Let those of us who are mature think this way. (Philippians 3:15)
John Wesley believed that, on the basis of this statement, Christian perfection was possible and that Paul numbered himself among those who were made perfect in love. However, in verse 12, Paul had used the same word, teleios, to declare that he was not already made perfect. Wesley resolves the apparent contradiction by saying that Paul employs the word in two senses. Most modern translations have translated the same word differently in verse 15 to avoid the appearance of a contradiction. In so doing, they may have obliterated in English Paul’s deliberate paradox which he employed as a teaching device.
The awkwardness of the word perfect has a long history. Even before Christ, Plato taught that only God was perfect. However, Aristotle defined perfection as that which accomplishes the purpose for which it was intended. Both philosophers were right. One taught absolute perfection, while the other described relative perfection. Oswald Chambers wrote, “Perfection does not mean the full maturity and consummation of a man’s powers, but perfect fitness for doing the will of God.”((Chambers, If Thou Wilt Be Perfect, 117.))
Wesley argued for this relative perfection from verse 15, observing that Christian perfection was not so late as death for St. Paul speaks of living men that were perfect.((Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.)) Paul uses two forms of the same word teleios in the space of three verses, not to contradict himself but to highlight the difference between relative and absolute perfection.((Vincent, International Critical Commentary, 112.))
Richard Sibbes, a Puritan who lived a century before Wesley, wrote,
There is no absolute perfection but only in God himself, but in Christians there is a kind of derivative spiritual perfection, which consists chiefly in the parts. A Christian has this perfection. He has all grace in some measure.((Tomlin, Reformation Commentary on Scripture, 11:84.))
Paul is emphatic in verses 12–14 that he has not reached his final goal. He has not yet apprehended the bodily resurrection he referenced in v 11. He has not experienced final perfection. But there is also a Christian perfection. Paul does not live in the past which he referenced in verses 5–7, nor does he live for the moment. In verse 19 he describes those who live for physical appetites. Rather, Paul was straining forward to take hold because Christ Jesus took hold of him. In this play on words, Paul said he had not yet laid hold on final perfection, but he pursues or stretches forward for the prize of the upward calling. This prize is the high calling to know Christ fully, and it is incorporated in the call to salvation. This upward calling is not something for which Paul passively waits. It cannot be relegated simply to reward at the final judgment. The upward call must also include the call to progress in the Christian life toward the maturity of which Paul speaks in verse 15. Homer Kent explained that verse 15 “denotes a relative perfection (maturity) that can be a present possession.”((Kent, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 11:246.))
And so, Paul pursues it with all his might. Joseph Benson, in his sermon “Christians Exhorted to Press Forward in Experimental Religion,” concluded:
Let us settle it in our hearts that, whatever we have experienced, done, and suffered, there is infinitely more to the attainment of which we must go forward. We are called, invited, urged by the Lord from heaven, to know yet more of Christ; to have a deeper fellowship with him, and to receive yet larger communications of his grace and Spirit, that we may recover his whole image, and do his whole will.((Benson, Sermons and Plans of Sermons, Sermon #196, 6:132–143.))
Yet Paul is not working for salvation. He is working out the full implications of all that Christ provided through his atonement. This is not the same as self-help motivation to try harder. Rather, this is the enjoyment of all that God will, Christ has provided, and the Spirit enables in this life.
Sermon Suggestions
While there is a danger of preaching holiness too high, the more relevant danger is not preaching it high enough. We have received a high calling. There is more grace available than most of us have ever appropriated. So, what would a perfect Christian look like? True holiness is not legalism, which Paul rejects in verse 2. Instead, it is characterized in the chapter as:
- Death to sin—We not only know Christ in his resurrection power, but through our suffering, he has been alongside us teaching us to depend upon him. And he has brought us to the point of conformity to his death. While he died on the cross for sin, our sins have not only been nailed to the cross (Col 2:14) but we have died to sin (Phil 3:10). The Holy Spirit wants to put to death whatever in us that is not Christlike.
- Zeal for holiness—We press forward to attain everything God has for us in this life. Paul first heard the heavenly call on the Damascus road. It was a heavenly call—in terms of its origin and its final goal. But the runner cannot expect to cross the finish line if she has not run the race. In order to cross the finish line, the runner must keep her eyes on it. According to Hebrews 3:1, we who share in the heavenly calling are to fix our thoughts on Jesus. Paul did already know Christ to a great degree, and yet he wanted to know him more. He longed to penetrate even more into the “great mystery of godliness.” He especially wanted to “comprehend, with all saints, what was the height and depth, and length and breadth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that he might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Therefore, he “counted all things bus loss for the excellency of this knowledge.”
- The mind of Christ—Dr. Kinlaw wrote that there is a “middle ground” in which our minds are drawn to the things of God, but we are not yet ready to give up the things of the world. Sin no longer reigns, but it still remains. God can give us this Christlike attitude, in which we see the world through Christ’s eyes and seek to be part of what he is doing in the world. Timothy had found freedom from self-seeking. And if he had been delivered from that inner sin through grace, such freedom is possible for others as well.((Kinlaw, The Mind of Christ, 101–104; Malchus’ Ear, 112–113; Let’s Start With Jesus, 142–143.))
- A spirit of unity—Philippians 3:16 concludes, “Let us be of the same mind.” We are to follow the apostolic pattern. Our God is not our own personal appetites. In 1926 J. M. Hames wrote, “You can trace nearly all the splits in the Holiness Movement to the lack of humility and to an intense desire for leadership.”((Hames, Deeper Things, 10.)) Therefore, we should be “of the same mind in the Lord” (4:2). We are to be characterized by a “sweet reasonableness” (4:5).