Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

(J. Pentecost) Spiritual self-satisfaction, Paul is saying here, is a deterrent to any real advance. When
he speaks of forgetting the things that are behind, he means not merely all his Jewish privileges and
Jewish attainments, but also that part of the Christian race which he had already run. Paul did not
repose on memories. One of the best gifts a man can have is the faculty of knowing how and what to
forget. The man who is buried in the complacent contemplation of his past, who goes about trying to
recall what he did yesterday, is apt to become narrow-minded. Spiritual growth is stopped. No room
is left for the countless treasures of God’s grace. Does the duty of life consist in merely honoring the
memory of old ties, or does it not also include listening to the divine claim of new ones? (J.
Robertson)
Paul can mean either his old pre-Christian life, his previous progress and setbacks as a Christian, or
both. (A.T. Robertson) Growing confidence in God continues to grow and strengthen the believer's
determination (+V) to keep fulfilling God's purpose. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.) This is an example of
antithetic parallelism in two short clauses: μεv ... δε, on the one hand forgetting things in the past ...
on the other hand straining forward to things ahead … The verb “logizomai,” which in the Greek
world referred to thinking according to strict logical rules, was employed in commercial dealings as
a technical term for reckoning, as well as being used for the unemotional thinking of the
philosopher. (P.T. O'Brien) The boundaries have been marked out for the runner [the precise
protocol plan of God], so that he may not wander in this direction or that, so that there is always a
goal [ultra-supergrace status] set before us, towards which we ought to direct our course
undeviatingly, free from every distraction. (J. Calvin) The moment one begins to glory in some
advance that he has made and believes that he possesses some resource which makes him useful to
man and even God, then he is involved in legalism and the Galatian error. (D. Fuller)
The apostle is a determined runner who does not look over his shoulder but strains forward,
stretching every nerve and muscle. It is a picture of the runner who keeps his eyes on the finish line
and does not intend to falter or be overtaken in the last and decisive stages of the race. (P. O’Brien)
No person can erase from the memory what has transpired before, but he or she can keep the past
from controlling the present and the future. Believers thus must not permit the past to cause them
depression or over-confidence in the present. (R. Gromacki) There is nothing in man by nature that
gives him spiritual maturity. It is not a matter of his personality, as though one type of personality is
apt to be more spiritual than another. The apostle tells us that no man by nature likes to retain even
the remembrance of God in his memory, but puts God out of his mind … The Word of God gives us
the clue to spiritual maturity. It is not in individual personality or individual inheritance or individual
experience, nor in individual ministry or service. It can be reduced to one word – appetite. It is that
which makes the difference between the immature and the mature, the baby and the adult. (J.
Pentecost) Paul refused to be controlled or absorbed by his past heritage or his attainments. (J.
Lightner)
Do not dwell obsessively on the past. Never look back – always look ahead! Killing the enemy in
battle is justified and virtuous before the Lord. Agonizing in quagmires of guilt only bog down your
spiritual advance. Guilt and repression of the past deny the reality of adversity and quash confidence
in divine solutions; but grace orientation and a personal sense of destiny adjust your thinking to the