Spiritual Goals
Every January 1st, millions of people set new goals for the year. We call them resolutions as in, I am resolved to eat better or lose 10 lbs or quit a bad habit… Everyone should have goals in life – whether it be a fitness goal, a career goal, a new behavior goal or a spiritual goal. Goals will reveal a person’s priorities or perceived needs. As believers, we need to pay attention to our spiritual goals. They should be the one priority that shapes all the other goals in our life. In this chapter, Paul lays out some spiritual goals we can adopt. They are not easy but worth striving for and, worth becoming our priority as we walk with Christ. Unlike the New Years resolutions that are sometimes broken by January 2nd, these goals are needed for a life-long deep relationship with God.
Vs 1-9 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a protection for you. Watch out for “dogs,” watch out for evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh, although I once also had confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
As Paul has done in his other letters, he warns the churches against falling for the lies of false prophets and teachers. He wants the church to be protected from people who would lead them astray. Who are those people? They are described as “dogs”, evil workers and those who mutilate the flesh. These are those teachers who believed the law was the way to salvation. Make no mistake, there is nothing wrong with the law. It is God’s holy law, therefore perfect and good, but it is not the way to salvation. So if there is nothing wrong with the law, what is the problem? It is our inability to keep God’s law that is the problem. In fact, God’s law was never intended to be our salvation. The law’s intent was to show us what holiness looks like, therefore showing us our need for a Savior. Paul reminds the Philippians church that he had, at one time, all the confidence in the law as a means to salvation. He takes them through his credentials: circumcised on the 8th day, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee who kept the law, zealous for the Lord… But none of that saved him. It was only through his encounter with Jesus that salvation was made possible. All of his great credentials, all of his gains, are in the loss column because of Christ. When Christ became our Yom Kippur – our Atonement – he fulfilled the law and brought salvation to the world. Righteousness cannot be achieved through the law because we cannot keep it perfectly – no matter how hard we try or how good we are. We will always fall short of God’s glory. So Paul warns the church to beware of those who say otherwise. They want to take our attention away from the work of Christ and focus in on our own works. They want to require certain things, like circumcision, as a means to salvation even though it cannot save. He says, “not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.” Salvation, then, comes by faith in Christ who is righteous, not a righteousness we cannot hope to achieve through the law. The law shows us we are hopelessly flawed, so God provides a way through Christ who is wondrously righteous.
Vs 10-14 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
In light of this, Paul begins to give us his goals. The Greek word for goal is skopos, a word that describes the end marker of a foot race or a final objective. We get the English word scope from this, as in a scope on a rifle that brings the target into focus. So when Paul is talking about goals, he is talking about a priority in his life that he is willing to pursue until the end. He is focused on it. Before, his priority was to follow the law, but with the realization of the impossibility of that, he now fixes his eyes on goals born out of his faith in Christ. He wants to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. He wants to know the fellowship of His sufferings. He wants to be conformed to His death and reach the resurrection from among the dead. These are lofty goals, but not impossible ones, for Christ has gone before us and fulfilled each of these. Let’s break these down. Power of His Resurrection: He desires the same power God used to bring about the resurrection of Jesus working in his life. Jesus’ resurrection provides power for the living – we can only walk in faith because of the power of God who raised Jesus from the dead. Fellowship of His Suffering: This is not to say Paul thought any suffering he encountered paved the way toward salvation. What he wants is to totally die to self as Jesus did. Jesus said, “not my will but Thine be done,” and then walked willing to the cross. Conform to His Death and Reach the Resurrection: So when you allow God’s resurrection power to work in your life, and you die to self allowing God to direct your every step, then you do not fear death or anything that may happen to you, for it will lead to being in the presence of God. He is confident of his eternal destiny with Christ because of Christ’s work on the cross- in total contrast to those who would have us “earn” our salvation through works.
So his goals are set, but not reached yet. Paul doesn’t even consider himself to be fully mature! He makes every effort to reach the goals by relying on Christ to achieve them. He reminds us, it isn’t about perfection, it is about pursuit. It’s not about having already reached it – this is a lifetime race – only finished when life is done. It is also a race to strive forward – forgetting what’s behind you. This is one of the most important things about running the race. We cannot focus on all the failures and falls of the past. We must continue forward to pursue the goal. Often we tend to focus in on our failures. We bring up all the things we’ve done wrong and all the many mistakes we’ve made. If we keep doing that, we will never move forward. It takes a lot of energy to constantly go over everything from the past. Paul says he forgets what’s behind him. He doesn’t focus on all his mistakes, his misinterpretations and all the things he had done in the name of the law. If he dwelt on them, he would have never moved on. Satan would like nothing more than to have us dwell on all our past failures. He has goals as well. He doesn’t want us to move forward, instead he wants us to wallow in our self-pity. But God reminds us He has forgiven us. He tells us when we are weak, He is strong. He sent His Son so we might have salvation. He knew we couldn’t fulfill the law and so He made a way for us. When I was coaching cross country, I would always tell my runners not to look back because it would only slow them down. I would have them watch races where runners were so concerned with what was going on around them, they lost their focus and the race. This is true in life as well. If we keep looking back, reliving all of life’s mistakes and regrets, we will never be able to move forward. God’s grace has covered everything. We need to keep our eye on the final goal in front of us. That is the “prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” God is inviting us to partner with Him in His kingdom work.
Vs 15-21 Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.
When we begin to run the race, facing forward striving toward the skopos, the end marker, we will become more and more mature. As we mature we begin to develop the mind of Christ. If we are not mature, Paul’s prayer is that God would reveal our need to strive forward so we can have the mind of Christ. Paul then exhorts the Philippians church to imitate him and live according to the examples they have of mature believers. Who are your examples? Do you have mentors you can imitate? Do you have spiritual heroes who inspire you? I have had many people along the way who have inspired and taught me. One such couple is Ray and Helen Reynolds. I was blessed with the opportunity of working with them in Belgium several years ago in an International English speaking congregation. I served as the youth minister and Ray was the pastor. One of the many things I learned from them is how to serve with joy. Their love for the Lord was evident making their joy contagious. The other thing I learned from them was to continuously strive to walk in humility and purity. They lived out the beatitudes in their mercy and pure hearts, their gentleness and hunger and thirst for righteousness. Lastly, I learned what it meant to have a strong faith. They truly walked everyday with God, and God used them to inspire many people. I have lost count of the numbers of men and women who came out of their church called by God into the ministry. These are the people each of us need in our lives. Men and women of God who can inspire and teach and whom we can imitate.
It is so important in these days to set our eyes on the prize and surround ourselves with individuals who can help us along the way. The world is filled with enemies who would like nothing more than to tear us down and distract us from the goal. Some of these enemies are even good people. They may even be people in our churches or leaders in our congregations. The problem is they are focused on the things of this earth instead of kingdom things. They want a prize that will fade away instead of the prize that is eternal. As Paul says here, “but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Hebrews 12:1-2 gives us our goal in a nutshell, “Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.” First, learn from that great cloud of witnesses. There are those who have gone before you, Billy Graham, Dietrich Bonhoffer, Corrie Ten Boon, Mother Teresa… Then there are those who are right here and right now – surround yourself with those men and women who will inspire and teach you. Second, lay aside all the things that distract you, all the things from your past that defeat you, and the sin that ensnares you so you can run the race without the things that weigh you down. Third, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. For he is the One who is the source and perfecter of our faith. He is the One who endured the cross and now sits at the right hand of God’s throne. When we pursue Him with joyful abandon, then we will finally discover the prize – God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
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