Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Philippians 3:12-21

¹²Not 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. ¹³Brothers, 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, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. ¹⁶Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. ¹⁷Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example. ¹⁸For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things. ²⁰For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I write that I "press on" (Philippians 3:12), the word carries the strain of a runner pursuing, hunting down, a thing he means to seize — for I too have been seized by Christ, and now I chase what already laid hold of me. And "straining forward" (Philippians 3:13) is the body of the runner stretched out over the line, every muscle leaning past what is behind. This is not a stroll. It is a race run with the whole self.

Where else you say this

I take up this same running elsewhere: "Run in such a way that you may obtain it... I discipline my body and keep it under control" (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). And near the end, still running, I could write, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race" (2 Timothy 4:7). The homeward hope of a citizenship in heaven I sound again: "you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Colossians 3:1-2).

The situation

I wrote to the Philippians as a chained man, and they knew it — they had sent Epaphroditus with their gift and nearly lost him to illness. But their true danger was not my chains; it was men who "walk as enemies of the cross" (Philippians 3:18), who set their minds on earthly things and would have the Philippians rest satisfied, arrived, perfect already. So I held up my own unfinished running to steady them: not that I have obtained it, but that I press on.

The hard question

You may ask: if I am already grasped by Christ and my salvation is his finished work, why must I strain and press as though it hung on my effort? Look closely — I do not run to earn what is not yet mine; I run because Christ has already made me his own (Philippians 3:12). The pressing is not the anxious labor of a slave buying his freedom, but the glad pursuit of a man who has been caught. Grace does not make the runner sit down; it puts him on his feet. Hold both, as the text holds both, and do not let go of either.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

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