or specially privileged saints, before that of the mass of mankind. (Such an interpretation of Revelation 20 appears as early as Tertullian, cent. 2, de Monogamiâ, c. x.). But against this explanation here lies the fact that St Paul nowhere else makes any unmistakable reference to such a prospect (1Co_15:23-24 is not decisive, and certainly not 1Th_4:16); and that this makes it unlikely that he should refer to it here, where he manifestly is dealing with a grand and ruling article of his hope. We explain it accordingly of the glorious prospect of the Resurrection of the saints in general. And we account for the special phrase by taking him to be filled with the thought of the Lord’s Resurrection as the pledge and, so to speak, the summary of that of His people; and His Resurrection was emphatically “from the dead.”—Or it may be that we have here to explain “the dead” as a term of abstract reference, meaning practically “the state of the dead,” the world of death.—In any case, the phrase refers to “the resurrection of life” (Dan_12:2; Joh_5:29); “the resurrection of the just” (Luk_14:14); differenced from that of “the unjust” (Act_24:15), whether or no in time, certainly in an awful distinction of conditions and results. The blessed resurrection is here called “the resurrection” as the blessed life is called “the life” (e.g. 1Jn_5:12). The antithesis is not non-resurrection, and non-existence, but such resurrection, and such existence, as are ruin and woe.—It is observable that the Apostle here implies his expectation of death, to be followed by resurrection; not of survival till the Lord’s Return. Cp. 2Co_4:14.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv12–14 (12) Not as though . . .—The tenses are…
(12) Not as though . . .—The tenses are here varied. Not as though I ever yet attained, or have been already made perfect. To “attain,” or receive (probably the prize, see Php_3:14), is a single act; “to be perfected” a continuous process. Clearly St. Paul has no belief, either in any indefectible grasp of salvation, or in any attainment of full spiritual perfection on this side of the grave. We may note our Lord’s use of the word “to be perfected” to signify His death (Luk_13:32), and a similar application of the word to Him in Heb_2:10; Heb_5:9; also the use of the words “made perfect” to signify the condition of the glorified (Heb_11:40; Heb_12:23).
If that I may apprehend that for which also I am (rather, was) apprehended of Christ Jesus.—The metaphor throughout is of the race, in which he, like an eager runner, stretches out continually to “grasp” the prize. But (following out the same line of thought as in Php_3:7-8) he is unwilling to lay too much stress on his own exertions, and so breaks in on the metaphor, by the remembrance that he himself was once grasped, at his conversion, by the saving hand of Christ, and so only put in a condition to grasp the prize. The exact translation of the words which we render “that for which,” &c., is doubtful. Our version supplies an object after the verb “apprehend,” whereas the cognate verb “attained” is used absolutely; and the expression as it here stands is rather cumbrous. Perhaps it would be simpler to render “inasmuch as” or “seeing that” (as in Rom_5:12; 2Co_5:4). The hope to apprehend rests on the knowledge that he had been apprehended by One “out of whose hand no man could pluck” him.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11–14 If by any means I might attain unto the…
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. The apostle uses the language of humble expectation. For the particles, "if by any means" (ei pwv), comp. Act_27:12 Rom_1:10 Rom_11:14. The verb "attain" means to arrive at the end of a journey; it presents the figure of a pilgrimage. Read, with R.V and the best manuscripts, the resurrection from the dead. This phrase (used also in Luk_20:35 and Act_4:2) means the resurrection of the blessed dead. (comp. 1Co_15:23 1Th_4:16) This meaning is strengthened here by the repetition of the preposition with the word "resurrection" (exanastasiv). The general resurrection is always called the resurrection of the dead.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv11–13 If by any means I might attain unto the…
Php_3:11
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead
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St.
Paul in the context reckoneth up his gain by Christ
Viz., his justification and sanctification; but his gain reacheth further, even to glorious resurrection.
I. The benefit to be obtained by Christ. How is this a privilege since there is a resurrection of the wicked? (Act_24:15). But theirs is one to condemnation (Joh_5:29), and so a fall rather than a rising. Therefore the faithful are only called the Children of the Resurrection (Luk_20:36). The word here is not ἀνάστασις, but εξανάστασις, to express the full and blessed resurrection that no evil shall follow (Luk_14:14).
II. The submission of a self-denying believer to use any means to obtain it. The words seem to express a doubtfulness, but indeed they do not (2Co_5:1), for there is no uncertainty in Gods promise. Why doth he then thus express himself?
1. To intimate the difficulty, thereby to quicken his desire and diligence.
2. To express the variety of the means by which God bringeth His people to glory (Php_3:10).
3. To set forth his full submission (Luk_14:26).
4. His unwearied diligence and earnest endeavour to obtain this happiness, whatever it cost him.
5. The value of this benefit, and his vehement desire to attain it. (T. Manton, D. D.)
The doctrine here taught is that the blessedness of the saints at the resurrection is so great that we should be content to use any means and run any hazards to attain it.
I. What is the happiness of the saints in that day.
1. Our personal inherent blessedness is glory revealed in us (Rom_8:18).
(1) The body hath its felicity.
(a) Because the man cannot be happy till the body be raised again. The soul alone doth not constitute human nature.
(b) It is agreeable to the wisdom and goodness of God that the body which had its share in the work should share the reward.
(c) The estate of those who die will not be worse than that of those who are only changed at Christs coming, or there would be a disparity.
(d) In the heavenly state there are objects which can only be discerned by the bodily senses--the human nature of Christ, e.g.
(e) As Christ was taken to heaven bodily, so shall we, for we bear the image of the heavenly one (Php_3:21; 1Co_15:42-44).
(2) For the happiness of the soul. We shall be satisfied with the vision of God and transformed Into his likeness (1Co_13:12; 1Jn_3:2; 2Co_3:18).
2. Adherent privileges.
(1) Justification: We have that now by faith; then we shall have our absolution from the Judges mouth.
(2) Adoption. We have that light now (Joh_1:12)--then the full fruition thereof (Rom_8:23).
(3) Redemption. That day is called the day of redemption (Eph_4:30), because then we are completely delivered from all misery, both of soul and body (Eph_1:14).
II. The means whereby God bringeth us thither.
1. The way of our holiness and the active part of our obedience.
(1) Dying to sin (Rom_8:13; Gal_6:8).
(2) Living to God. The spiritual life is heaven begun (2Pe_3:14; Luk_21:36; Act_24:15-16).
2. As to passive obedience observe--
(1) That no suffering must be excepted out of our resignation (Mat_16:25; Luk_14:26).
(2) This must be endured cheerfully.
III. The reason why, rather than fail, we must submit to any means which God hath appointed.
1. From the absolute dominion and prerogative of God, both to make laws and to put us on what trials He pleaseth to appoint.
2. From the goodness and suitableness of His laws.
(1) There is wisdom in them.
(2) We have no reason to be discouraged, for Divine help is assured (2Ti_4:17-18).
(3) The Divine comfort is to be had (1Pe_4:14; Rom_5:5).
3. The great difficulty lieth not in a respect of the end, but the means; and so the trial of our sincerity must be rather looked for there.
4. The hope propounded will bear this submission. Immortal happiness is most durable, and endless misery most terrible; the world is vanity, heaven real. (T. Manton, D. D.)
The resurrection
I. There is a happy estate hereafter which begins with the resurrection. More happy than that which Adam lost or from which the angels fell.
II. The beginning of this happy estate is at the resurrection.
1. All good shall be perfected.
2. All evil cease.
3. Body as well as soul, perfected being, shall enjoy the fulness of the one and immunity from the other.
III. The apostle makes the resurrection the last thing, thereby establishing an order (Luk_24:26; 2Ti_2:12). Calvary comes before Olivet in the experience of both Christ and His people.
IV. It is hard to come to heaven because of this Divine order.
1. Away then with all idle and secure thoughts of sparing ourselves. We must come to health by physic.
2. In all crosses let us not look into the state we are in so much as that we are going to. We are going to a palace and should not be dejected because of the narrowness of the way (Heb_12:21).
3. Labour for a right esteem of the things of this world. They are momentary and fading:
4. Labour to strengthen our graces.
(1) Faith to assure us that we are Gods children, and have heaven laid up for us.
(2) Hope which makes us cheer fully endure in expectation of what faith believes.
