Philippians #3: Forgetting What Lies Behind & Pressing On To What Lies Ahead

In the third chapter of the book of Philippians, the apostle Paul speaks of his own perspective on his life, and in the process he presents a principle that is critical to learn for everyone who would be used of God, or be successful in any endeavor for that matter. The context of Paul stating this principle is his speaking of his overarching goal of knowing Christ personally and experimentally: Philippians 3:10-14: “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

It is believed that Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians around 63 AD, or thirty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul at this point in time had been a believer for perhaps as many as 28 years. He had already completed his three missionary journeys, and planted every church he would plant. All that Paul had written about his hardships to the Corinthians in his second letter to them, had long ago occurred: 2 Corinthians 11:24-27: “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” This book of Philippians was one of Paul’s prison epistles, and really all that we know that Paul would do from this point on his life is write some more prison epistles. Paul was an elderly man at this time, you see.

So, why am I telling you these things about Paul? Its because the fact that he wrote these things to the Philippians at this point in his life that makes them even more poignant. Paul tells them, ‘I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus…I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet.” The man who has been called “the most successful Christian ever,” one who was used to plant more churches than any other apostle, and the one who wrote more of the New Testament than any of the other apostles, was still trying to attain that which he had been called to attain. Amazing! He tells us that he is always “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”

If I were the apostle, I would be thinking of all of the things that I had already accomplished. I would be writing my memoirs, creating my monuments, and living on the laurels of what I had already accomplished. I would be content for having served the Lord and finished the calling that God had for me. But, not the apostle Paul. He was always looking to what God had for him to do today, always ready to step out in a venture of faith and see how God would meet him, always ready to be used, stretched, and expanded by God. Oh, how we in the church need to be like Paul and always looking to the future and the upward calling of God for our lives.

So many of us are stuck and can’t get passed the past. We cannot achieve our goals, can’t enjoy life or be successful, because of paralysis caused by the past, or simply because we are looking backwards instead of forward. Paul would teach us that we should never let one day’s events keep us from fulfilling that which the Lord wants us to do today.

Jesus told His disciples in Luke 9:62 that any disciple who looked back to his old like was not fit or worthy for His kingdom, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” A Commentary Critical And Explanatory states: “Looking back is sure to end in going back (Lu 9:62): So Lot’s wife (Lu 17:32). If in stemming a current we cease pulling the oar against it, we are carried back. God’s word to us is as it was to Israel, “Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward” (Ex 14:15). The Bible is our landmark to show us whether we are progressing or retrograding.”

In sports, one of the things that athletes have to learn to be successful is to not let failure on a previous play affect them on the next play. Some athletes are more susceptible to this than others. A baseball player might strike out a couple of times at the beginning of the game, and then his head is down and he is down on himself the rest of the game. I have seen baseball pitchers have their fielders make a couple of errors, and suddenly they are afraid to throw a strike because they don’t feel like their team will back them up. Sometimes a batter or two will get a big hit, maybe a homerun, and suddenly they lose their confidence and cannot perform successfully.

In baseball, players need to recognize that if you are unsuccessful at the plate 7 out of 10 times, you are considered a good hitter. Yet, baseball players often lose their swagger and confidence at the plate after only a couple of failures.

The players that stay focused and confident through failure after failure often find themselves in a position to win a game at the end, and this one play that they might make (such as a walk off game winning hit, for instance), makes them extremely valuable to their team. If players will simply be patient and not get ruffled, the game will usually come to them, and they will make a big play. Magic Johnson, and even Kobe Bryant, are basketball players who were always able to influence their whole team to just settle down and remain patient and confident.

