I. Introduction
A. It took Winston Churchill 3 years to get through 8th grade because he had trouble learning Latin and consistently finished at the very bottom of his class. Ironically, years later, in the midst of WW2, he was asked to speak at the Oxford University commencement exercises. The popular myth is that he spoke only the three words, “Never give up,” repeated once more, before sitting down.
The truth is that his speech was a bit longer, about 20 minutes, during which he made the following statement: “But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period — I am addressing myself to the School — surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”
B. Unfortunately, when it comes to spiritual matters, we all know others who have given up. Some give up when the path just gets to seem too difficult, and the trials overwhelm them. Some give up when the path gets too easy, and they simply forget about God. Some give up not due to external influences at all, but because they lose faith in their own ability to endure.
C. In the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, while Paul doesn’t come right out and say “don’t give up,” he gives us a great guide for how to avoid doing so.
1. In the beginning of Philippians 3, Paul reminds us that through faith we can have a blessing that is so great as to make everything else in this world mere rubbish in comparison. Phil 3:8-11 reads in the NKJV, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from 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, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
He says that our righteousness comes “from God by faith.” It is a gift of God. In contrast, he said in verse 3 that we are to have “no confidence in the flesh,” that is, in God owing us salvation due to our innate goodness or our righteous actions.
2. Yet, even though our righteousness and salvation come as God’s gift and not as our just wages, there is still the need for us to conduct ourselves carefully in order to be eligible for that gift, as Paul warned in Phil 2:12. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling….”
3. In the next section of chapter 3, as Paul tells us how he goes about seeking to attain the resurrection, he really gives us the key to never giving up. This key can be summarized in three things:
•How we deal with the past.
•How we deal with the future.
•How we deal with the present.
Let’s read what he says there in Phil 3:12-16. “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.”
II. Paul first addresses how we deal with the past.
A. Paul says he is willing to lose everything, considering it as only trash that he had more than willingly dumped, so that he might “attain to the resurrection from the dead.” He then goes on in verses 12-13a to say, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended….”
B. Paul begins by saying, “Not that I have already attained.”
1. What is Paul saying? He says:
•“I know I haven’t arrived yet.”
•“The race isn’t over; I don’t yet have the prize.”
•“I can’t rest upon my laurels.”
2. He then says, “[nor] am I perfected.”
•“I am not completed; I’m not fully matured.”
•“I am not yet fully the servant of God that He wants me to be.”
•“I am not done growing spiritually.”
3. One of our greatest dangers is that we become too comfortable with how our life is going. We were baptized long ago. We have learned much about the Bible and done much for the church. Life is going pretty smoothly and we aren’t wrestling with any big sins at the moment. And we simply forget to include God intimately in our daily lives, we quit growing, we quit praying, and we eventually just … quit.
4. Nowhere does God suggest that being a Christian will be or even should be a comfortable thing. He tells us we must deny ourselves (Mt 16:24). We must take up a cross (Lk 14:27). We must be willing to give up material possessions (Lk 14:33). We must die to this world as surely as Christ was crucified (Gal 2:20).
5. Matt 5 lists the beatitudes, the blessings, that God bestows upon us. But look who it is that he blesses!
•Matt 5:3 the poor in spirit. Not those who are not spiritual, but those who are not proud, those who have been humbled.
•Matt 5:4 those who mourn. He doesn’t ask us to grieve over lost loved ones, but He blesses those who grieve over their own sins.
•Matt 5:6 those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Not those who have reached a comfortable level of knowledge and purity, but those who ache with a desire to perfect themselves more before God.
•Matt 5:10 those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. The world doesn’t persecute those who are comfortably enjoying the luxuries of their home.
6. C. S. Lewis once said, “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
7. In Amos 4:1, Amos is preaching to an Israel that had become plush with luxuries while devoid of spirituality. In the previous verse, He presented God’s promise to destroy those luxuries, the winter house and the summer house, the houses of ivory, and the great houses. He then addresses them. “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria.” Bashan was ultra-lush pastureland. He basically says, “You have become a bunch of fat cows standing around enjoying your rich pasture!” If we have grown comfortable with our Christianity, then we are almost certainly in trouble.
8. Thus Paul goes on in Phil 3:13 to say, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended.” “Apprehended” means “laid hold of.” Paul realized that the prize was not yet his, so he continued to “work out [his] salvation with fear and trembling.”
C. Of course, another way the past can hinder us is the exact opposite of resting upon our laurels; we can become discouraged by how terribly we have sinned and failed God, ourselves, and our loved ones in the past. Ironically, this feeling of powerlessness to become anything good can only happen when we first put our faith in our power to save ourselves through our own goodness. This was the mistake of the Judaizing teachers that Paul warned of in the beginning of this chapter.