(3) Love to Christ which made Paul desire to be with Him which was best of all (Php_1:23). (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
The resurrection
(ἐξανὰστασις) of the saints
I. Is distinguished from that of the wicked--by its glory (Php_3:21). Dan_12:2 --By its precedence (1Th_4:16; 1Co_15:23). Rev_20:5 --By its results (Joh_5:29).
II. Is an object of Christian ambition--requiring faith--consecration--effort.
III. Will amply repay every sacrifice--of self-gratification--earthly advantage--life. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The resurrection of the just
No one could be more convinced than Paul of the blessedness in which the saint enters at death, and he was wonderfully qualified by visions and revelations to entertain this conviction. Yet he sets his heart upon that which could only be remote. What, then, must be that sequel which can fix and overwhelm such a mind, that while an instantaneous heaven lies before it, is transported beyond it to splendours which it agonizes to attain?
I. What is that entire satisfaction and climax for which the text teaches us to long and labour. Immortality as an idea was not unknown to the pagans, but the resurrection is the almost exclusive doctrine of Scripture.
1. That resurrection will be simultaneous, and the judgment of all will immediately succeed it.
2. Yet it is not unnatural that this common event should sometimes be specially regarded and personally applied. In the language of Paul to the Corinthians it is argued in the case of believers from their union with Christ. He mentions not the wicked who shall rise for different reasons. They could never wish to attain the resurrection. The first resurrection (1Th_4:15) is shared by the dead over those who have never died, and that of Rev_20:6, is of souls.
3. St. Paul desired but a share in the general resurrection, attended as that event would be to him and all the people of God with consequences of surpassing happiness and glory.
4. Yet searching the experience of present Christians we do not find this hope ardently cherished. Thousands are contented with the salvation and glorification of the soul; this is to be deplored as the slight of a matchless good. Apart from the resurrection man is incomplete.
II. What are the scriptural representations of its accompaniments and consequences.
1. The mutual recognition of saints in heaven. Is violence to be done to memory, and can love be changed? Can a spirit made perfect be wanting in sympathies which so much purified it from imperfection?
2. The happiness of our future condition is made chiefly to depend on our resemblance to Christ.
3. There the saints shall be fully acknowledged. They who here were unknown and hated shall there shine forth as the sun.
4. Christians shall be glorified with their Master.
5. We therefore find the righteous in Scripture earnestly seeking and exultantly hailing this resurrection. Why? Because--
(1) It is the triumph of Christ.
(2) The full redemption of the believer.
(3) The restitution of our entire nature.
(4) Purposes will then be indicated which our present mixed being has not hitherto revealed, for both mind and body; the latter will then be a perfect instrument for the soul.
(5) A congeniality will be established between the risen saints and the materialism of their glorious abode.
(6) In the reintegration of our manhood shall be displayed the most perfect spectacle of the beauty of holiness.
(7) There will be endless progression.
III. What are the determinations by which it is to be won. The manner or method supposes far higher means than those we can command. The power of the resurrection alone secures our confidence. The means, however, in this connection, refer not to the causative but the moral; to the influence of present character and conduct on this event. We often mark the influence of former conduct on our present condition; and so we exist and act for all the future of our immortality.
1. What prayer, then, should we devote to this attainment?
2. What anticipation should familiarize it?
3. What preparation should facilitate it? Mortify therefore your members.
4. What counterpart should we exhibit of it. (R. W. Hamilton, D. D.)
The attainment of the resurrection
I. Pauls aim. How can that future rising be attained at all by mans effort in time?
1. Paul has been speaking of a spiritual fellowship with Christs sufferings and death and rising, and then as a direct result he passes to this, from which we infer that the resurrection in the future is the result of mans spiritual life in the present. Men fancy that the future glory of the risen Christian is by a kind of miracle suddenly added beyond the grave. Paul regards it as a glory daily growing now, to be manifested then. It is an outgrowth of fellowship with Christ, and its blessedness will be greater or less according to the perfection of that fellowship.
2. In what manner was this Christian life a constant attainment of the resurrection? The power of Christs resurrection is the influence in the soul which renders its life a gradual growth towards the rising glory of man.
(1) The risen Christ is the pledge of a risen life. Christ did not rise merely to prove our immortality; if that were all its meaning it would only deepen mans fear. We do not want immortality unless we know that our life, throwing off its sins, shall rise upwards to God. Rising to God Christ showed that man is accepted by the Father, rising in the human, He showed how, through Him, human life should rise into life Divine.
(2) The rising of Christ is a power to elevate life. We have fellowship not with the past, but with the living Jesus: we are moulded by the power not only of a dying Saviour, but of the living friend. He carries our sympathies upwards with Himself to God and the spiritual world.
(3) Hence arises the gradual attainment of the resurrection, every experience of our risen life makes us feel the necessity of the future; yet every experience is an actual attaining of that future.
II. Pauls endeavour. The necessity of this agonizing endeavour arises from two facts.
1. The difficulty of accomplishing it. This is so--
(1) Because our souls are subject to the influences of three great worlds.
(a) By its fascinations this old earth appeals to our hearts, and seems by many arms to bind us to itself as our home.
(b) The dark world of unbelief and indifference awakening the carnal nature renders the Christian life an inevitable struggle.
(c) At the same time through the love of God and the Cross of Christ heaven is attracting the soul.
(2) Because of the incessant and dominant power of our easily besetting sin. This power arises largely in that every man thinks his own weakness small and insignificant.
(3) And then listen to Paul after his high attainments telling us that he has to keep his body under lest he should be a castaway.
2. The glory of its attainment. You know how this raised Paul to exertion. He moved onwards to eternity under the constant influence of its attraction. Alas! how feebly we feel this as a motive for endeavour. We lash ourselves into exertion by fear, when we might be so cheered into it by sweet hope as to become unconscious of toil. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
The attainment of the resurrection dependent on fellowship with Christ
Just as the perfect beauty of the flower lies dormant in the seed, and through its burial in the cold earth is invisibly developing itself, to bloom forth at the voice of spring, so the perfect beauty of the resurrection is hidden in the Christian now; and, by all his toil and struggle, that germ of glory is growing. Just as the mental power and strong determined will of the man are hidden in the child, and are maturing unconsciously through all the wonder of its infancy, so the resurrection manhood of the soul is lying in it during this childhood of Time; and by the education of fellowship with Christ, and struggle to be Christ-like, is advancing to its final splendour. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v12 Chapter 14
Chapter 14
CHRISTIAN LIFE A RACE.
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Php_3:12-17 (R.V.)
VARIOUS passages in this Epistle suggest that the Apostles Philippian friends or some of them were relaxing in diligence; they were failing perhaps to lay to heart the need of progress, less sensitive than they ought to be to the impulse of Christianity as a religion of effort and expectancy. Some of them, it might be, were inclined to think of themselves as now pretty well initiated into the new religion, and as pretty thorough adepts in its teaching and its practice; entitled therefore to sit down and look round with a certain satisfaction and complacency. If it were so, the tendency to division would be accounted for. Arrogance in Christians is a sure preliminary to heats and disputings. At all events, however it might be at Philippi, an insidious complacency in little improvements and small attainments is not unknown among Christians. It is, one may fear, a common impression among us that we are fair average Christians, - a feeling perhaps not so cherished as to make us boast, but yet so cherished as to make us feel content. And, alas! the very meaning of Christianity was to inspire us with a spirit that would refuse so to be contented.
Some feeling of this kind may have led the Apostle to lay stress on the onward energising character of Christianity as he knew it. This was the manner of his regard to his Lord. At the foundation of his religion there was, indeed, the faith of a wonderful gift of righteousness and life. That gift he welcomed and embraced. But it wrought in him eagerness of desire, and intentness of purpose, to secure and have all that this gift implied. It stirred him to activity and progress. His was not the Christianity of one who counts himself to have already obtained all into possession, nor of one who finds himself landed already in the state at which the Christian promises aim. Rather he is one set in full view of a great result: some experience of the benefits of it is already entering into his history; but it is yet to be brought to pass in its fulness; and that must be along a line of believing endeavour, Christ working and Paul working, Christ faithful with Paul faithful. "I follow after, if that I may lay hold and extend my grasp, seeing Christ has laid hold with His grasp on me." Christ had a purpose, and has mightily inaugurated a process through which this purpose may be achieved in the history of Paul. And as Christ lays His grasp on Paul, behold the purpose of Christ becomes also the purpose of Paul, and he now throws himself into the process with all his force, to apprehend that for the sake of which Christ apprehended him.
