Growing up in California, I used to hear about all the surfing that was going on. In surfing there always seems to be this search for the elusive perfect wave. The perfect wave has the right amount of curl, a perfect tube, just at the right height for the surfer. The wave isn’t too fast so that you can’t do tricks, but makes the surfer look good. The reef below is formed so that the wave breaks over it, but the reef is far enough down that if you wipe out you don’t get slammed into the coral. People I know have traveled to Fiji, Mexico, Hawaii, Australia, all searching for the perfect wave. It’s out there somewhere, that perfect wave, but no one has found it yet. In so much of life we are searching for perfection. I’m looking for the perfect golf swing, the perfect softball swing. Some people pay thousands of dollars trying to learn the perfect golf swing, and the ability to do it every time the ball is teed up and ready to fly 280 yards down the fairway.
Perfection is elusive I’ve discovered. We admire folks who we think run the perfect household, only to find out that perfection is elusive for them too. The perfect child doesn’t exist, and neither does the perfect parent. But there is that goal to achieve perfection in being the perfect daughter, the perfect son, the perfect parent. As a side note, I think perfection in being a brother or sister isn’t really a consideration, at least for me.
Perfection is elusive in most situations because it is unmeasureable. The right answer in math is perfect, it is easy to recognize. The right answer in handling a difficult situation with one’s neighbor is harder to recognize. The perfect solution, the perfect response, the perfect environment, all those are elusive. The perfect life, now that’s an even more elusive, harder to recognize place. Christians are to be perfect like Christ was perfect, but when I look at my life, I know at least I fall far short of perfection. I hate to dispel any illusions you might have of me, but that is completely true. It is frustrating, but true nonetheless. The Apostle Paul was dealing with this frustration as well, of wanting to be perfect, but knowing he really wasn’t.
Phil 3:12-21
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, 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.
15 All of us 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 with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say 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 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.
Let’s pray.
You remember from last time we were in the verses just prior to this, where Paul was talking about making Christ the first and total goal of life. Paul was expressing his deep desire to know more and more of Christ, and Him crucified. Paul was wanting to know Christ so deeply, so completely that Christ’s will would be Paul’s will. Paul wanted to be perfect in order to be like Jesus, in order to please His Lord, and not disappoint Him.
And then in this very personal letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians, the church he planted, and knew so well, Paul says, “I’m not there either.” Philippians is the letter of joy, Paul, the converted Jewish Pharisees and Christian persecutor, wrote to the church at Philippi. Because Paul knew this people, and considered them his equal in the mission and message of the gospel, he is more free to be real with them. This church doesn’t have the theological struggles of other, different churches Paul wrote to. So he is allowed to be himself a little more. He is allowed to be real, as it were, with the people he is writing to. We are allowed to see a side of Paul that makes him more human, more vulnerable, more real. What a gift. What a gift that we are allowed to be real in the church with our problems and struggles. The church is the place to say, “I’m struggling; I’m lonely; I’m hurt, I’m scared.” This ought not to be a place where everyone puts on a fake smile, but in this place, in this sanctuary we are allowed to be real with God, and real with each other. Paul puts it like this:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, 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.
There is a gift and a discipline in forgetting what has gone on before. When we take our sins to God, the free gift of His love is that our sins are wiped clean, they are subsumed into the blood of Christ. Our sins, when we bring them to Jesus in prayer, are made to be of no account. At the same time though, they still haunt us. We still dwell on past hurts we have caused, past harmful comments made, past times when we took advantage of other people. Our pasts continue to be brought before us by the devil. We are taunted and confined by the way we used to be. It is almost funny, Paul used to be the best Jew and he gave that life up. He gave up all the trust he put in being born a Jew, being a Pharisee and so forth. Paul gave up all those worldly assurances for Jesus. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Paul used to seek after perfection, and indeed, probably thought he had arrived at perfection. Then he met Christ, and realized how badly he had offended God.
Paul, you see, used to be really bad. This was a man who had been dedicated to stamping out the new church, this new religion based on following Jesus. He had people thrown in prison, he had people beaten. He watched and approved of the killing of one of the first martyrs in the church, Stephen. So Paul had not been a good guy. And yet, he has put all of that behind him. All of his sins were washed away by Christ, just like all of ours. When I look at the history of the people of God, there have always been bad people that God has changed. Who they were is not who they became. Moses was murderer, and yet God used Him to free the Israelites from Egypt. It was to the murderer Moses that the most important part of the OT was given, the first 5 books of the Bible. God changed Moses into the greatest leader the Israelites ever had. King David was an adulterer and a murderer. He wrote beautiful psalms, was the best King Israel ever had. He was a man after God’s own heart, and yet he impregnated another man’s wife, and then to cover it up, had the man killed. So whatever you’ve done, whatever is in your past, I assure you God can still use you, God still loves you. Put the past behind you, because it is no longer you, no longer can it be used to hold you back in your ministry, or lower your self esteem in Christ. What done is done. You have been forgiven by God. It might be, though, that you need to seek forgiveness from the person you sinned against. We are not perfect, but we are striving toward perfection, just like Paul.
