Look Ahead, Not Behind
Your past can be a friend or an enemy, a teacher or a tormentor. Memories can make you happy or sad. The apostle Paul had, as we would say, “a past.” But not everything in his life before he became a Christian was evil. Much of it was good, even impressive, in his time. He was a successful man in the Jewish community who was on the verge of becoming more successful. He also did something that still astounds Bible readers: he persecuted Christians. But he left that life behind and kept it there. Learn how as you sit at the feet of this great man of God.
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- Scripture: Philippians 3:5-14
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Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Have you ever reached a point in life where you said, “It’s time to put that behind me and move on?” Here’s what the apostle Paul said in Philippians 3 verses 13 and 14: ”Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear Paul say he forgot things that were behind? I think most people would say it means when you’ve done wrong, put the past behind you and move on. But there’s a simple rule of thumb we always need to remember when we read the Bible. It’s the word context. Let’s look at what Paul said before these words. And when we do, we’ll see more than what people usually think about these verses.
Before we look at those verses, let’s go back to Paul’s life before he became a Christian. Paul was a Jew. He grew up a very religious person. He was taught well. He sat at the feet of a famous rabbi named Gamaliel (Acts 22 verse 3). He was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23 verse 6). He applied himself and rose above other young men of his age. Here’s what he said Galatians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14: “For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”
Paul was sincere about his religion. When he stood before the high priest in Acts chapter 23 verse one, he said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” Even when he persecuted Christians, he was sincere, even though he was sincerely wrong. Here’s what he said about his past life in First Timothy chapter 1, verse 13: “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
Keep in mind that the church was just beginning. The Jewish religion was much older. The Jewish leaders had money and power. They were not an independent state like the nation of Israel is today, but the Roman government did allow them to have a limited form of government. Keep in mind also that the law of Moses drew no distinction between civil law and religious law. There was no separation of church and state, so to speak. So to climb the ladder of success in religion amounted to advancing oneself in society and in politics.
It’s hard for us to imagine what it was like to be in the first generation of the church. The Jews had the older established religion. They had the Scriptures. They had the temple and the priests. They had all the history of their kings. They had Moses and the prophets. But what they didn’t see was that their religion was simply the preparation for something better. That was the church. But the Jews were blind to those Old Testament prophecies, even though as Paul said in the synagogue at Antioch in Acts chapter 13 verse 27, they had read those Scriptures in their synagogues every sabbath day. They rejected Jesus because he wouldn’t be the kind of king they wanted Him to be. They wanted a political ruler first and a religious leader second– a distant second at that. So when the church began, and especially as it started to spread, the Jews said it was a sect, which basically means a cult. In Acts chapter 28 verse 22, some Jews all the way over in Rome told Paul that people everywhere were calling his group a sect or a cult.
But before Paul was baptized, he was a leader against these Christians. He was very devoted to the Jewish religion of his ancestors. He said in Acts chapter 26 verses nine through 11, “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” Paul was dedicated. He was zealous. He was relentless. But he was wrong. He saw that later, but at the time he was throwing Christians in jail and putting them to death, he thought he was right. Getting rid of Christians didn’t make him a failure in the eyes of fellow Jews. It made him a great success. So in every way imaginable, Paul was climbing the ladder of success rapidly in the Jewish nation. He could’ve been popular. He could’ve had power—political power. He could’ve had clout and influence and money. He could’ve had the respect and admiration of Jewish people everywhere. But he gave it up.
Paul’s story is like Moses’ journey in life. Moses was a Hebrew, but he was raised as an Egyptian. He was the adopted grandson of Pharaoh. He had the best education. He had all the pleasures money could buy. He could have been a very powerful man. But he gave it all up. Here’s what the Bible says about him in Hebrews 11 verses 24 through 26: “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” Most people, if they had lived in those days, would have picked the life Moses could’ve had in Egpyt. But Moses knew that all the wealth and power and pleasures of Egypt were nothing compared to what God could give him, and he chose God. He gave all that up to have treasures in heaven.
Paul had a lot going for him as well before he became a Christian. But he gave it all up for Christ. Let’s look now at what he said in Philippians 3 verses 5 and 6. Paul said he was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Those things might not seem like a big thing today, but in Paul’s time, among the Jews, they were something to brag about if Paul had wanted to brag. In fact, that’s what Paul said when he opened up this chapter. He was warning the Christians at Philippi about false teachers in the church we sometimes call Judaizers. These men were Jewish Christians who told the Gentile Christians that they had to keep the law of Moses to be saved. That was a big issue in New Testament times. The whole book of Galatians is about that issue, and it’s mentioned in many other books of the New Testament. Now those Judaizing teachers were known to boast about their lineage in the nation of Israel. They bragged about keeping the law. They prided themselves in being Jews. Well, Paul is saying if anybody has the right to brag about that, it’s me.
