OUR FATHER WHO SET A PRIZE IN HEAVEN FOR EACH OF US TO WIN

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 - 14, having commended Timothy and Epaphroditus to the Philippians who were faithful and trustworthy, gives warning about dogs, evil doers and those who mutilate the body.

Paulˋs reference to dogs, being those who return to their vomit, are those who, having been liberated from the requirements of circumcision, return to it as a source of attaining righteousness falsely believing that there is some fulfillment of the law through the practice of circumcision. Paul asserted that this teaching that was being circulated by evil doers, was false because those whose faith was truly in Jesus Christ and who had ascended to serving God by His Spirit, no longer needed to perform any kind of fleshly practice to gain righteousness before God.

1 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The apostle wrote to the Philipians who were exposed to the false doctrine of the need for circumcision that he, above anyone else, could claim righteousness by flashly practice because before he was a believer in Christ,  he was the quitescential practitioner of the law where he was circumcised on the eighth day as prescribed by law and he was a registered member of Godˋs chosen Hebrew race from the tribe of Benjamin and as well,  he was a highly trained student of the scriptures and a zealous defender of his religion even to the point of persecuting Christians and he was a careful observer of the behavioural standards of the law of Moses. 

Paulˋs point was that if there was a man who could claim righteousness from the law and the practices of the flesh, it was him and yet he counted it all as rubbish in the light of salvation acquired for him by Christ that was made obtainable by God through faith.

Paul then decribes his reaction to his realization that Christ Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. He wrote that his chief desire was to get to personally know Christ and to know the power of His ressurection and to share in the sufferings that are part of the setting up of the kingdom of God so that he could be like Jesus even unto His death and resurraction.

The Lord Christ Jesus grabbed Paul out of the world to fulfill a purpose that he had set for him and Paulˋs primary endeavour to take hold of that which he was obtained. 

Even at the stage of ministry that he had already reached, Paul did not consider himself as having attained what was set for him or that he had reached his goal but what he did do that he recommended for his readers was that he forgot what was behind and pressed and strugged and strained forward to what lay ahead for him so that he could win the top trophy that God sponsored on the marathon to heaven in Christ Jesus.

Amen. Help us Lord Jesus.

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