PERSISTENCE AND EXAMPLE
Opening Prayer
Lord, help me to forget what I should forget.
Read PHILIPPIANS 3:12–21
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.
Meditate
“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth’… He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (Rev. 21:1,5).
Think Further
Paul’s goal is to know the crucified and risen Christ, but he is quick to qualify it as an ongoing endeavor. Life is an endurance race, and Paul presses on towards the goal to win the prize at the end. While knowing Christ fully is not achievable in this life, we must strive towards it. “Forgetting what is behind” (13) does not mean obliterating memories or past events (even if that were possible) but, rather, preventing the past from controlling our present. Instead of dwelling on past failures and hurts (although we might need to address them), we are to fix our eyes on Jesus and press on. A glorious future awaits us.
Now, back to the subject of imitation. In verse 17a, Paul urges the Philippians to join one another in imitating his example—a collective imitation of Paul, if you like. Undoubtedly, this sounds arrogant, but Paul is addressing those he knows personally—in churches he himself has planted. He sees himself as a father whose task it is to nurture his spiritual children. Just as Paul imitates Christ, so he instructs his spiritual children to imitate Christ by imitating him.
However, there is a catch: Paul is in prison, so how can the Philippians imitate him? Recognizing this, Paul tells them in verse 17b to look carefully at others who act in line with his own example. In antiquity, personal example was familiar in family life (where children imitated their parents) and education (where pupils imitated their teacher), but personal example was also important in the early church, where many of Paul’s converts came from pagan backgrounds and were unfamiliar with Jewish-Christian values. For Paul, the moral code for a Christian is embodied in the life of Christ first and then in the lives of exemplary Christians.
Apply
Earlier, we looked at how we can imitate Christ. Now the greater challenge is: how can we be examples for other believers of how to imitate Christ?
Closing prayer
Lord, help me to be aware of the example I am setting in front of all kinds of impressionable minds.
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Encounter with God is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.