As a counselor you learn a lot about how the past affects people. I knew one woman in her thirties who had a terrible childhood. Her father left when she was a baby, her mother was terribly abusive both physically and verbally. She ended up in foster care where she was sexually abused by a foster brother for a couple years. Yet here she was coming to me because her brother was dealing with addiction and she wanted to help. She had successfully finished university, had her own business, and was happily married with two children.
Another woman I knew was a mess. She struggled with addiction and depression since she was 11 years old. She had terrible self-worth, couldn’t hold a job, had a series of abusive relationships. She admitted that she came from a very healthy family and couldn’t have asked for a better childhood. But she said that in grade 3 one of her teachers told her that she would never amount to anything, and this one episode caused her to see herself in that way for the next 18 years.
How could this be? You would expect the reverse. Here’s one person thriving even thought their past was awful, yet the other person had one relatively minor negative event in her childhood, and it negatively affected her whole life. Clearly one of these women somehow knew how to either release and/or relearn the past, while the other hung on to one thing and allowed it to destroy her life.
You’ll notice as we are working through Philippians that we are skipping verses 1-11 in the third chapter because it felt appropriate that we return to it on Easter Sunday. Through today’s scripture passage we are going to look at what Paul says about the past, and what we should do with it.
First of all he says:
I. Release the Past (vv 12-14) and he gives us a few examples.
A. The first way to release the past is Through Dissatisfaction (vv 12-13a)
Paul is dissatisfied with the past, and this is coming from one of the Great Saints. He knows he has not attained the goal yet, and this is not acceptable to him. He wants to become like Christ in his death and attain the resurrection from the dead. Let me just talk about what Paul means by knowing the power of his resurrection from verse 10, which he is really talking about here.
Paul wants “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection”. This power is the whole point behind Christ’s resurrection. Without the resurrection, which by the way is probably the most substantiated event in ancient history, our faith has nothing to stand on.
If he did not rise, death is not defeated and the Holy Spirit which is “the power of the resurrection” would not be available to us, and his death would just be another martyr dying for a cause. So let’s remember that this is the precursor of what we are talking about today.
Back to verse 12, it is not just failure to achieve that he is talking about in this passage, but also he’s encouraging Christians not to be satisfied with their successes either.
We are all still sinners. If we’re satisfied with the successes of the past we can get complacent. Paul only ever compared himself with Jesus, not other Christians. It’s easy to get into self-satisfaction with thoughts like “I read my Bible more than most”, or “at least I go to church regularly”. You know what I’m talking about. We can always find a Christian somewhere who we are doing better than in our spiritual life.
Paul’s not talking about berating oneself, but to have a divine dissatisfaction with where we stand in our spiritual walk, and to have God’s perspective that He does not want even one to perish. It doesn’t matter what we achieve in our spiritual life, if there are still lost people on the planet, we should never be satisfied.
So Paul is saying, no matter what the past held, good or bad, release it, forget it and keep moving forward.
Why? … We see from previous verses that Paul wants to make everything about Christ his own. His righteousness, his faith, the power of his resurrection, his sufferings, and his death and resurrection from the dead. He wants to be exactly like Christ, and this in verse 12 to me is one of the most profound statements in the entire Bible: he wants all this “because Christ Jesus has made me his own”. Paul wants what Christ wants for him, and the motivation is that Jesus took hold of him and adopted him.
Remember that even the evil spirits believed that Christ rose and was the Son of God, but they do not claim the power of the resurrection within them. Likewise a professing Christian, is no more a Christian than these spirits if they have not accepted and received the power through the Holy Spirit which transforms us on the inside. We will look at this in much more depth at Easter.
Paul didn’t need anyone to kick him in the pants but sometimes we do. Read illustration page 88 Weirsbe. … We must avoid being over satisfied with ourselves.
B. We can also release the past Through Devotion (v. 13b)
“But one thing I do.” Focused like an athlete specializing in their area of expertise. Here we are getting back to this personal single mindedness that Paul spoke of earlier. The more we put on our plate, the less effective we are at anything. Christians are notorious for this.
We get busy doing so many things, many of which are good and maybe even serve the church, but when it comes to the core of our spiritual life, communion with God through his word and prayer and sharing our faith we sadly lack.
Much of this way of living has a lot to do with the past. In our culture work is highly prized, being busy gets praise, and many of our role models for success in the world demonstrate these values. A good work ethic is positive, but I have known many people whose entire self-worth lies in what they accomplish and how busy they stay. Many can’t sit still for five minutes without feeling very uncomfortable.
This habit, and a habit is something that has developed from the past, needs to be broken. We need to get focused and stop multitasking all the time especially with our spiritual journey. It’s very difficult to effectively read the Bible and pray if you have a hundred other things on your mind.
