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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that I can trust you to keep every promise you made about yourself and about me.
Read PHILIPPIANS 3:12–21
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Following Paul’s Example
15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Who has helped you grow in the Christian life? Make a list of key people and thank God for them.Paul portrays dynamic and forward-facing Christian maturity. He isn’t complacent about where he stands as a Jesus-follower now but focuses on what Christ has done, is doing, and will do—and his own response. Christ has ‘taken hold’ of Paul (v. 12), and Paul responds by pressing on to the finish line. In the Roman games, the victor went into the crowd to the president of the games to receive their victory laurel wreath—but in Paul’s case, it is God’s call to a heavenly reward (v. 14).
Christ will return on the last day and complete the work he began in believers’ lives, transforming them to be what he intends (vv. 20, 21). Jesus’ glorious resurrection body is the prototype for our future bodies (v. 21)—a prospect to look forward to!
So, in the present, Christ is to be the focus of the Philippians’ attention, not earthly concerns (v. 19). This isn’t an invitation to abandon this world but rather to be different in this world, showing that we are citizens of another place by our lifestyle (v. 20). The believers had learned this model from Paul and Timothy (v. 17; 1:1), and need to persist in copying their model.
Apply
Reflect on life in the world to come and rejoice in the transformation Christ will complete in your life.
Closing prayer
Thank you, Holy Spirit, that the work begun in me is not finished—and that no work of God is ever left unfinished. I look forward to Jesus’ return, confident that his work in me will be complete on that day!
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