Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
By the time the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Philippi he’d been serving Jesus for about 30 years. He had suffered much for the gospel: imprisonments, hunger, illness, persecution, stoning, and as he mentions in today’s reading the loss of all he once held dear to his former Jewish faith and heritage. The words spoken by Jesus to Ananias at Paul’s conversion certainly came to pass: “…he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” Paul knew suffering. But he would not be turned aside from the grace of God given him in Christ Jesus and kept on going after many other men might have quit.
Pressing on. Paul understood what long-distance runners know. When your legs feel like lead, when your heart seems burdened beyond ability, when your lungs scream for more air, when your thirst rises and your mind begins to fog from the effort you have expended running so far, it’s time to refocus your mind on the goal, ignore the pleading of your body for rest and press on – until you reach your goal.
Dr. Bruce Demarest, an evangelical professor and author wrote in his book The Cross and Salvation: “God has called us to gain the heavenly prize. Our divine vocation is not a life of ease and pleasure, but one of self-denial as we strive for the heavenly goal.” Indeed, the crucified life of every believer will demonstrate various kinds of self denial and hard, focused effort as we serve Jesus in the places where He has placed each of us.
Ardent baseball fans will remember Kirby Puckett, who died suddenly in 2006. He had led the Minnesota Twins to championship victories in 1987 and 1991. Even though he was offered larger contracts by other teams, he stayed with the Twins for his entire career. When Puckett was diagnosed with glaucoma in 1996, his career ended abruptly. During Puckett’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, he recalled the difficulties he had faced when growing up. His passion to become a professional baseball player was subject to temptation many times. Drug dealers and gang members repeatedly invited him to join in their destructive lifestyle. But whenever temptation enticed him, Kirby remembered that he had a higher calling—baseball.
It is much the same for each of us who know Christ. Even though we are urged to “walk worthy of the calling with which [we] were called” (Eph. 4:1), we live in a world where we face distracting enticements. Maybe we’re offered a job that pays well but requires that we compromise biblical principles. Maybe it would seem more pleasant to reduce our Sunday worship frequency so we can fill our weekend with more recreation or other endeavors. Perhaps certain sins tempt us to let our faith in Christ cool down so the voice of our conscience becomes weaker. Prayer? Are we finding other things to occupy our minds and invest our time than keeping our heart tuned to God’s voice? Well, despite the constant pull of the world, our culture and our sinful natures, our calling is always to do God’s will. We have a higher calling, an upward calling that pulls our hearts and minds toward eternal things. May we listen and respond to God in every area of our lives.
How can we do so? First, let me share what seems to be a little secret about how God works in your lives. Much of the time, you won’t really feel like He’s doing anything. Why? Simply because most of your service for God happens in your everyday life and activities. Sometimes the Christian life is portrayed as a special, high-intensity spiritual adventure. While at times it may well be, for most people faith is simply lived in the mundane events of family, work, community, recreation, and various duties of life. And it is in these everyday tasks that we may well find ourselves challenged, fatigued and in danger of turning aside from our race.
When a mother finds that her children take so much of her time and energies so that she barely has ability to also be a loving wife to her husband, it is hard to press on. When the relationships in a family are challenged by hard circumstances or even sinful behaviors or addictions, emotions become frayed, hearts heavily burdened, and conversations become filled with anger and pain, it is hard to press on. When a father is heavily stressed at work or perhaps even unemployed and sees himself as failing his family responsibilities, it is hard to press on. When illness and aging, when injuries and death, when economic disaster drags on for months and years, it is hard to press on. Yet it is precisely in all these things that Jesus seeks to give you strength, to give you hope, to give you a goal that can provide incentive and motivation to endure and succeed in His purpose for your life.
I wish that I could say that every Christian’s life would occupy a pleasant and comfortable place in God’s earthly kingdom. But due to the reality of sin and its curse such is not always so. In many places today, simply being Christian invites suffering. In N. Korea, fellow believers are often arrested, placed in concentration style camps, subjected to psychological and physical torture, starved, and killed. In various Muslim and Hindu lands, their homes and farms may be burned or stolen, their children taken, enslaved, their daughters and wives violated, and men beaten or cruelly killed. But even in more pleasant lands such as our own, a faithful believer may be paralyzed or suffer from a horrific medical condition that makes life truly miserable, painful, and often much shorter than it should be. Lawfare, that is bringing lawsuits and court action to harass Christians and churches is on the rise. Some less trainable or bodily capable believers may be unable to get jobs that pay enough to live on and must endure continual poverty and dangerous neighborhoods.
Paul’s words of hope are not only directed to people in pleasant places. They also speak to believers who truly know what it means to suffer. But they speak no less to us who live in a nation that has historically enjoyed some of the greatest freedom and prosperity ever known on earth. Still, as we run our own races, at times we will become fatigued and discouraged, wondering if we can ever reach the goal line.
I am reminded of the motto of a Christian mission society whose logo featured two oxen yoked together by a harness that went around the neck of both animals. The motto read: “For service or for sacrifice.” The idea was that when a person truly gave themselves over to the work of the gospel, they gave everything. God would use them wherever they were sent. They might serve until old age or they might be martyred young for their witness.
I think this is a good way for each Christian to view our faith and service to Christ. It is his place to call us to faith, to empower us to live for him wherever we find ourselves, and to guarantee us our everlasting joy in heaven. It is our place to trust in his will for our lives. Perhaps we will find pleasant fields to harvest. Perhaps our lives will be more of a sacrifice. Either way, we serve Him as He wishes. We press on where God has assigned us to run. What matters is that we run our race with endurance that Jesus will supply. He will make sure that we accomplish everything vital for his kingdom as we trust in his gracious and infinite love.
Years ago, a missionary to India gave up much comfort to find harsh adversity and trials in her work. She wrote a poem that ends this way:
Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod; make me thy fuel, Flame of God.
– Amy Carmichael
Her lyrics reflect the passion and purpose that we find in the Apostle Paul’s words today. Only by receiving God’s gifts through faith can His love, hope, and passion strengthen us to press on when life tires, discourages, or overwhelms us. God can fuel us and make us to burn brightly in this dark world of sin and unbelief. He can use our lives to form faith in the hearts of our children and others whom we find in our circle of family, friends, and community. He can rekindle the smoldering embers of our own faith if we hear his call, believe his word, and turn to Him in faith and prayer. And his flame will bring light to our own souls, and with light hope, and with hope determination.
Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The secret to being a successful endurance runner and also an enduring Christian is precisely what Paul has written in today’s reading.
1) Let Jesus be your highest treasure. (v. 7-8). “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” What things do you value now that might be wiser to discard or let go? I encourage you to let nothing hinder your life in Christ.
2) Set your heart and mind on the truly worthy goal and prize. (v. 8-11) “…that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Let God’s promises and Holy Spirit set your heart on truly eternal things. Remember that this life and all that is in it will surely pass away. Jesus and his kingdom are forever.
3) Forget your failures of the past. Know that any sins are forgiven in Christ. Keep your eyes on the goal and press on no matter how hard it gets. (v. 13-13) “… But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Sure, it will be hard at times, maybe even most of the time. But you can know that Jesus will strengthen you to accomplish all that is important for you to do. You may not accomplish everything you’d like, but in the long run, that won’t matter a bit.
You may have heard or read the familiar saying that goes: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last?” What you may not know is the rest of the poem. Here it is: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, if the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.”
He sounds like someone who kept pressing on. May we also take to heart the words of the Apostle and by the grace of Jesus our Lord find the strength, determination, and energy to do the same.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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