Put aside time to focus solely on your relationship with God and learn to put everything else out of your mind. And let time with God break in to your routine when He is knocking. Do you really think spending five minutes with God is going to make it that much more difficult to accomplish other things you have to do? Do you think time with God is going to make your life harder or easier? But even more importantly, how do feel saying that God is less important than getting the laundry done, or getting the kids to the hockey game on time, or whatever else for that matter.
C. Another way we can release the past is Through Direction (v. 13c)
Many of us are controlled by the past whether we know it or not. There are two directions in time, forward and backward. Could you imagine if the ancient chariot racers from Paul’s time looked back when they were racing? Forgetting the danger and looking forward, were life and death issues for these racers. The more a golfer can put the last bad shot behind them and be focused in the present, the better they’ll do.
Forgetting in this context doesn’t mean a lack of memory, it means to no longer be influenced or affected by. A better term may be releasing. Apart from brain damage, we can’t just choose to forget, to lose memory of a previous event, but we can stop being influenced by it. You know what counselors hear a lot of don’t you? “It’s my parents fault” or “If only …” fill in the blank.
And this leads nicely into our next Philippians antidepressant. Depressed people often use the past to predict the future, with a very negative focus. We can’t change the past, but Paul is suggesting that we can change the meaning of the past and use it as a motivator. Depressed people can even use positive experiences in the past negatively, something like, “I used to like that, but I don’t anymore”, or “I used to be successful but never will be again”.
Depressed folks especially need a change in thought direction. They, like all of us need to see that just because something has always happened in the past, doesn’t mean it will continue that way. Sometimes we are responsible for getting the same results all the time. Change our thinking and our behaviour and voila, we often get a different result.
Just one more quick note on the term “straining forward” that Paul uses in verse 13. It means to stretch forward to our maximum limit like the racers in sprints reaching forward with their bodies to cross the finish line. Paul is saying that unlike Usain Bolt who slowed down at the finish line because he was so far ahead, he Paul, is continually stretching as far as he can to what lies ahead.
D. Finally we can release the past Through Determination (v. 14)
Our growth never ends, we have to keep going forward. It’s like a race, the more we look back the more it will slow us down. Don’t focus on where you have been, but where you are going (mountain biking example). You can look back when you get there.
Paul is straining on to the prize of the upward call of God in Christ (heaven), not this life. The prize is not salvation, we are already part of the team by faith. But now that we are on the team we have to run the race for the team. We may not win the race, but we will keep our citizenship. You had to be a Greek citizen to participate in their games.
We can’t win any game if we just read about it, listen to lectures about it, watch movies about it, or cheer at it. We have to put ourselves in the game and be determined to win, or at least give it our absolute best.
As one commentator put it, “wouldn’t it be nice if Christians put as much determination into their spiritual life as they do their golf, fishing, or bowling.”
Now again in the spiritual life, we can’t do it all on our own power. God works in us that he might work through us. So are we letting God work in us? As we apply ourselves to the things of the spiritual life, God is able to mature us and strengthen us for the race. We see two extremes in many Christians. Some are so busy dying to self that they never come to life to run the race. Others are so sure they can do it on their own that they never stop to pray, read the Bible, or ask for God’s power.
Paul says there is a reward for all this determination. But the reward is not getting into heaven, we can’t do that by our own efforts. The reward is the crown that Jesus will give us when we reach our goal. We can all get in the game through faith, but the reward goes to those who complete the race.
Did you know that the word for God’s judgment seat (bema) is the same word used to describe the place where the Olympic judges gave out the medals and laurel wreaths for the athletes to wear on their heads? These laurel wreaths wither and die, but the crown Christ gives us will never fade. Which one would you rather have?
II. Relearn the Past (vv 15-16)
E. Through Discipline (vv 15-16)
1. Our Minds (v. 15)
Paul declares, those Christians who are mature or stable and deep in their faith should think this way (forget the past and move forward, don’t think you are there yet), but we also need to practice what we have learned so far. Yes we are to move forward, but we have also learned from the past and must live in accordance with what we learned to this point. Use the past to positively meet your spiritual goal. Some of those learnings may not have been happy or comfortable, so we are to take the positive learning from them and move forward without the negative effect the event may have had on us.
The word “Mature” actually means perfect and many stumble with this saying that no Christian is ever perfect. This use of perfect is different from verse 12. In verse 12 it means completed or accomplished (won the race), here it means complete in terms of growth of mental and moral character (ready to run the race).
In other words, having mature wisdom. Paul says that those of us who are mature/perfect will realize that we are not perfect in the first sense, as having finished. If we don’t come to that conclusion, he says God will let us know.
It’s very true that the most advanced Christians are the most humble. The closer you get to the goal of this race, Christ himself, the more you realize your own unworthiness.