Here Paul signalised one distinguishing attribute of genuine Christianity as he knew it. He did not yet count himself to have laid complete grasp on the whole of Christian good. In a very important practical sense salvation was still something ahead of him, as to the final, secure, complete possession; Christ Himself was an object still before him, as to the knowledge and the fellowship for which he longed. But one thing is vital and distinctive. "This Saviour with His salvation holds me so, that I count all but loss for Him. He holds me so, that forgetting all that lies behind, I bend myself to the race, stretching out towards the goal at which the prize of the high calling of God in Christ is won. That is my Christianity." He who had suffered loss of all for Christ, he who so burned with desire to know Him in His righteousness, in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship of His sufferings, is far from thinking he has reached the goal. Because the knowledge of Christ is so great a thing in his eyes, therefore, on the one hand, all he has attained as yet seems partial and imperfect; but for the same reason, on the other hand, he feels the great attraction by which all his powers are drawn into the endeavour which so great a prize shall crown.
The question may here be put how the consistency of the gospel can be made out if we are called to rest and rejoice in Christ, and if, at the same time, we find ourselves committed to so absorbing a struggle for a prize. If God will have us, it may be said, to seek and strive that we may obtain, then we must do so because it is His will. But where is the connection of things that will avert inconsistency, and bring out a reasonable continuity of principles, between the call to rest on Christ for full salvation, and the call to run a race, and so run as to obtain? For answer it is to be remembered, in the first place, that (as commonly happens in matters where life and its activities are concerned) the difficulty concerns only the adjustment of our theory; it begins to vanish when we come to practice. When we are in vital contact with the spiritual realities themselves, we find both elements of the case to be true for us, and each indispensable to the truth of the other. The rest of faith and the fight of faith belong to each other. But not to dwell on so general a consideration, two lines of thought may be suggested to those who are conscious of embarrassment at this point.
First, let it be considered that the faith of a Christian embraces real relations with the living God, different from anything that is possible to unbelief. Through Christ we believe in God. Those relations are conceived to be real and vital from the first, though the perfect experience of all that they imply belongs to the future. Faith means that from the outset of believing we are to be to God, and God is to be to us, something different from what the flesh perceives. Christ believed in is an assurance that so it is and shall be. But now, the state of men is such, as long as they have to carry on a life of faith in a world of sense and sin, that this faith of theirs presently meets with flat contradiction. The course of the world treats it all as null. Sin in their own hearts, and many experiences of life, seem to negative the pretensions and the claims of faith. And strong temptations whisper that this high fellowship with a living God not only does not exist, but that it is not desirable that it should. So that from the outset and all along, faith, it it is not content to be a mere dream, if it will count for a reality, must contend for its life. It must fight, "praying always with all prayer," to make good its ground, and to hold on to its Lord. It is indeed the nature of faith to rest, for it is a trust; not less certainly faith is under necessity to strive, for it is challenged and impeached.
It lies therefore in the very nature of the case that, if faith is in earnest in embracing real and progressive salvation, it must find itself drawn into conflict and effort to assert the reality and to experience the progress. The opposition it meets with ensures this.
On the other hand, it is the nature of the gospel to set men free for active service. It supplies motives, therefore, for enterprise, diligence, and fidelity; and it provides a goal towards which all shall tend. So men become fellow-labourers with their Lord. And if it is intelligible that the Lord should exert continual care for them, it ought to be intelligible also that they are to be exercised in a continual care for Him; care, that is, for the discharge of the trust which they hold from Him.
The Apostle dwells on all this, evidently because he felt it to be a point of so great importance in practical Christianity. In this world the right Christian is the man who knows well he has not attained, but who devotes his life to attaining. Paul brings this out by means of the image of a race for a prize, such as might be seen in the public games. This is a favourite illustration with him. His use of it illustrates the way in which things that are steeped in worldliness may aid us in apprehending the things of Gods kingdom. They do so, because they involve elements or energies of mans nature that are good as far as they go. As the Apostle thought of the racers, prepared by unsparing discipline, which had been concentrated on the one object; as he thought of the determination with which the eager runners started, and of the way in which every thought and every act was bent upon the one purpose of success, until the moment when the panting runner shot past the goal, it stirred him with the resolve to be not less eager in his race; and it made him long to see the children of light as practical and wise as, in their generation, the children of this world are.
As usual in the case of illustrations, this one will not hold in all points. For instance, in a race one only wins, and all the rest are defeated and disappointed. This is not so in the Christian race. The analogies lie elsewhere. In order to run well the runners submit to preparation in which everything is done to bring out their utmost energy for the race. When the race comes each competitor may possibly win: in order to win he must put forth his utmost powers; he must do so within a short period of time; and during that time nothing must distract him from the one aim of winning. He does this for a benefit embodied in, or symbolised by, the prize which rewards and commemorates his victory. These are the points in which the races of public games afford lessons for the Christian race. In the former the fact that the success of any one competitor deprives the others of the prize they seek, is the circumstance that puts intensity into the whole business, and makes a real race of it. So also in the spiritual antitype there are elements which make the race the most real, though they are elements of another kind.
The prize can be nothing else than the life eternal {1Ti_6:12} which comes, as we have seen, into full possession at the resurrection of the dead. He whose favour is life confers it. The bestowment of it is conceived as taking place with gladness and with honourable approbation: "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." The prize stands in strict connection with the perfecting of the believer: the time of receiving the prize is also the time of being presented faultless. Neither prize nor perfectness is attained here; neither is attained unless sought here; and the blessedness bestowed is connected in fact and measure with the faith and diligence expended on the race. On all these accounts the prize is spoken of as a crown; a crown of glory, for it is very honourable; a crown of life, incorruptible, that fadeth not away, for it shall never wither on the brow, as the wreaths of those earthly champions did. Now to run his race was for Paul the one thing. He had not yet attained; he could not sit still as if he had: it was his living condition that he must run, as one not yet there, following on in earnest that he might actually have the prize.
Perhaps some one may regard it as objectionable to conceive practical Christianity as a race for a prize. This seems, it may be said, to subordinate the present to the future, this world to the other world, and, in particular, virtue to happiness; because in this way the efforts of goodness here are conceived only as a means to enjoyment or satisfaction there. We reply that the prize does indeed include joy, the joy of the Lord. But it includes, first of all, goodness, consummate in the type of it proper to the individual; and gladness is present no otherwise than as it is harmonised with goodness, being indeed her proper sister and companion. Besides, the elements of the gladness of that state come in as the expression of Gods love-a love both holy and wise. Communion with that love is the true security for goodness. It is equally absurd to suppose, on the one hand, that when that love fills the heart with its unreserved communication there can fail to be gladness; and, on the other hand, to suppose that fellowship with it can be other than the proper and supreme object of a creatures aspiration.
There is no unworthiness in devoting life to win this prize; for it is a state of victorious well-being and well-doing. The highest goodness of all intervening stages is to aspire to that highest goodness of all. Whatever we may do or be, meanwhile, is best attained and done as it confesses its own shortcoming, and hopes and longs to be better and to do more.
It is true that a complete gift of eternal life is held out to us in Christ, and it is faiths part to accept that gift and to rest in it. But yet part of that gift itself is an emancipation of the soul; in virtue of this the man becomes actively responsive to the high calling, reiterates his fundamental decision all along the detail of mortal life, affirms his agreement with the mind and life of his Lord, approves himself faithful and devoted, and runs so as to obtain. All this is in the idea of the gift bestowed, and is unfolded in the experience of the gift received. So the prize is to arise to us as the close of a course of progressive effort tending that way: the reality of the prize corresponds to the reality of the progress; the degree of it, in some way, to the rate of that progress. The progress itself is made good, as we have said, by perpetually re-affirming the initial choice; doing so in new circumstances, under new lights, with a new sense of its meaning, against the difficulties implied in new temptations; yet so as ever, in the main, to abide by the beginning of our confidence. With all this let it be remembered that the time is short; and it will be understood that the Christian life, so viewed, assumes the character, and may well exhibit the intensity and pressure, of a race.
