(Php 3:15) “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”   The Holy Spirit reveals to the saved their shortcomings as well as how their thinking might be wrong. As James pictures it, it is a mirror upon the soul. Don’t look away in pride or hurt; instead embrace humbly what is revealed, asking the Lord to aid you in improving (looking better).

(Php 3:15) “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”  You can equate the word “perfect” with “saved”, for to be saved to have completely all we need, clothed in Christ’s perfection. So, as a saved person we are to (v13) forget the past and reach forward in mind and heart to all the things the Lord has bestowed upon us in eternity!  

DAILY DROP OF WATER (Php 3:13)  “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,”  It seems very few of professing believers in our churches get this far in their Christian walk. They are satisfied with the knowledge their soul is secure in Christ so sit back enjoying the ride towards heaven. Paul knew he was in the Lord’s hands, but still lived each day as one who sought to achieve, as the next verse says, (Php 3:14) “I  press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”   

(Php 3:12) “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.”  The key to this verse are the words, “….I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”  There is a sweet little girl in our church whom I have befriended. When she sees me, she runs to me and gives me a hug (that’s Christ apprehending us). I immediately hug her back (that’s “…but I follow after, if that I may apprehend…” ). Paul is saying, “I hug the Lord back. I’m not there yet, but the Lord has hold of me and I seek to hold, to hug Him back !”

(Php 3:12) “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.”  Here the Holy Spirit is not having Paul say, “I’m not sure I am saved”. He is saying, “I’m still here in this flesh. As long as I am in this flesh I will seek always to live the life my Savior wants me to live! Period.  

(Php 3:10) “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (11) If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”  Sometimes we come across phrases in the KJV that throw us off, like, “If by any means….”. It is being used in an interrogative manner, “how the resurrection is achieved”! It is achieved by having a time and place where I embraced salvation through faith in His dying for me!  

Php 3:9 “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (10)  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”  This is a Bible truth so many have yet to enter into; God the Judge of all flesh sees the Born Again Child of God as having been crucified with Christ. The person who committed those sins has died in the mind of God and made new, alive in His Son: (Gal_2:20) “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”  The skeptic asks, “How can that be?” Answer: once you say “God” all things become possible.