He said he was circumcised the eighth day. That’s the day a male child was to be circumcised. That’s what the law of Moses taught them to do. Paul’s parents made sure they followed the law from the beginning. By the way, the command to be circumcised on day eight is very interesting for a number of reasons. Suppose a Jew living under this law had said, “Why do we have to circumcise a child on the eighth day? What would be wrong with doing this on day 3 or 4, or even day 9 or 10?” The fact is, they would still be obligated to do it the way God said, and when God said, whether they understood why or not. And if they had ignored what He said about day eight and performed this surgery some other day, they would have disobeyed God. When God said day eight He meant day eight. This is no different from God telling the Israelites to march around the walls of Jericho seven days in Joshua chapter 6. It’s no different from the prophet sending word to Naaman the Syrian captain to wash himself in the Jordan River 7 times in II Kings chapter 5. It’s God’s right to tell man what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. It’s our duty to obey, not question and certainly not to disobey.
But sometimes there was a reason the Jews didn’t even know about. In his book None of These Diseases, medical doctor S.I. McMillen noted that vitamin K, which enables the blood to clot, peaks at around day 6, 7 or 8 of a newborn baby’s life. So there was a hidden physical benefit to the Jews doing what God told them to do! And, by the way, how could Moses have known about this? He didn’t have access to medical knowledge about vitamin k and what it does in the human body. This is one of the many examples in the Bible of scientific knowledge that was so advanced that the timing had to have been from God. In other words, when people ask you for proof that the Bible is from God, that it’s the inspired Word of God, this is only one of those proofs, and it’s actually quite incidental to the story which makes it even more convincing as evidence of the inspiration of the Bible.
Paul had another advantage. He was an Israelite. He said he was “of the stock of Israel.” That may not seem like much to many people, but it was an advantage to be a Jew in Paul’s day. Did you know the Bible says this? In the book of Romans, Paul said the Gentiles were in bad shape (spiritually) because they didn’t keep the moral law God taught them through nature. But then he showed the Jews they were guilty too. They didn’t keep their law any more than the Gentiles kept theirs. So in chapter three, he anticipates several questions a Jew might raise. The first one is in Romans 3 verse 1: “What advantage then has the Jew?” If what he said about the Jews is true, then what good is it to be a Jew? Did the Jews have any advantage over the Gentiles? Yes they did. Paul answered in verse 2, “Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.” Paul said being an Israelite gave someone a lot of advantages. He said the main advantage the Jews had was the Scriptures. God gave the Scriptures through the Jews and to the Jews. The Gentiles had the light of nature. The Jews had nature and the Old Testament. But, the sad thing was that even though the Jews had this written revelation from God, they weren’t any better off than the Gentiles spiritually according to verse 9 of Romans 3. But Paul had this and other advantages because he was part of the nation of Israel.
Paul had another thing going for him. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin was the small tribe that, along with the tribe of Judah, made up the southern kingdom of Judah. It was close to the temple in Jerusalem. The first king of Israel was from this tribe. They didn’t divide themselves against Judah like the Jews in the north under Jeroboam did. Again, that may not mean much today, but in Paul’s day it did. And remember why he’s bringing all this up. He’s saying: if these Jews, who are false teachers in the church, want to brag, I could brag more than them if I wanted to. He could do that because he had more advantages than they had.
Here’s something else Paul said about himself that gave him an advantage. He was “a Hebrew of the Hebrews.” To be a Hebrew was an advantage, but to be a Hebrew of the Hebrews was even more of an advantage. This is a superlative expression. It’s like “the song of songs,” or “king of Kings.” It means that he was a Hebrew in the highest and purest sense of the Word. How? It means he was a pure-blooded Hebrew. Many of the Jews intermarried with other nations. But Paul’s ancestors, starting with his parents and going all the way back to Benjamin, had married fellow Jews. Now Paul is not saying this made him better than Jews that were of a mixed blood line. He never taught that and in fact, he stood strong against any kind of racial or national discrimination. But, again, remember who he’s talking about. The Jews who were causing all the trouble in the church bragged about being descendants of Abraham. They were Hebrews. If you read Second Corinthians chapter 11, you’ll see Paul doing the same thing he mentions here in Philippians chapter 3. He is saying, “They brag about being Hebrews. Well, I’m a Hebrew—a pure-blooded Hebrew!”
So far Paul is talking about advantages he had from birth and childhood. He didn’t choose any of this. He didn’t earn these advantages. But all of this gave him a good head start in life in the Jewish nation.