How far short men fall of the great idea of such a life-how they flinch from the perfectness of this Christian imperfection-need not be enlarged upon. But if any life is wholly untrue to this ideal, the Apostle seemingly could not count it Christian. This one thing he did, he bent himself to the race. For if the ultimate attainment has become very attractive, if the sense of present disproportion to it is great, and if, in Christ, both the obligation and the hopefulness of reaching the perfect good have become imperatively plain, what can a man do but run?
Verses 15 and 16 (Php_3:15-16) state the use which the Apostle desires his disciples to make of this account of his own views and feelings, his attitude and his effort, -"As many of us as are perfect."
Since the Apostle has disclaimed (Php_3:12) being already perfected, it may seem strange that he should now say, "As many of us as are perfect." His use of language in other places, however, warrants the position that he is not speaking of absolute perfection, as if the complete result of the Christian calling had been attained. Rather he is thinking of ripe practical insight into the real spirit of the Christian life-that is to say, advanced acquaintance, by experience, with the real nature of the Christian life. He uses this word "perfect" in contrast to "babes" or "children" in Christ. These last are persons who have been truly brought to Christ; but their conceptions and their attainments are rudimentary. They have not attained to large insight into the means and ends of the Christian life, nor to any ripe acquaintance with the position of a Christian man, and the relation he holds to things around him. They are therefore unready to face the responsibilities and perform the duties of Christian manhood. Hence the translators of the Authorised Version, in some passages, render the same word so as to bring out this sense of it. So 1Co_14:20, "Be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men" (τελειοι), and Heb_5:14, "Strong meat belongs to those that are of full age" (τελειων).
It cannot be doubted, however, that the word is used here with a certain emphatic significance in reference to the previous disclaimer, "I am not yet perfected." In the Philippians, or in some of them, Paul apprehended the existence of a self-satisfied mood of mind, such as might perhaps be warrantable if they were now perfect, if Christianity had brought forth all its results for them, but on no other terms. In contrast to this he had set before them the intense avidity with which he himself stretched out towards attainment and completeness which he had not reached. And now he teaches them that to be thus well aware how far we are from the true completeness, to be thus reaching out to it, is the true perfection of our present state: he only is the perfect Christian who is "thus minded"; who knows and feels how much remains to be attained, and gives himself up to the effort and the race under that inspiration. It is as if he said: Would you approve yourselves to be believers, advanced and established; would you show that you have come to a larger measure of just views and just feelings about the new world into which faith has brought you; would you have the character of men well-acquainted with your Lords mind about you, with your own position in relation to Him; in short, would you be perfect, fully under the influence of the Christianity you profess:-then let you and me be "thus minded"; let us evince the lowly sense of our distance from the goal, along with a living sense of the magnificence and urgency of the motives which constrain us to press on to it.
For is there such a thing attainable here as a Christian perfectness, a ripe fulness of the Christian life, which exhibits that working of it, in its various forces, which was designed for this stage of our history? If so, what must it be? That man surely is the perfect man who fully apprehends the position in which the gospel places him here, and the ends it sets before him, and who most fully admits into his life the views and considerations which, in this state of things, the gospel proposes. Then, he must be a man penetrated with a sense of the disproportion between his attainment and Christs ideal, and at the same time set on fire with the desire and hope of overcoming it. Has a man experienced many gracious dealings at his Lords hands, has he made attainments by grace, has he come to a Christian standing that may be called full age, would he be what all this would seem to imply, -then let him take heed to be "thus minded." Otherwise he is already beginning to lose what he seemed to have attained.
It is not so surprising, and it is not so severely to be reprehended, if those fail in this point who are but children in Christ. When the glorious things of the new world are freshly bursting into view, when the affections of the child of God are in their early exercise, when sin for the present seems stricken down, it is not so wonderful if men suppose danger and difficulty to be over. Like the Corinthians, "now they are full, now they are rich, now they have reigned as kings." It has often been so; and at that stage it may be more easily pardoned. One may say of it, "They will learn their lesson by-and-by; they will soon find out that in the life of a Christian all is not triumph and exultation." But it concerns those who have got further on, and it is expected of them, that they should be "thus minded" as the Apostle Paul was. It is a more serious business for them to be of another mind on this point, than for those who are only children in Christ. It tends to great loss. Are we, says the Apostle, come to a point at which we may be thought to be-may hope we are-experienced believers, well acquainted now with the salvation and the service, men in Christ? Then as we would ever act in a manner answerable, at this stage, to the gospel and to our position under the gospel, let us be thus minded; forgetting that which is behind, reaching forth to that which is before, let us press toward the mark. For at each stage of progress much depends on the way in which we deal with the position now attained, with the views which have opened to us, and with the experiences that have been acquired. This may decide whether the stage reached shall be but a step towards something better and more blessed, or whether a sad blight and declension shall set in. There are Christian lives to-day sadly marred, entangled and bewildered so that one knows not what to make of them, and all by reason of failure to be "thus minded."
A man is awakened to the supreme importance of Divine things. At the outset of his course, for years, perhaps, he is a vigorous and growing Christian. So he comes to a large measure of establishment: he grows into knowledge of truth and duty. But after a time the feeling creeps into his mind that matters are now less urgent. He acts rather as a man disposed to keep his ground, than as one that would advance. Now he seems to himself to lose ground somewhat, now to awaken a little and recover it, and on those terms he is fairly well contented. All this while it would be unjust to say that he does not love and serve Christ. But time passes on; life draws nearer to its close. The period at which Gods afflictions usually multiply has arrived. And he awakens at last to see how much of his life has been lost; how extensively, though secretly, decay has marred his attainments and his service; and how little, in the result, of that honourable success has crowned his life which once seemed fair before him.
"Let us be thus minded." Let Christians be admonished who have for some time been Christians, and especially those who are passing through middle life, or from middle life into older years. There is enchanted ground here, in passing over which too many of Christs servants go to sleep. Leave that which is behind.
"Let us be thus minded": but this proves hard. One may see it in a general way to be most reasonable, but to come up to it m particulars is hard. In all particular cases we are tempted to be otherwise minded. And in many particulars we find it very difficult to judge the manner of spirit that we are of. Were all right in us, absolutely right, rectitude of disposition and of moral action would be in a manner instinctive. But now it is not so. With reference to many aspects of our life, it is very difficult to bring out distinctly to our own minds how the attitude that becomes us is to be attained and maintained. The difficulty is real; and therefore a promise is annexed. "If in anything ye be otherwise minded." That may realise, itself in two ways. You may be distinctly conscious that your way of dealing with some interests which enter into your lives is unsatisfactory, is below your calling and privilege as a Christian; and yet you may find it hard to see how you are to rise into the worthier life. It is like a problem which you cannot solve. Or, again, you may fear that it is so; you may fear that if things were seen in the true light it would turn out so. But you cannot see clearly; you cannot identify the faulty element, far less amend it. Here the promise meets you. "If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." Keep your face in the right direction. Be honestly set on the attainment, and the way will open up to you as you go. You will see the path opening from the point where you stand, into life that throughout is akin to the aspiration and the achievement of the life of Paul.
Paul here has regard to a distinction which theorists are apt to overlook. We have a sufficient objective rule in the word and example of Christ. This may be summarised in forms easily repeated, and a man may, in that respect, know all that need be said as to what he is to do and to be. But in morals and in spiritual life this is only the beginning of another process-namely, the subjective individual entrance into the meaning of it all and the practical appropriation of it. I know the whole of duty on the human side: I am to love my neighbour as myself. It is most essential to know it, and a grand thing to have consented to make a rule of it. But, says one, there remains the difficulty of doing it? Is that all? I reply. There is another previous difficulty. I can preach a sermon on loving my neighbour as myself. But what does that mean, for me, not for any one else, but for myself, on a given day in November, at half-past one in the afternoon, when I am face to face with my neighbour, who has his merits, and also his defects, being, perhaps, provoking and encroaching, with whom I have some business to arrange? What does it mean then and there and for me? Here there opens the whole question of the subjective insight into the scope and genius of the rule; in which problem heart and mind must work together; and commonly there have to be training, experience, growth, in order to the expert and just discernment. Short of that there may be honest effort, blundering most likely, but honest, and lovingly accepted through Christ. But there ought to be growth on this subjective side.