The only way to relearn the past and use it to our benefit is to discipline our minds. Learn to think about the past differently, not allow our minds to go to that place of negativity and self-pity. Failure is inevitable at some point and any athlete who cannot let go of disappointment will slowly fade into oblivion, while the one who uses failure to improve is successful.
Everything first happens in our minds before it gets into our behaviour. So as Christians we need to be aware of our thinking and allow the Holy Spirit to constantly renew our minds. I feel very comfortable suggesting that if you have a problem in your spiritual life it starts in your mind, and if you can’t get that under control you will continue to struggle.
Think about this. How many things in life do you really have control over? Anything that involves another person or thing is out of your control at least to some extent. Our own bodies are not even under our control all the time. But our thoughts, well we may not believe it sometimes, but we can always, under every circumstance, choose how we are going to think.
Our thoughts are always under our control if we want them to be. Some of them may be automatic, but as soon as we are aware of them we can choose differently if we want to. The truth of our perception is relative. There are universal truths that can’t be negotiated, but our perceptions are always open to change.
Paul is telling us to let God examine our thoughts and tell us the truth about our status with him.
2. We also need to discipline Our Bodies (v.16)
Learning from the past requires discipline, which is obviously connected with the word disciple. Disciple means learner, discipline means training in self-control and obedience. In verse 16 Paul is calling us to be disciplined in what we have already learned or attained.
If we don’t follow the rules we’re eventually going to be disqualified. I think of all the steroid use in major league baseball. Baseball, come on. Football, even hockey, weight lifting, but baseball? Many of the recent stars of baseball have now admitted or been found guilty of using steroids. Some may face criminal charges, some have had their records taken away, all have disgraced themselves and damaged their sport.
In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul states that any man who enters an athletic contest practices rigid self-control in training. Disciples are in training, and Paul wants us to know that we need rigid discipline in our spiritual fitness. This is not legalistic obedience, but in order to change the old man with all its old habits we have to be very self-controlled. If I have been looking at pornography for twenty years, which by the way 4 out of ten Christian men and 2 out of ten Christian women do, it’s going to take extreme self-control, as well as prayer, to break that habit permanently.
Same with our spiritual disciplines. George Mueller, one of the most devoted Christians ever, wanted to pray for an extended period every morning. At first he got up at 6 am to pray but soon found that he needed more time, so he got up at 5:30. This pattern continued until he was getting up at 3:30 am to pray before going on to his daily duties. Can you imagine all the forces that would make you want to stay in bed sleeping? Talk about fighting your thoughts. But he said, the more time I spent with God, the more I wanted to, and over time this was no longer a chore but something I greatly looked forward to. Hard to imagine looking forward to getting up at 3:30 to pray isn’t it?
If you’re like me there have probably been times in your Christian life where you have said something like this: “Yeah, I know I will sit before the judgment seat but I know my salvation is safe and I’m willing to take a little criticism when I get there. After all we can’t be sad in heaven anyway right? I’m not really sinning when I don’t read my Bible or pray, or go to church once in while.”
Well, I don’t know how that’s going to go, but we better ask ourselves something. If I have the heart of Christ and the Holy Spirit in me, can I really have this attitude? If I truly have a saving relationship with Christ can I comfortably neglect my duties as his follower and child?
Let me quote James who says in chapter 2 verse 14, “what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have deeds? Can that faith save him?”
A very biting question isn’t it? This verse sends chills into me because I know that James is not talking about salvation by works. He is saying that if your faith does not demonstrate itself, it is probably not a saving faith.
Genuine saving faith is not simply an intellectual consent to certain truths without real trust in Christ as saviour, and just as importantly, Lord. Genuine faith transforms our hearts and causes the Holy Spirit to inhabit us, and James is saying that if there is no evidence of your faith, it may not even be a saving faith. I think we have been teaching for too long, that if we just say we believe in Jesus, we are saved. That is not what the Bible tells us.
Is it my intention to scare us? Well you know, maybe a little bit, if this passage scares me a little, I don’t want to be alone. But I hope you know that it comes from a place of love and concern for your souls. You have asked me to be your shepherd and sometimes we have to scare the sheep back into the pen so the wolves don’t get ‘em. We can’t afford to sit around and wait until it is more convenient to get serious about living out our faith. We are all perishing as soon as we come out of the hatch whether we want to accept it or not. And we are going to spend eternity somewhere.
Let’s forget about the past and start from scratch today. Let’s renew our faith today. Let’s proclaim our desire to surrender to Jesus as Lord of our lives, today. Let’s tell him we are sorry for putting him at the bottom of the pile in our lives, today. Let’s ask him for the strength and discipline to obey him, today. Let’s ask him to take over our minds and bodies which he purchased through his blood, today. Let’s thank him for his everlasting love that always gives us another chance, even when we walk away from him, today.