Then he had another advantage as far as Jewish thinking was concerned. He was a Pharisee. Now to us that word has a bad connotation, and for good reason. The Pharisees were often bad people to say the least. They were religious in one sense—in fact, very religious. But they were hypocrites. They were greedy. They loved attention. They put their traditions above the law of God. But there were some sincere people in this group, and Paul was one of them. Paul said the Pharisees were the “strictest sect” in the Jewish religion of his day (Acts 26 verse 5). And in the eyes of fellow Jews, they were often highly admired for being so religious.
Paul said another thing he had going for him in the Jewish community was this: “concerning zeal, persecuting the church.” Now unlike the other things he mentioned, he chose this. He made a decision to be zealous. He wasn’t half-hearted about his Jewish faith. He was dedicated and committed all the way. He didn’t go half way like others. With him it was all or nothing, and he chose to go all the way. He really put his heart into it. And, of course, as we said before, he was wrong when he persecuted the church. But to these false teachers in the church, if they had been consistent with their claim to be real, true Jews, this would have put Paul on a pedestal in their Jewish eyes. But of course they were not consistent. They were ungodly hypocrites. But they were tearing churches apart with their false teaching.
And then Paul says he had this advantage over many of these false teachers: “concerning the righteousness which is in the law” (that is, the law of Moses, the Old Testament law), he was “blameless.” He didn’t say he was sinless. But he was blameless in the sense that his life as a whole was a good, upright life. He did what the law said to the best of his ability. He had a good conscience about his life. People around him couldn’t look at him and say he was a hypocrite. They couldn’t find all kinds of dirt on Paul. He wasn’t perfect. But he practiced what he taught others.
So Paul had all this going for him, but he gave it up! This would be like you or me having a sure path to a successful career for the rest of our life and giving it up! That’s what Paul did. Here’s what he said about all these advantages and attainments in Philippians 3:7: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” He said all the things he just talked about gave him a promising future in the Jewish community. He could have been very successful. He already was. But he could have been even more successful. He could have kept climbing that ladder. He could have accomplished a lot more. He could have had so much more—more friends, more money, more honor, more security and more opportunities for greater success and achievement. But those were all worldly accomplishments. They were part of a system of religion, a way of life, that was not in force anymore.
How many people would have done this? How many of us would give up a position in life like Paul had? Would you and I give up advantages in life that would set us on top, so to speak, for the rest of our lives? And would we trade a promising future on earth for Jesus and His church? I’m not saying that it’s wrong to be successful in the world—as long as a person puts God first, as long as his job or his money or his success don’t interfere with his commitment to God. There are Christians that have been able to do this. But there are others who trade their Christianity for worldly success. For making more money. For the thrill of having other people to praise them for their success in earthly things while their fire for the Lord goes out. Jesus warned about this. He said some Christians become choked inside by “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches” (Matthew 13 verse 22).
But there are many stories of Christians who gave up a high-paying job because it interfered with their faith. I’ve known of young people who gave up a promising future in sports because it was pulling them away from God. I’ve known others who had a lot going for them. They had all kids of abilities and advantages and opportunities to climb the ladder of success. But climbing that ladder meant being around sinful things they just could not in good conscience go along with.
What motivates people like this? The same thing that motivated Moses. The same thing that motivated Paul. Faith in God. The hope of heaven. Love for Christ and love for others. That’s the heart of sacrifice we’ve been talking about in this book. You see sacrifice in every chapter. And here Paul tells us in detail what he gave up to be the servant of God he was. He didn’t have any regrets. He didn’t look at these attainments and wonder what he missed because he became a Christian. He didn’t say to himself after he was arrested, “I wonder where I would be right now if I hadn’t decided to become a Christian?” He didn’t think, “If I had kept going in the Jewish community, I’d be taking it easy and enjoying myself.” For one thing, he wouldn’t do that because he knew well that life does not always deliver what you think it will. Your future may look promising, but that future may not even happen. Any of us could die today or tomorrow. A lot of people with a bright future died before it happened. No, Paul didn’t dwell on the life that might have been. He dealt with the real world, and although his life had troubles, he was content. He was happy. And he had his eye on a different kind of future.
That’s why he said in verse eight that giving up all he had going for him was nothing. He said, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” If you had lived back then, and you could have asked Paul what he thought about giving up all this for Jesus, that’s basically what he would have told you. Those things meant nothing to him.