Moreover, when progress has been made here it imposes responsibility. Have you been carried forward to such and such degrees of this subjective insight? Then this ought to be for you a fruitful attainment. Do not neglect its suggestions, do not prove careless and untrue to insight attained. Whereto we have attained, "by the same rule let us walk,"-or, as we may render it, "go on in the same line." So new insight and new achievement shall wait upon our steps.
Generally, if their Lord had carried the Philippians forward to genuine attainments of Christian living, then that history of theirs was a track which reached further on. It was not a blind alley, stopping at the point now reached. It had had a meaning; there was some rationale of it; it proceeded on principles which could be understood, for they had been put in practice; and it demanded to be further pursued. There is a continuity in the work of grace. There is a rational development of spiritual progress in the case of each child of God. What God means, what the direction is in which His finger beckons, what the dispositions are under the influence of which His call is complied with and obeyed, these are things which have been so far learned in that course of lessons and conflicts, of defeats and backslidings, restorations and victories; which has brought you so far. Let this be carried out; keep on in the same road. Whereto you have attained, go on with the same.
But such an admonition at once raises a question; the question, namely, whether we are at any stage in the pathway of Christian attainment, whether there is for us as yet any history of a Divine life. Among those who claim part in Christs benefits are some whom the grace of God has never taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly; for they have been persistently deaf to the lesson. There are some who do not know how Christ turns men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. To them the line of admonition now in hand does not apply: to exhort them to "walk on in the same" would be to perpetuate for them a sad mistake. Their course has been dark and downward. Therefore to the admonition already given, the Apostle adds another. "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark (keep sight of) them who walk so as ye have us for an example." Do not mistake the whole nature of Christianity; do not altogether miss the path in which Gods children go. It is one spirit that dwells in the Church; let not your walk forsake the fellowship of that spirit. Christians are not bound to any human authority: Christ is their Master. They must sometimes assert their independence, even with respect to the maxims and manners of good people. Yet there is one spirit in Gods true Church, and there is in the main one course of life which it inspires. Gods children have not been mistaken in the main things. In these, to forsake the spirit and the way of Christs flock is to forsake Christ.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11. If by any means I might attain to…
11. If by any means I might attain to the resurrection from the dead. This great consummation of a glorious resurrection to a heavenly life is worth attaining by every sacrifice, and by every possible means.
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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v12 Php_3:12. Not as though I had already attained.—The word…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Php_3:12. Not as though I had already attained.—The word for “attained” may possibly refer to the turning-point in St. Paul’s history, and so the phrase would mean, “not as though by my conversion I did at once attain.” This interpretation, which is Bishop Lightfoot’s, is challenged by Dr. Beet. It seems preferable, on other than grammatical grounds, because the following phrase, if we refer the former to conversion, is an advance of thought. Either were already perfect.—Describing a present state which is the consequence of past processes. He has not reached the condition where nothing else can be added. He is most blessed who, as he mounts ever higher, sees perfection, like Abraham’s mount of sacrifice, “afar off.”
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Php_3:13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.—Some think a reference to the opinion of others lies in the words; but St. Paul seems to be denying of himself what others asserted (in various ways) of themselves. But this one thing I do.—Lit. “but one thing” the words “I do” in A.V. and R.V. are a supplement. Meyer thinks it better to supply “think.” It does not seem necessary to supply anything. “One thing” the apostle never loses sight of; all the threads of life are gathered up into it. Forgetting the things that are behind.—The thought of how much of the course has been covered, and how it was done, sinks in the consideration of what has yet to be achieved. And reaching forth.—“Like one of those eager charioteers … of the Circus Maximus … leaning forward in his flying car, bending over the shaken rein and the goaded steed” (Farrar). St. Paul usually employs the figure of the foot-race; and “the not looking back, which showed a right temper in a runner, would be fatal to the charioteer” (Lightfoot).
Php_3:14. I press toward the mark.—“I hasten towards the gaol” where the adjudicators stand. For the prize of the high calling.—If the “hollow wraith of dying fame” could lead the athletes to put forth almost superhuman effort, how much more worthy was “the amaranthine crown of glory” (1Pe_5:4).
Php_3:15. As many as be perfect.—No longer novices, but having been initiated fully into the most secret mysteries of the faith—“that Christian maturity in which one is no longer a babe in Christ.” The reproachful irony which some detect hardly comports with the general tone of the letter.
Php_3:16. Let as walk by the same rule.—That which had been to them the means of such distinct progress had thus approved itself as the safe and prudent course to follow.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Php_3:12-16
The Highest Type of Christian Experience.
I. The highest type of Christian experience is divinely outlined in Christ.—“That for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Php_3:12). “The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php_3:14). The prize is not definitely described, but God through the gospel calls upon the soul to take hold of some great, dimly portrayed good, some rich spiritual blessing, some fulness and splendour of character to be secured by a fuller knowledge of Christ. If we say the prize is heaven or the kingdom of God, what is the heavenly kingdom but the fulness of Christ? Though not explained in detail, the prize is sufficiently outlined in Christ, by the master-hand of the divine Artist, as to make it an object of intense longing and strenuous effort to possess. The soul yearns to attain a moral and spiritual perfection found only in Christ, and which the unending development of the beauties of His character are constantly disclosing in ever-growing splendour, and which closer union with Him alone can seize and appropriate.
II. The effort to attain the highest type of Christian experience is stimulated by conscious defect.—“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend” (Php_3:12). The more clearly the apostle saw his privilege in Christ, the more conscious was he of his shortcomings. There is no progress possible to the man who does not see and mourn over his defects. “The soul of all improvement is the improvement of the soul;” and it is only a keen sense of need that stimulates the soul to continuous and repeated efforts. The ideal is ever ahead of the actual, revealing its defects and exciting to fresh and more earnest endeavours.
III. The highest type of Christian experience is attained only by strenuous and continuous effort.—“But this one thing I do, … I press toward the mark” (Php_3:13-14). The racer, fixing his eye upon the goal, leans forward, and turning his back upon things behind, presses with all speed towards the prize he covets. If he turns aside, he misses the mark and loses the garland. The great prizes of life are gained only by persevering labour. However prodigious may be the gifts of genius they can only be developed and brought to perfection by toil and study. Think of Michael Angelo working for a week without taking off his clothes, of Handel hollowing every key of his harpsichord like a spoon by incessant practice, and of the sculptor polishing his statue with unwearied repetitions because he said “the image in my head is not yet in my hands.” The prize of the Christian race—the crown of eternal life and blessedness—is worthy of the most laborious and self-denying efforts. When at times the heart grows weary in the struggle, a glimpse of the diadem of beauty obtained by faith revives the flagging energies.
IV. Those who do not see the obligation of striving after the highest type of Christian experience shall be aided with divine light.—“If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you” (Php_3:15). The difference of view was not some wilful and wicked conception, or some wretched prejudice adhered to with inveterate or malignant obstinacy. It was rather some truth not fully seen in all its bearings, some principle not so perceived as to be carried out in all its details and consequences, some department of duty which they might apprehend rather than appreciate, or some state of mind which they might admire in the apostle, but did not really covet for themselves. The apostle throws his own teaching into the shade, and ascribes the coming enlightenment to God (Eadie). The man who is honestly in pursuit of the highest good, though led away for a time by erroneous views, shall not lack the light he sincerely seeks. The light which will help him most must be light from God.
V. All progress towards the highest Christian experience must be on the lines of real progress already made.—“Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing” (Php_3:16). Every victory over self and sin is a stepping-stone to further triumphs. The struggle of to-day will be the victory of to-morrow. Our most helpful lessons are gathered from our failures. Our present blessings were obtained through faith and labour; our next must be gained in the same way. God will give more light to the man who rightfully uses what he has. “When the morning bursts suddenly on one awakened out of sleep, it dazzles and pains him; but to him who, on his journey, has blessed the dawn and walked by its glimmer, the solar radiance brings with it a gradual and cheering influence.”
Lessons.—
1. Christ is the sum and pattern of the highest good.
2. Progress in religious experience is a growing likeness to Christ.
3. The soul retains its highest enjoyment and power only in Christ.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Php_3:12. The Happy Day and its Sequel.