There is another application of this principle that we can make for athletes. Many athletes don’t understand that genetics are not enough in order for an athlete to achieve greatness and do great things in their sport. Genetics are an ingredient in accomplishing great things athletically, but athletes also have to have a good work ethic, both in their in season and out of season workouts, and, they need to continue to get better every single day. One athlete we were interviewing for SportsFaith said, “You are either getting better or you are getting worse.” There is no plateau where an athlete maintains a certain level of play. He has to always be working on mechanics and improving his speed, agility, strength, and quickness, or he reverts in his ability. It is a very rare professional athlete who can take very much time off from his sport and then be able to come back and perform at the same or superior level.

After Michael Phelps won more gold medals than anyone in history in swimming at this past Olympics, he was asked how he had been able to do this. His answer didn’t have anything to do with his genetic makeup or body type. He said that he and his team gained the edge by working out all seven days of every week, not six. Therefore, they had 52 more workouts per year than their competitors.

There is also no plateau that we as Christians reach in our spiritual life where we maintain a certain spirituality. You are either growing as a Christian or you are backsliding. One person once called backsliding “slack-abiding’ to emphasize that you really don’t have to do anything to backslide.

Most of us who are Christians have some emotional baggage that we carry around with us from our past, and our memories can hinder us. Here are some things that I have discovered can keep Christians looking in the past instead of pressing on towards the upward call of God and looking to those things that are future:

• Failures.
• Fear of failure.
• Unforgiveness and bitterness towards those who have hurt us.
• Failure to trust God.
• Self pity.
• Our past achievements.
• Laziness.
• Apathy.

The list above consists of items that we in our Christian walk must learn to have victory. When we think about all that Paul endured as a missionary for Christ, he could have used any of those excuses for why he was satisfied in what he had already achieved. There are many admonitions and promises from scripture that can help us to overcome each one of these. Warren Wiesrsbe in his Hebrews commentary states the following about allowing Jesus to lead us in victory in every struggle and challenge in our life: “Hebrews 2:10 calls Him “the Pioneer [captain] of their salvation,” for our salvation experience must never become static. The Christian life is not a parking lot; it is a launching pad! It is not enough just to be born again; we must also grow spiritually (2 Peter 3:18) and make progress in our walk. In Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is called “the Pioneer [author]... of our faith,” which suggests that He leads us into new experiences that test our faith and help it to grow. One of the major themes of Hebrews is “let us press on to maturity” (Heb. 6:1, NASB), and we cannot mature unless we follow Christ, the Pioneer, into new areas of faith and ministry.”

By the way, I do not believe that Paul meant that we as Christians are not to even spend a second of our time thinking about anything in the past. He himself often speaks of things earlier in his life, so if he meant this he would be hypocritical. Even Holocaust survivors remember the things that they went through during that horrible time in their life. I believe the point that Paul is making is not to let the things of the past affect us adversely today. We need to shake off those past things just like Paul in the 28th chapter of Acts after he had been shipwrecked and then swam to the island of Malta, shook off into the fire the poisonous viper that had latched onto his had as he was gathering wood. We must through the empowering of the Holy Spirit continually give our burdens and cares to the Lord, and trust Him to grant us to have victory over sin and victory in the midst of the adversity we face today.

Finally, when Paul tells the Philippians that he ‘presses on’ for the ‘prize’ of the upward call of God, he uses the imagery of the athlete who competed in the Olympic games and always had his body bent forward focusing upon the finish line. In running any race, it is critical to keep focused upon the finish line. It does not help one win to run ½, ¾, or even 9/10ths of a race in the lead. You must finish first and thus you must keep focused upon crossing the finish line. The prize of the upward calling of God for the Christian is described by the Bible Knowledge Commentary as being: ““the crown of righteousness” (1Co 9:24; 2Ti 4:8). Rev 2:10, “crown of life.” 1Pe 5:4, “a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”” How important it is for we who are Christians to keep our eyes focused upon the prize and rewards of eternal life. Dwelling upon these things gives us an anchor for our soul and keeps us from drifting away from the Lord and His will and calling for us.

Are you forgetting what lies behind and pressing on towards the future and the upward calling of God for your life?