In contrast, he says we are not to have faith in ourselves, in our own fleshly abilities and worth and actions, but faith in Christ’s ability to make us righteous. Phil 3:3,9 reads, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…. [9] and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith….”
God expects us to strive to live purely, but ultimately our righteousness does not come from how successfully we do this, but our righteousness comes as a gift from God when we have faith and confidence in Christ. We cannot mess our lives up so badly that God cannot give us the gift of righteousness.
D. But whether we consider our past lives as a pile of dung or a work of art, Paul says in verse 13, “one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”
III. So while the first key to never giving up is to stop dwelling upon the past, the second key is to look forward to our future.
A. In verse 14, Paul says, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” We need to have our minds firmly fixed upon the prize, “the upward call of God,” that is, God calling us upward to heaven. The world tells us that our goal should be wealth, or comfort, or excitement, or even just happiness. To overcome that influence, we need to be constantly reading, thinking, talking, and praying about heaven, so that it is ever in the forefront of our minds.
In 1954, there was an epic mile race between Roger Bannister and John Landy, the only two men in the world who had run a mile in under 4 minutes. In the final lap, the two men were running stride for stride, with Landy just ahead of Bannister. As they came to the homestretch, with the crowd roaring, Landy couldn’t hear Bannister’s footsteps behind him. In a fatal lapse of concentration, he took his off eye off the finish line and looked back over his shoulder. In that instant, Bannister launched an attack and surged past him, winning by five yards. We can only surely run this race of life by constantly keeping our eye upon the goal.
B. Paul also described himself in verse 13 as “reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” The word translated there as “reaching” is very emphatic in the Greek. It is in some versions translated as “straining.” The Pulpit Commentary says it means that the athlete throws himself forward in the race with all of his energies strained to the very utmost. We need to not only be looking forward to and moving toward our heavenly goal, but we must be working, even straining, to take that prize.
There is always more to do to move us forward: maturing, growing more spiritual, learning every nuance of God’s word, becoming more successful in our struggles with sin, becoming more prayerful and more loving. But instead of straining, have we settled in for the long haul, pacing ourselves in the expectation that there is a long race yet ahead of us? Or are we truly straining toward that prize with everything that we have to give? Forgetting the successes and failures of our past, we need to have our eyes fixed firmly upon the goal of heaven, straining with our entire being to reach it.
C. In verse 15, Paul says “Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” He says those who are spiritually mature will agree that we must forget the past and press feverishly toward our resurrection. He also says that if you don’t yet quite see it that way, God will reveal this to you as you mature.
IV. In verse 16, having dealt with the past and with the future, Paul turns us back to the present. “Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.” The ESV reads, “Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”
A. While the full meaning of this seems to have lost something in translation, the idea seems to be that Paul, having just admitted to his own imperfection and having just acknowledged that some of them were not yet mature enough to recognize the truth he spoke, says they each needed to be doing all they could with whatever degree of spiritual maturity they had attained so far.
B. Though our eye needs to be firmly fixed upon our eternal future, we need to be sure that we are, in the here and now, fully engaged in that straining. It is easy to say and sometimes even true that in a little more time:
•I will have more to give.
•I will have fewer distractions.
•I will know more and be better able to teach.
•I will have more time available for the church.
•I will have better secured my future years and will be able to turn my attention more fully to spiritual matters.
But Paul says that, even as we look forward to our future goal, we have to be vigorously doing all that we can right now. To do otherwise is to drift into contentment, and then into stagnation, and then into oblivion.
Right now, without waiting for a better time:
•Am I doing all that I can for my brethren?
Helping them in small ways or large?
Encouraging them and helping them grow through my participation in classes and services?
•Am I showing my neighbors how different godly love is from that they see from the rest of the world?
•Am I supporting the congregation with all that I can give of my wealth and of my time and of my effort?
•Am I increasing my knowledge of the Bible? [Volunteering to teach is a great way to force yourself to do that.]
•Am I overcoming sin in my life? Not just the big ones, but all of it?
V. So, this is how we ensure that we never give up as we strive to “attain the resurrection from the dead.”
•Forget the past.
•Fix heaven firmly as our future goal.
•And in the present strain with all we have got to get us there and to serve God to our utmost, right here and now.
Introduction adapted from “Never Give Up!” by Davon Huss and illustration borrowed from “Pressing Toward the Prize” by David Owens, as posted on SermonCentral.