I. St. Paul did not forget the circumstances of his arrest by Jesus.
II. St. Paul’s remembrance of his arrest led to a practical inquiry as to its purpose.
III. The purpose of his arrest by Christ Jesus is before and not behind him, even in his old age.
IV. What is the mark to which he presses onward?—
1. A perfect likeness to Christ.
2. A perfect service.
3. The reward in heaven.—W. Hawkins.
Php_3:13-14. Pressing toward the Mark.
I. The apostle’s sense of his own shortcomings.—
1. It argued a high estimate of a Christian’s duty. Perfection is his aim, although not his attainment.
2. It argued a humble estimate of himself.—Though the most eminent Christian on earth, he was fully conscious of his own imperfection.
II. The apostle’s method of Christian progress.—
1. The concentration of his energies. Many things he did, and he did them wholly. But he made them all subservient to his one idea, which thus unified them all. Decision of character.
2. Oblivion of the past.—A wonderful past was his, but he forgot it, except as it might supply a stimulus to his further advances—past times, past pleasures, past sins, past labours, past attainments. The past must have dwelt in his memory, but it did not satisfy him. “Onward” was his motto, and every day he began his race afresh.
3. Untiring activity.—He had the goal ever in his eye; he often measured the distance between him and the goal; he stretched every nerve to reach the goal.
(1) Do we resemble Paul in his aim?
(2) Do we resemble Paul in his efforts.—G. Brooks.
Aim High—
I. In pursuit of moral excellence.
II. Intellectual character.
III. Active usefulness.
Lessons.—
1. God Himself has commanded it.
2. Society expects it of you.
3. The age in which you live demands it.—E. D. Griffin.
Php_3:15-16. The Temper to be cultivated by Christians of Different Denominations toward each other.
I. Those who adhere to this rule.—
1. Seek and cultivate their society.
2. Use means to promote the mutual improvement of these persons and of ourselves.
3. Do all we can to render our mutual reciprocal union more perfect and our usefulness more extensive.
II. Those who differ from us in matters of great importance.—
1. Give consideration to the way in which their religious characters have been formed.
2. Pay regard to the difficulties and misapprehensions which lie in the use of words.
3. Reflect what would probably have been the effects upon our minds had we been placed in their circumstances.
4. Act towards them with justice and kindness.
III. Those who differ from us in matters of smaller moment.—
1. Show them sincere and honest respect and kindness.
2. Cultivate friendly intercourse with them as far as they are disposed to reciprocate such intercourse.
3. Show that we esteem the essential principle of the gospel more than controversial preciseness and ecclesiastical form.—J. P. Smith.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14 11. “If, perchance, I may attain unto the resurrection,…
ARGUMENT 11
THE GOAL
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11. “If, perchance, I may attain unto the resurrection, which is out from the dead.” Here is a positive allusion to the first resurrection conferred on the bridehood of Christ at the premillennial rapture of the saints. It is much to be deplored that this most inspiring theme of apostolic preaching was permitted to drop out of the pulpit as one of the mournful results of the Constantinian apostasy, and by some means this wonderful passage was spoliated of its beauty and force during the Dark Ages, and brought to light in the Sinaic manuscript discovered by Tischendorf in 1859, which I now hold in my hand. The English reading of this wonderful passage is not only destitute of force, but intelligence. Modern theologians have vainly attempted to explain away the first resurrection by identifying it with regeneration. Such a construction is utterly untenable, running into Swedenborgianism, making the second resurrection also spiritual, and altogether doing away with the resurrection of the body. We see here that this premillennial resurrection, when our Lord rides down on the clouds and calls his bride to meet him in the air, is the goal on which Paul’s eye was fixed in his indefatigable race for glory. This qualification for the transfiguration and consequent readiness for the Lord’s return to the earth, was the most inspiring theme of the apostolic age, thrilling Paul and his comrades with an irrepressible enthusiasm amid all their persecutions, privations, and conflicts. It is a significant fact that the popular Churches are silent on the two most absorbing themes of the apostolic ministry; i.e., entire sanctification and the Lord’s return to the earth.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv12–13
Philippians
LAID HOLD OF AND LAYING HOLD
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Php 3:12.
‘I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ.’ That is how Paul thinks of what we call his conversion. He would never have ‘turned’ unless a hand had been laid upon him. A strong loving grasp had gripped him in the midst of his career of persecution, and all that he had done was to yield to the grip, and not to wriggle out of it. The strong expression suggests, as it seems to me, the suddenness of the incident. Possibly impressions may have been working underground, ever since the martyrdom of Stephen, which were undermining his convictions, and the very insanity of his zeal may have been due to an uneasy consciousness that the ground was yielding beneath his feet. That may have been so, but, whether it were so or not, the crisis came like a bolt out of the blue, and he was checked in full career, as if a voice had spoken to the sea in its wildest storm, and frozen its waves into immobility.
There is suggested in the word, too, distinctly, our Lord’s personal action in the matter. No doubt, the fact of His supernatural appearance gives emphasis to the phrase here. But every Christian man and woman has been, as truly as ever Paul was, laid hold of by the personal action of Jesus Christ. He is present in His Word, and, by multitudes of inward impulses and outward providences, He is putting out a gentle and a firm hand, and laying it upon the shoulders of all of us. Have we yielded? Have we resisted, when we were laid hold of? Did we try to get away? Did we plant our feet and say, ‘I will not be drawn,’ or did we simply neglect the pressure? If we have yielded, my text tells us what we have to do next. For that hand is laid upon a man for a purpose, and that purpose is not secured by the hand being laid upon him, unless he, in his turn, will put out a hand and grasp. Our activity is needed; that activity will not be put forth without very distinct effort, and that effort has to be life-long, because our grasp at the best is incomplete. So then, we have here, first of all, to consider--
I. What Christ has laid His grip on us for.
Now, the immediate result of that grasp, when it is yielded to, is the sense of the removal of guilt, forgiveness of sins, acceptance with God. But these, the immediate results, are by no means the whole results, although a great many of us live as if we thought that the only thing that Christianity is meant to do to us is that it bars the gates of some future hell, and brings to us the message of forgiveness. We cannot think too nobly or too loftily of that gift of forgiveness, the initial gift that is laid in every Christian man’s hands, but we may think too exclusively of it, and a great many of us do think of it as if it were all that was to be given. A painter has to clear away the old paint off a door, or a wall, before he lays on the new. The initial gift that comes from being laid hold of by Jesus Christ is the burning off of the old coat of paint. But that is only the preliminary to the laying on of the new. A man away in the backwoods will spend a couple of years after he has got his bit of land in felling and burning the trees, and rooting out and destroying the weeds. But is that what he got the clearing for? That is only a preliminary to sowing the seed. My friend! If Jesus Christ has laid hold of you, and you have let Him keep hold of you, it is not only that you may be forgiven, not only that you may sun yourself in the light of God’s countenance, and feel that a new blessed relation is set up between you and Him, but there are great purposes lying at the back of that, of which all that is only the preliminary and the preparation.
Conversion. Yes; but what is the good of turning a man round unless he goes in the direction in which his face is turned? And so here the Apostle having for years lived in the light of that great thought, that God was reconciled in Jesus Christ, and that he was God’s friend, discerns far beyond that, in dim perspective, towering high above the land in the front, the snowy sunlit summits of a great range to which he has yet to climb, and says, ‘I press on to lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ.’
And what was that? On the road to Damascus Paul was only told one thing, that Christ had grasped him and drawn him to Himself in order that He might make him a chosen vessel to bear the Word far hence amongst the Gentiles. The bearing of His conversion upon Paul himself was never mentioned. The bearing of His conversion on the world was the only subject that Jesus spoke of at first. But here Paul has nothing to say about his world-wide mission. He does not think of himself as being called to be an Apostle, but as being summoned to be a Christian. And so, forgetting for the time all the glorious and yet burdensome obligations which were laid upon him, and the discharge of which was the very life of his life, he thinks only of what affects his own character, the perfecting of which he regards as being the one thing for which he was ‘laid hold of by Christ Jesus.’ The purpose is twofold. No Christian man is made a Christian only in order that he may secure his own salvation; there is the world to think of. No Christian man is made a Christian only in order that he may be Christ’s instrument for carrying the Word to other people; there is himself to think of. And these two phases of the purpose for which Jesus Christ lays hold upon us are very hard to unite in practice, giving to each its due place and prominence, and they are often separated, to the detriment of both the one that is attended to, and the one that is neglected. The monastic life has not produced the noblest Christians; and there are pitfalls lying in the path of every man who, like me, has for his profession to preach the Gospel, which, if they are fallen into, the inward life is utterly wrecked.
