Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind… The future for the young, we say, the present for the middle-aged, the past for the old. But these words of sublime hopefulness are from "Paul the Aged." I. LIVE IN THE FUTURE. 1. The two objects of hope and effort are distinct though connected. The mark is reached by the runner's effort, the prize is the reward given for victory. The former stands for "being made conformable unto Christ's death," the latter for "attaining the resurrection;" or the mark is likeness to Christ, and the prize whatsoever glory and felicity God shall give besides. 2. Then there is to be a distinct recognition of moral perfection as our conscious aim, and our efforts are allowably stimulated by the hope of the fair reward it ensures. If you want to be blessed you must be good; if you want to get to heaven you must be like Christ. 3. Our highest condition is not the attainment of perfection, but the recognition of heights above us as yet unreached. (1) Such recognition is the condition of all progress. The artist who is satisfied with his transcript of his ideal will never grow any more. Unless we saw an ideal far above us, the actual would never approximate toward it. The unrest born of the contrast between these two marks man off from the happy contentment of the brutes beneath him, and the happy peacefulness of the angels of God. (2) That is eminently true of "growth in grace." The type for us is the express image of God in Christ. To that supreme beauty our nature is capable of unlimited approach. No bounds can be set to it. (3) There are two ideas in that notion of perfection. (a) Extirpation of sin; (b) Attainment of the Divine likeness.Sin may be extirpated, and yet the second process may be in its infancy. And we shall not stop growing in heaven, but through the eternities we shall be growing wiser, nobler, stronger, greater, and more filled with God. (4) This grand future should draw our thoughts all the more to itself, because it is not only grand, but certain. "We know that...we shall be like Him."(5) And therefore that habit of living in the future should make us glad and confident. And that is the true temper for wider interests than our own. Live in the future for yourselves, and for the world. Believe in a millennium of some sort or other, because that faith is wrapped up in the confidence that God loves us all, and is shaping this earth's history to His own perfect aim, and instead of lamenting "the former days were better," let us believe that the time will come when our brethren with us will have reached the mark, and the purposes of God finished in a redeemed humanity and a perfected world. II. LET THAT BRIGHT, CERTAIN, INFINITE FUTURE DWARF FOR US THE NARROW AND STAINED PAST. 1. This advice goes dead against much "experimental" Christianity; but it is wise for all that. All sorts of backward looking are a positive weakness and impediment to a man in running a race. Time given to such occupation is withdrawn from the actual work of life. A man cannot run with his eyes over his shoulder; he is sure to knock against somebody, and so be delayed and hindered. And if you stand there looking backwards instead of making the best of your way out of evil, the evil will catch you up. Remembering always tends to become a substitute for doing. But take the injunction more specifically. 1. Forget past failures. They are apt to weaken you. You say, "I shall never be any better. Experience teaches me my limits." So it does. There are certain things we shall never be able to do, but it says nothing about the limits in our line of things. There is no limit in that respect, and to take the past as proving it is to deny the power of God's gospel, the expansibility of the soul, and the promise of the Divine Spirit. 2. Forget past attainments. (1) They are apt to become food for complacency and every vain confidence. We are apt to say, "At such and such a time I was converted and growing in Christian attainments. Then my heart was cleaving to the Lord, and filled with His fulness." Yes, and you ate your dinner twenty years ago; will that serve to strengthen you for today? The rain fell on the young spring wheat when you and I were boys; will that do anything towards this year's harvest? (2) These attainments, like failures, do very often become the measure of our notion as to what we shall be able to do in the future, and so cripple us. 2. Forget past circumstances, whether sorrows or joys. The one are not without remedy, the other not perfect. Both are past; why remember them? Why should you carry about parched corn when you dwell among fields white unto harvest? Why clasp a handful of poor withered flowers when the grass is sown with their bright eyes opening to the sunshine? III. LET HOPES FOR THE FUTURE AND LESSONS FROM THE PAST LEAD TO STRENUOUS WORK FOR THE PRESENT. "This one thing I do." 1. Be the past and future what they may, I cannot reach the one nor forget the other except by setting myself with all my might to present duties and by reducing all duties to various forms of one life purpose. 2. How is that noble ideal reached? It is the spirit in which, not the work at which, we work that makes life one. A hundred processes may go to the manufacture of a pin. We may all be trying to be like Jesus Christ, whatever may be the material at which we toil. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, |
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