Sometimes we think about where our life would be if we hadn’t become Christians. Only God knows. And, sometimes we think about everything we’ve given up to be Christians. That’s not necessarily wrong. Peter wondered about it and even asked Jesus. In Matthew 19 verses 27 through 29, the Bible says, “Then Peter answered and said to Him, ‘See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.’” Peter said he and the other apostles had left everything to follow Jesus. So he says something similar to what Paul said. Paul said he gave up his advantages and attainments; Peter said the apostles left everything to be Jesus’ disciples and wanted to know what they would get in return. And Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter. He didn’t tell Peter he was being selfish. He answered Peter’s question and told him the rewards they would receive.
But I do want to clarify something about this. When Peter said they had left everything to follow Jesus, that doesn’t mean they forsook their duties to their families. Peter didn’t stop being a husband to his wife when he became an apostle. He didn’t neglect his duties to his family. In Matthew chapter 8 verses 14 and 15, Jesus, went to Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law. In First Corinthians chapter 9 verse five, Paul said that Peter had a right to take his wife along with him in his work. And Peter himself said in First Peter three verse seven that husbands have a duty to live with her wives and honor them. Jesus didn’t teach husbands to stop being husbands, or wives to stop being wives, or parents to stop being parents. What He did teach is that we’re not to love anyone else, even our own family, more than Him. That’s what He means by forsaking all that we have to be His disciples—not that we neglect our duties with our family. Not that we have to live in a monastery. But, to put Him first. That’s what he taught in Luke 14 verses 26 through 33 and Matthew 10 verses 34 through 37.
But let’s get back to what Paul said. Like Peter, Paul said he sacrificed to be a Christian. And he said something pretty strong about all those great things he gave up for Christ. He said they were “rubbish.” That’s the New King James in verse 8. The King James Version has the word “dung.” The word in the original means trash, refuse, filth. That’s how he looked at all the things that gave him attention and glory before he was baptized. Other people thought that kind of life was as good as it gets. They admired anyone who had those credentials. But not Paul. He said all that was worthless. There was nothing glamorous or sophisticated about it. In fact, he thought it was disgusting compared to the true riches in Jesus Christ.
Paul turned his back on all that worldly acclaim so that he could win Christ and in verses 9 through 11 he said he could be “be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Now look at what Paul said he gained and what he stood to gain. First—salvation. That’s what he means when he says he found “righteousness” in Jesus. That’s not righteous living. That’s being justified in God’s sight, being declared righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. He said its wasn’t his way of being saved; it was God’s way and that was through the gospel of His Son.
Then he said in verse 10 that he gave up all those earthly advantages in order to know Him and the power of His resurrection. The power of Jesus’ resurrection was His power over death. The Bible says He rose again for our justification (Romans 4 verse 25). It says that baptism saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (First Peter 3 verse 21). When we’re in sin, we’re dead spiritually. When we’re baptized, we’re raised from that spiritual death to spiritual life just like Jesus died and rose again (Romans 6 verses 1-6).
Then Paul said he left everything behind him so that he could know “the fellowship of His sufferings.” Paul gave up a life of earthly success so that he could have a part in the sufferings of Christ. The word “fellowship” means to share in something. So Paul traded a life of success for a life of suffering.
So here in Philippians 3 he listed all his attainments in the world. Back in II Corinthians 11, he listed all his sufferings. He said he was “in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (Second Corinthians 11 verses 24 through 28). That’s the kind of life Paul had as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
But Paul said in verse 13 that he endured all that so that “If, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.” That was the attainment Paul wanted—to attain to the resurrection of the dead. “But,” you may ask, “wouldn’t Paul be there at the resurrection regardless? The Bible says both the saved and the lost will be resurrected—the saved to everlasting life and the lost to everlasting damnation (John 5 verses 28 and 29). So why does he say “if I might attain to the resurrection”? Because Paul is talking about the good side of the resurrection. He’s talking about being raised to life. Jesus talked about those who “are counted worthy to attain… the resurrection from the dead” (Luke 20 verse 35)—that is, those who attain to the resurrection of the just to eternal life.
This is how and why Paul Paul could turn his back on a life of success and be a suffering Christian. But he wasn’t there yet. He couldn’t just coast to the finish. Paul didn’t believe he could make it without loving and serving God to the end. He said “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended.” His race wasn’t over. His work wasn’t finished. He wasn’t home yet. Paul never believed that once he was saved he would always be saved regardless of how he lived. He said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (First Corinthians 9 verse 27). Now if Paul himself said he had to be faithful to the end, then why do some today boast that there is nothing they can do that would cause them to lose their salvation?
Paul did what Jesus said we need to do. There is really only one thing you need to your eye on in this busy world. Do you remember what He told Martha? He said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10 verse 41 and 42). Here in Philippians 3 verses 13 and 14, Paul said his mind was on “one thing”: “but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
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