The two sides of Christ’s purpose have, in our practice, to be held together, but for the present I only wish to say a word or two about that which, as I have indicated, is but one hemisphere of the completed orb, and that is our personal culture and growth in the divine life. What did Christ lay hold of me for? Paul answers the question very strikingly and beautifully in a previous verse. Here is his conception of the purpose, ‘that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.’ That is what you were forgiven for; that is what you have ‘passed from death unto life’ for; that is what you have come into the sweet fellowship of God, and can think of Him as your Friend and Helper for.
Let us take the clauses seriatim , and say a word about each of them. ‘That I may know Him.’ Ah! there is a great deal more in Jesus Christ than a man sees when he first sees Him through his tears and his fears, and apprehends Him as the Saviour of his soul, and the sacrifice on whom the burden and the guilt of his sins were laid. We must begin there, as I believe. But woe to us if we stop there. There is far more in Christ than that; although all that is in Him is included in that, yet you have to dig deep before you find all that is included in it. You have to live with Him day by day, and year by year, and to learn to know Him as we learn to know husbands and wives, by continual intercourse, by continual experience of a sweet and unfailing love, by many a sacred hour of interchange of affection and reception of gifts and counsels. It is only thus that we learn to know what Jesus Christ is. When He lays hold of us, He comes like the angel that came to Peter in the prison in the dark and awoke him out of his sleep and said ‘Rise! and follow me.’ It is only when we get out into the street, and have been with Him for awhile, and the daylight begins to stream in, that we see clearly the face of our Deliverer, and know Him for all that He is. This knowledge is not the sort of knowledge that you can get by thinking, or out of a book. It is the knowledge of experience. It is the knowledge of love, it is the knowledge of union, and it is in order that we may know Christ that He lays his hand upon us.
‘The power of His Resurrection.’ Now, by that I understand a similar knowledge, by experience, of the risen life of Jesus Christ flowing into us, and filling our hearts and minds with its own power. The risen life of Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian. Our daily experience ought to be that there comes, wavelet by wavelet, that silent, gentle, and yet omnipotent influx into our empty hearts, the very life of Christ Himself.
I know that this generation says that that is mysticism. I do not know whether it is mysticism or not. I am sure it is truth; and I do not understand Christianity at all, unless there is that kind of mysticism, perfectly wholesome and good, in it. You will never know Jesus Christ until you know Him as pouring into your hearts the power of an endless life, His own life. Christ for us by all means,--Christ’s death the basis of our hope, but Christ in us, and Christ’s life as the true gift to His Church. Have you got that? Do you know the power of His Resurrection?
‘The fellowship of His sufferings.’ Has Paul made a mistake, and deserted the chronological order? Why does he put the ‘fellowship of the sufferings’ after the ‘power of the Resurrection’? For this plain reason, that if we get Christ’s life into our hearts, in the measure in which we get it we shall bear a similar relation to the world which He bore to it, and in our measure will ‘fill up that which is behind in the sufferings of Christ,’ and will understand how true it is that ‘if they hate Me they will hate you also.’ Brethren, the test of us who have the life of Christ in our hearts is that we shall, in some measure, suffer with Him, because ‘as He is, so are we, in this world,’ and because we must in that case look upon the world, its sins and its sorrows, with something of the sad gaze with which He looked across the valley to the Temple sparkling in the morning light, and wept over it. So if we know the power of His Resurrection we shall know the fellowship of His sufferings.
And then Paul goes on, in his definition of the purpose for which Christ lays hold upon men, apparently to say the same thing over again, only in the opposite order, ‘that I may be conformable to His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.’ Both of these clauses, I think, refer to the future, to the actual dying of the body, and the actual future resurrection of the same. And the thought is this, that if here, through our earthly lives, we have been recipients of the risen life of Jesus Christ, and so have stood to the world in our degree as He stood to it, then when the moment of death comes to us, we shall, in so far, have our departure shaped after His as that we shall be able to say, ‘Into Thy hands I commit my spirit,’ and die willingly, and at last shall be partakers of that blessed Resurrection unto life eternal which closes the vista of our earthly history. Stephen’s death was conformed to Christ’s in outward fashion, in so far as it echoed the Master’s prayer, ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ and in so far as it echoed the Master’s last words, with the significant alteration that, whilst Jesus commended His spirit to the Father, the first martyr commended his to Jesus Christ.
These, then, are the purposes for which Christ laid His hand upon us, that we might know Him, the power of His Resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death yet by attaining the resurrection of the dead.
II. Notice, again, our laying hold because we have been laid hold of.
Christ’s laying hold of me, blessed and powerful as it is, does not of itself secure that I shall reach the end which He had in view in His arresting of me. What more is wanted? My effort. ‘I follow after if I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended.’ Now, notice, in the one case, the Apostle speaks of himself, not as passive, but certainly not as active. ‘I was laid hold of.’ What did he do? As I have said, he simply yielded to the grasp. But ‘I may lay hold of’ conveys the idea of personal effort; and so these two expressions, ‘I was apprehended,’ and ‘I apprehend,’ suggest this consideration, that, for the initial blessings of the Christian life, forgiveness, acceptance, the sense of God’s favour, and of reconciliation with him, nothing is needed but the simple faith that yields itself altogether to the grasp of Christ’s hand, but that for my possessing what Christ means that I should possess when He lays His hand on me, there is needed not only faith but effort. I have to put out my hand and tighten my fingers round the thing, if I would make it my own, and keep it.
So--faith, to begin with, and work based on faith, to go on with. It is because a man is sure that Jesus Christ has laid His hand upon him, and meant something when He did it, that he fights on with all his might to realise Christ’s purpose, and to get and keep the thing which Christ meant him to have. There is stimulus in the thought, I was laid hold of by Him for a purpose. There is all the difference between striving, however eagerly, however nobly, however strenuously, however constantly, after self-improvement, by one’s own effort only, and striving after it because one knows that he is therein fulfilling the purpose for which Jesus Christ drew him to Himself.
And if that be so, then the nature of the thing to be laid hold of determines what we are to do to lay hold of it. And since to know Christ, and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, is the aim and end of our conversion, the way to secure it must be keeping in continual touch with Jesus by meditating upon Him, by holding many a moment of still, sacred, sweet communion with Him, by carefully avoiding whatever might come between us and our knowledge of Him, and the influx of His life into us, and by yielding ourselves, day by day, to the continual influence of His divine grace upon us and by the discipline which shall make our inward natures more and more capable of receiving more and more of that dear Lord. These being the things to do, in regard to the inward life, there must be effort too, in regard to the outward; for we must, if we are to lay hold of that for which we are laid hold of by Jesus Christ, bring all the outward life under the dominion of this inward impulse, and when the flood pours into our hearts we must, by many a sluice and trench, guide it into every corner of the field, that all may be irrigated. The first thing they do when they are going to sow rice in an Eastern field is to flood it, and then they cast in the seed, and it germinates. Flood your lives with Christ, and then sow the seed and you will get a crop.
III. Lastly, the text suggests the incompleteness of our grasp.
‘I follow that,’ says Paul, ‘if that I may apprehend.’ This letter was written far on in his career, in the time of his imprisonment in Rome, which all but ended his ministerial activity; and was many years after that day on the road to Damascus. And yet, matured Christian and exercised Apostle as he was, with all that past behind him, he says, ‘I follow after, that I may apprehend.’ Ah, brother, our experience must be incomplete, for we have an infinite aim set before us, and there is no end to the possibilities of plunging deeper and deeper and deeper into the knowledge of Christ, and having larger and larger and larger draughts of the fulness of His life. We have only been like goldseekers, who have contented themselves as yet with washing the precious grains out of the gravel of the river. There are great reefs filled with the ore that we have not touched. Thank God for the necessary incompleteness of our ‘apprehending.’ It is the very salt of life. To have realised our aims, to have fulfilled our ideals, to have sucked dry the cluster of the grapes is the death of aspiration, of hope, of blessedness; and to have the distance beckoning, and all experience ‘an arch, wherethro’ gleams the untravelled world to which we move,’ is the secret of perpetual youth and energy.
