Forget about it . . .

PHILIPPIANS 3 -- THE SPIRITUAL MIND  or  THINGS CAN ROB JOY

Philippians 3:12-14

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  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, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul makes it very clear in verse 12 that he does not consider himself to have "arrived."  He had not conquered all of his weaknesses or shortcomings.  He still had struggles and came up short of what he wanted to do for Christ.  The "great and mighty" Paul knew in his heart that he was nothing special in his own right.

The word perfect means mature.  We look at a piece of fruit and call it "perfect" to eat.  Of course it still has flaws but we mean that it is ripe and ready to be eaten.  We can be perfect in Christ even with our faults and failures.  Paul was converted as an adult who had studied the Law and was very well educated.  He had the book knowledge already down pat.  Once he understood his need of salvation and accepted Christ as his personal Savior, he had a huge head start.  God took him aside and worked in his heart based on the knowledge he already had in his head.  I was saved at age four.  I had to grow mentally and emotionally before I could appreciate some of the truths of Scripture.  I had to learn to read!  Paul already had passages memorized.

But Paul had his focus on a goal.  He "followed after" meaning he pursued something.  He was working on his spiritual development.  He was trying to become just as much like Christ as he possibly could so that he could be as much like Christ as possible.  It's a bit of circular reasoning trying to be more like Christ because Christ is wanting to change you.  There is a goal, but we will never reach it.

The Apostle Paul had so much going his way, but he also had a memory.  He had witnessed and participated in some very awful things in his persecution of the church.  The memories of what we have done before salvation are not wiped away.  Emotions and intentions are not easily forgotten.  Our memory can see or smell or hear something completely innocent but make a connection to something from our past and pull up all kinds of memories that we thought we gone forever.  Paul, like us, had no control over what his memory did to him.  I imagine that he relived certain scenes in his mind over and over again.  Smell is the strongest memory trigger of our senses.  You cannot control what you smell and you cannot control what memories those smells pull out of the dark corners of your mind.

Paul could be paralyzed by guilt.  The people who recognized him and became afraid of him probably had heard some things about him.  He remembered so many more things that he had done.  The Christians had probably heard embellished accounts of his reputation.  Paul knew every detail of what he had done and said and thought.  These memories could shackle him and hold him back in so many different ways.  But he had to put them aside.  It is not easy to brush away the memory of something we regret.  It takes great discipline and a deep rooted conviction that things are not as they used to be.

God had taken Paul out to the wilderness after his conversion.  I imagine that it took a while for Paul's human heart to accept the whole realm of forgiveness that Christ offered him.  It probably took some very intense conversations with God when Paul would start to be overtaken by remorse.  The things that I regret in the deep corners of my heart have a much greater impact on my actions than the things that others know about and keep bringing up to me.  God had to equip Paul with the tools and the skills to forgive the past in himself so that he could have a testimony going forward.

Paul's past had been shaped around the Law.  He had to shift his thinking away from that and focus on his relationship with Christ.  He had to forget the things he had done.  He had to forget the things he had been committed to.  He had to give up his loyalties.  He had to allow Christ to forgive him and he had to forgive himself.  He had to shift his focus to the spiritual things of God in order to lose the influence of his past.  Having a spiritual mind allowed him to have power over the things (memories, emotions, etc.) of the past that could hold him back from full service.

He did not look back.  We can't get to the end of the book if we keep re-reading the chapters we've already been through.  No doubt people flaunted his reputation at him to weaken him.  No doubt he had flaws that others took great pleasure in pointing out to him.  But he kept pressing toward his goal.  His motivation was to be worthy of what Christ had done for him.  Would he ever be worthy?  No, of course not.  But the pursuit of it was the exercise of faith that conquered his past.

There is a high calling for each of us in God through Christ Jesus.  We must daily evaluate if we are pressing forward or slipping backward.  It is a high goal to be "like Christ" but the important part is the true pursuit.  Don't let your memory of what is past dictate how much you will be like Christ today!