Not Perfect Yet

Philippians 3:12-14 (NKJV)
¹² 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. ¹³ 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, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

        This side of heaven, we will never be perfect. Even though the child of God stands perfected in Christ’s righteousness at salvation, we still live in a sin stained world. Paul realized that also. But this did not stop him from pursuing perfection. Comparing ourselves to others or measuring our successes to the success of others is not wise. The only standard is Jesus Christ. If we compare ourselves to Jesus, we will not get confused by defining success as anything but righteousness.

        Perfection is not doing everything right or making no mistakes at all. But perfection is maturity in Christ. As we depend on Him and walk in the fullness of the Spirit of God, we then can allow Christ’s purifying work in our life. We cannot do this in and of ourselves. We need to walk by faith, humbly, willingly, submitting ourselves to the will of God. We then can allow Christ to mold us into His image. Faithfully reading His word and daily prayer are some of the most key elements to this process.

        Paul reminds us in vs. 13 that a key element in this striving process is forgetting the past. That which we dwell on is that which we will become. Solomon says, “For as he thinks inhis heart, so is he”, (Prov. 23:7a). We need to focus on Christ moment by moment and not get distracted with the daily affairs of life. As we focus on Christ, our mind needs to be enveloped with pleasing God and not others. Each decision in life must be for the sake of Christ and His plan and purpose for our life.

        Our ultimate goal is heaven, which is secure at the moment of salvation. But there is a striving in this current world. The word for “press toward” has the idea of pursuing after something in a hostile manner. We are in a hostile world. The choices we make are continual and sometimes very difficult. We must set our goal on being like Christ and compromising for nothing less than Christ likeness. Walking in maturity, being faithful and loving everyone unconditionally are life time challenges. This requires focus on Christ and uncompromising desire in order to accomplish it. This is our part. We then must be arrested to ourselves and to our own power. We then need to completely rely on the strength of Christ to accomplish this.

        Thoughts, comments, objects, prayer requests.

Daniel A. Smith

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