Because incomplete, our experience should be progressive; and that is a truth that needs hammering into Christian people to-day. About how many of us can it be said that our light ‘shineth more and more unto the noonday.’ Alas! about an enormous number of us it must be said, ‘When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you.’ All our churches have many grown babies, and cases of arrested development--people that ought to be living on strong meat, and are unable to masticate or digest it, and by their own fault have still need of the milk of infancy. There is an old fable about a strange animal that fastened itself to the keel of sailing ships, and by some uncanny power was able to arrest them in mid-ocean, though the winds were filling all their sails. There is a remora, as they called it, of that sort adhering to a great many Christian people, and keeping them fixed on one spot, instead of ‘following after, if that they may apprehend.’
Dear friends--and especially you younger Christians--Christ has laid hold of you. Well and good! that is the beginning. He has laid hold of you for an end. That end will not be reached without your effort, and that effort must be perpetual. It is a life-long task. Ay! and even up yonder the apprehending will be incomplete. Like those mathematical lines that ever approximate to a point which they never reach, we shall through Eternity be, as it were, rising, in ascending and ever-closer drawing spirals, to that great Throne, and to Him that sits upon it. So that, striking out the humble ‘may’ from our text, the rest of it describes the progressive blessedness of the endless life in the heavens, as truly as it does the progressive duty of the Christian life here, and the glorified flock that follows the Lamb in the heavenly pastures may each say: I follow after in order to apprehend that ‘for which,’ long ago and down amidst the dim shadows of earth, ‘I was apprehended of Christ Jesus.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v12 (See Scofield "Mat 5:48").
perfect
(See Scofield "Mat 5:48").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v12 Sanctification Following Justification, and the Consummation of the Christian…
Sanctification Following Justification, and the Consummation of the Christian Hope.
The Christian’s eagerness in sanctification:
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v. 12. 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.
v. 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,
v. 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
v. 15. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
v. 16. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Paul here makes himself a type of all Christians. He shows what gain there is in having Christ and in following Christ. He is in possession of the righteousness of Christ, he has experienced the power of Christ’s death and resurrection in himself. But that does not argue that perfection has now been attained: Not that I have already laid hold of, or already am fully perfected. This is not said of faith, for faith accepts the whole Christ with all His blessings at once. The apostle, in speaking of receiving, of attaining, is speaking of sanctification. The goal for which he strives is the partaking of all the blessings of the resurrection of Christ. Christ is his, in all the fullness of His grace and mercy, and he is an heir of salvation, but its completion, its consummation is not yet in his possession. That perfection, when he shall put off all the weaknesses of the flesh, all its petty annoyances and foibles, will be attained in heaven, when the actual blessings of salvation will he enjoyed without any outside interference. The life of heaven in eternity is a status of perfection, of complete fulfillment. This is near before the apostle’s eyes, but he has not yet entered upon it. He must still run, he must still battle. But he follows after that he may lay hold upon it. He must not lose sight of his goal, he must strive onward on that basis of the fact that he has been fully received of Christ Jesus. Christ has enrolled him, made him one of His own, placed him among those that are His own. The believer has Christ as his Possession, just as Christ holds him as His possession. Being in this wonderful fellowship with Christ, he wishes to get to the end of life. He is eager for the consummation of his hopes, he longs to become an active partaker of the heavenly glory. All the thinking, longing, yearning of the Christians is directed heavenward.
The apostle continues to urge his own example: Brethren, I for myself not yet do regard that I have attained, but one thing: Forgetting that behind me, stretching forth toward those before, I strive for the goal, the premium of the calling of God above in Christ Jesus. Paul’s admonition at this point is an urgent call to his fellow-believers. So far as his own person is concerned, he repeats that he has not yet laid hold of the final glory; the last great goal is still before him. But that fact does not worry or distress him; for one thing is the case: he forgets all things that lie behind him, all the false movements and disappointments and disagreeable experiences with which he has been obliged to battle. Like a runner bending forward as he exerts himself to the utmost when nearing the end of the race, so he stretches forward toward those things that lie before. His one thought is to reach the end, the fulfillment, the victory, and that as quickly as possible. He does not forget what he has gained in Christian faith. Those are not things lightly forgotten, because they have not been lightly gained. But after all, this represents only earnest-money and a guarantee for the future. With a straining of every fiber of his body, therefore, he looks forward, because his goal is a prize and a premium, a precious and beautiful gift, far above all human understanding. It is a crown and reward of Christian valor which acts as a spur, urging him to use the last ounce of his strength. It is the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. This call of God has reached the Christians in and through Jesus Christ. Through the call of God the believers were drawn to Christ, they have found and accepted Him as their Savior. That is conversion. And in conversion the believers are called out of this world to the home above. In this call the prize of the heavenly calling is already held out, the goal is set before us. Thus all the thoughts of the Christians are directed heavenward. No consideration of things on earth is permitted to draw their thoughts away from heaven.
This being the case, Paul’s gentle urging has a power beyond the bare content of his words: As many as are perfect, let us think this; and if in anything ye think differently, also this will God uncover to you. The apostle here makes a distinction between Christians, the perfect being contrasted with the minors in knowledge. See 1Co 14:20. Those that have a clear and full Christian knowledge, gained by long experience of Christ, should think as the apostle does, and therefore persist in leaving behind the battles of the past and in striving for the new and good. The more a Christian grows in sanctification, the more he finds that there are great gaps in his Christian knowledge and in his sanctification, the more eagerly he works for his sanctification. Since the language used by Paul might discourage those that are weak in knowledge, he hastens to add that, in case one still thinks differently about the matter, God will reveal it to him also. If the knowledge of some of the brethren is not yet perfect, God will give them the right understanding. To those that are really concerned about their salvation, God gives a better knowledge day after day; that is a part of the progress in sanctification. And as for the rest, as far as they had gotten, they should walk accordingly. Every Christian should apply what he has learned in his life. If he but practices all that he has grasped with the understanding of faith, that is sufficient. To hold fast to the Gospel, to the Lord and His truth, to the Word of Grace, that is the essential business of Christians.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v12 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul urges the believers at Philippi to follow his present example because of heaven and the new bodies that wait for believers. He speaks of how he works as hard as he can to be like Christ, knowing that God will allow him to live forever in heaven, as if he were a runner racing for the finish line.
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received these things
These include knowing Christ, knowing the power of his resurrection, sharing in Christ's suffering, and being united with Christ in his death and resurrection (Philippians 3:8-11).
or that I have become complete
"so I am not yet perfect" or "so I am not yet mature"
But I press on
"But I keep trying"
I may grasp that for which I was grasped by Christ Jesus
Receiving spiritual things from Christ is spoken of as if Paul could grasp them with his hands. And, Jesus choosing Paul to belong to him is spoken of as if Jesus grasped Paul with his hands. This can be stated in an active form. AT: "I may receive these things because that is why Jesus claimed me as his own" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
Brothers
See how you translated this in Philippians 1:12.
I myself have yet grasped it
Receiving spiritual things from Christ is spoken of as if Paul could grasp them with his hands. AT: "all these things belong to me yet" (See: Metaphor)
I forget what is behind and strain for what is ahead
Like a runner in a race is no longer concerned about the part of the race that is completed but only focuses on what is ahead, Paul speaks of setting aside his religious works of righteousness and only focusing on the race of life that Christ has set before him to complete. AT: "I do not care what I have done in the past; I only work as hard as I can on what is ahead" (See: Metaphor)
I press on toward the goal to win the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus
As a runner presses onward to win the race, Paul presses onward in serving and living in obedience to Christ. AT: "I do all I can to be like Christ, like a runner racing to the finish line, so that I may belong to him, and God may call me to himself after I die" (See: Metaphor)
the upward calling
Possible meanings are that Paul speaks of living eternally with God as if God were to call Paul to ascend 1) to heaven as Jesus did or 2) the steps to the podium where winners of races received prizes, as a metaphor for meeting God face to face and receiving eternal life. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
receive
Jesus
brother
call
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11–13 3:11 To experience the resurrection from the dead is…
3:11 To experience the resurrection from the dead is to be saved from judgment and receive eternal life (see Rev 20:4-6). Paul was aware of God’s holiness and the severity of the final judgment (Rev 20:11-15); he knew he must persevere in his pursuit of Christ and salvation (cp. Gal 5:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.