Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

not an end result as we understand it. There is no point in time in anyone’s spiritual life,
including Paul’s, where we reach a pinnacle and there is no need for continual growth. Paul
wants to fulfill God’s purpose for his life, and that purpose is to attain ultra-supergrace.
Paul’s advice for all of us is the same advice he himself followed. He continued to pursue ultrasupergrace
status (maturity, perfection, the final objective) like a hunter who was pressing in on
his prey, or a soldier routing his enemy. He maintained steadiness of purpose and intense
concentration on the objective before him, which he might never reach in his lifetime, but
nevertheless would continue to pursue anyway. Why would he continue to pursue (Durative
Present tense) such an elusive goal? Because he wanted to obtain (Culminative Aorist tense) the
spiritually mature status that was the purpose for his being divinely grasped (Historical Aorist
tense) by Christ Jesus on the Damascus Road. He was seized and held by the grace of God, and
made eternally secure, for the purpose of growing to spiritual maturity.
REVELANT OPINIONS
He has come to experience, in some degree at least, the power of God surging through his being. But
there is room for much improvement and advance in these respects … Paul states that he has not
come to the place in his Christian life where growth in spiritual maturity has been completed,
beyond which there is no room for further development. He has not reached a spiritual impasse of
non-development. In verse 12 Paul denies the fact that he is spiritually mature in an absolute sense,
and in verse 15 asserts that he is spiritually mature in a relative sense. (K. Wuest) Paul has already
stated that his supreme desire is to know Christ fully. He keeps on pursuing this long-cherished
ambition with the intention of laying hold of it, because the risen Christ powerfully laid hold of him
on the Damascus road, setting his life in this new direction. There is further progress to be made, and
only at the end of the race will he receive the prize. In his intention to counter the danger of “a
doctrine of obtainable perfection based on Judaizing practices” Paul shows that Christian perfection
is a goal to strive for ... He corrects any possible misunderstanding by making it plain that this goal
has not yet been reached. Though he presses on towards it, in no sense can it be suggested that he
has reached the final destination. (P. O’Brien)
He has in mind the image of a Greek runner streaking down the race course. (K. Wuest) It is also a
wrestling term for grabbing hold of your opponent, pulling him down to the mat and making him
your captive. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.) Paul recalls his conversion as the occasion on which a powerful
hand was laid on his shoulder, turning him right around in his tracks, and a Voice that brooked no
refusal spoke in his ear: "You will come along with Me." Paul was conscripted into the service of
Christ. Every phase of Paul's subsequent life and action, every element in his understanding and
preaching of the Gospel, can be traced back to the revelation of Jesus Christ that was granted to him
then and there. (F.F. Bruce) His conversion was the beginning, not the end of the chase.
(A.T. Robertson) Christ laid violent hands on him, so to speak, forcefully arresting him and setting
him off in a new lifelong direction. But certainly he knew nothing of so-called sudden absolute
perfection by any single experience. Paul has made great progress in Christlikeness, but the goal is
still before him, not behind him. (G.F. Hawthorne)