Paul uses the image of running a race, “pressing on toward the goal to win the prize.” Paul uses this image also at the end of chapter 9 in First Corinthians. There is such a thing as winning in the race we Christians are running. We run in order to hear Jesus say to us, ’Well done.” We don’t want to live our lives so that Jesus says to us, “well, you’re here.” We want to hear Him say ‘well done, my good and faithful child. Well done.’ That’s the prize, that our lives would be used by God for His glory. We act and live our lives in such a way that we reflect God’s glory to our communities. And that doesn’t mean we are perfect. It means we allow God to be perfecting us our whole lives, changing us over time into His image. We will never be perfect, but that doesn’t mean we give up trying. It means when we fail we get back up and keep running. This isn’t a sprint race, this is a marathon. Not that I am already perfected, but I press on. We can’t press on while holding on to past sins and hurts. We have to leave those things by the side of the road, and keep pressing on toward the goal. All the things that hinder us in our past have to be left behind. We cannot hold onto them, and keep moving forward. It is too much.
All of us 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.
I’m not very happy with the NIV’s translation of these two verses. The general idea is that there is unity within the believers, at least the mature ones. God will make clear anyone who is a little off track. Stick with what you know, rather than wandering off theologically into the unknown. Eugene Peterson translates this passage as follows: “So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision-you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.”
We are on the path toward perfection, but we are easily distracted, easily discouraged. Take heart, says Paul. Keep together. And you already know what you should be doing. Keep going. If a new situation arises, the Holy Spirit will lead you in the way you should be going. All of what Paul said is absolutely true. It was no easier or harder to follow Christ then as now. Keep living in such a way as people know whose you are, who you follow. When new situations arise, as they have in the 1950 years since this was written, the Holy Spirit has guided us. There is no reason to think otherwise. Like I said, this is a marathon. The marathon path is the only path, but if we get distracted, we can certainly get back on the path. God will make clear, through our consciences, through other people telling us, that we’re off track, and need to get back on.
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say 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 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.
This letter to the Philippians is a letter of joy, but it is also a letter of encouragement, and a letter about being wary. Paul knows these Christians in Philippi, that they live as sheep among wolves. These new Christians are threatening the livelihood on many people. The people who run the pagan temples were well paid for the religious experiences people wanted. The people who claimed to have secret knowledge of special words, gateway words that would get a person through to higher and higher planes of the heavens, these people were threatened by Christianity. Ordinary folks would pay the people with special knowledge for those passwords, for the secret knowledge. And yet, these Christians were happy to give away the truth, happy to share Christ with others for free. The folks in charge of the temple didn’t like having their income reduced, or trifled with. Many people lived then as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Same as now. There are many people who seek to reduce Christianity to a social club, reduce Christians as well meaning do gooders, but misguided and duped. The newest rage in this area is The DaVinci Codes. The author has set about, through an admittedly fiction novel, to create disbelief in the Bible, God’s Word. Many people in our country will read the Da Vinci Codes; and a mere percentage will read the Christian rebuttals to it. This trend, people attacking Christianity, is nothing new. We can read about it in Act Chapter 19, when in Ephesus a silversmith, whose livelihood was threatened by Christians who didn’t believe in idols. The silversmith was offended by Paul saying that man made gods are no gods at all, worship the real God. Paul was nearly killed before order was restored in the town.
There have always been people who desire to kill Christianity. Presently we have the Middle East, with all the Muslims persecuting Christians. And we still have communist nations persecuting Christianity, places like North Korea and China. These are enemies of the cross of Christ, enemies of God’s goals and purposes. These are people who seek their own glory, who seek to promote themselves instead of Christ.
This is nothing new. There is nothing new under the sun. Their minds are on things of this earth, they live as though they will never have to answer for their actions, as though God didn’t exist, didn’t know what was happening here on earth. These people are focused on this temporary place. They live as though this is all there is, all there ever will be. They are wrong, with deadly consequences. When we head out into the world each week we head out into a world of active enemies of Christ, into a world of apathy and people who have been inoculated against real belief in Jesus, a world hostile to the claims of Christ.
And we always will. We will always live in a world that is hostile to Christ. Until Jesus comes back, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess, we will live in a world not only ignoring, but actively undermining and fighting against Christ and his followers. Take heart, because Christ has overcome the world. We have several reasons not to throw up our hands and give up. First, Christ is in control. This is the world the Father created, He knows the world, and He is in control of the world. God is all-powerful, and all-knowing. Do not despair, but know that God knows, and nothing happens outside His knowledge, His control. The second reason is that this world is not our home. Paul emphasizes again the hope of Heaven, the end goal, the place Christians belong is with the God they love, and thus this world is not our home. This is not the place we ultimately belong. We are destined for heaven, all who believe in Christ and call upon His name as the Savior.
We are seeking, and aiming for perfection. Many people aren’t even trying, but have given into the ways of the world. They have stopped trying to live for God and live only for themselves. I was listening to a couple of college professors talking around this situation. They seem to feel that young people today aren’t even interested in living life well, they aren’t interested in perfection. There is no trying to attain lofty ideals, there is only really the pursuit of the allmighty dollar. There is no concept of what we are really living life for, so sticking their heads up to look around at the beauty and majesty and wonder of God, but rather just the pursuit of the good life, whatever that is. If there is no striving attain, striving to become something great in Christ, then our lives can be reduced to just dealing with one thing after another. Who wants to live like that? How depressing, just dealing with one darn thing after another.
We should be seeking greatness in this life, greatness in Christ. We should be desiring to live life to the fullest for Christ, instead of living the day to day for ourselves.
Perfection like climbing the mountain, pule pule. Say it, slowly slowly. Slowly climbing the mountian. We seek perfection because it honors God and our effort shows our love for God. We already are perfect in Christ. God sees us in Christ as already perfect, but we continue to strive upward toward perfection because the effort is honoring to God. As we go higher and higher we discover things are harder than we thought. It is more difficult to forgive, more difficult to keep striving for perfection. But the more we are perfected, the more God can use us.
