Paul is a great example to us of a person with a passion for God. Phil 3:3-14 shows us a man passionately in love with Jesus, totally committed to Him and not ashamed of the gospel. His consuming desire was to know Christ – despite his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus and his many experiences with God, he was not content with this but wanted to press on further. He sought to know the power of the resurrection, but this can only come as we ‘chase’ the person. Knowing Christ must come before knowing HIs power.
If we are to cultivate the same passion for Christ which Paul experienced and know the same spiritual fervour he possessed, we must take three steps and overcome three obstacles.
- Have a dependence on Christ and put no confidence in the flesh. We have to have Christ at the centre of our lives and must not rely on our own abiities, talents and intelligence. Paul had much to commend him, being of good family stock, knowing the law inside out and being a man of moral integrity, but he chose instead to rely on Christ, not on these things. We can easily find out where our dependence is by how we manage the problems of life (is our initial reaction to try to solve the problems ourselves or to cast our burdens on Christ?) and how we make time for God. Discipleship involves discipline, with battles revealing to us the depth of our intimacy with God.
- Have a determination to press on and do not allow complacency to take root. Paul was determined to press on. This required an act of the will and discipline of the mind; there is no room for half-heartedness if we want to know Christ as Paul did. In the last days, the love of many will grow cold (Matt 24:12). We need to refuse to let apathy affect us and must strive against complacency, for this so easily leads to criticism and complaint. If anyone had reason to be discouraged, disappointed or disillusioned, it was Paul, but he did not allow the trials of life to affect him. Someone has said that ‘spiritual fulfilment comes in the exact proportion to the intensity of our desire.’ The opposite of complacency is passion. We must have a zeal and passion for God and for His glory and honour.
- Know deliverance from the past and be freed from the stumbling-block of condemnation. So many of us try to press on towards God while carrying burdens and guilt from the past like a ball and chain around our ankles. Past events, past hurts, disappontments and failures haunt us, affecting the present and the way we live. Our lives can be dominated by the words ‘if only…’ and we are filled with regret. The truth is that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Paul could well have lived under a cloud of condemnation, for he was one who had persecuted Christians and sought their deaths. He knew what it was to be forgiven by Jesus and in Phil 3:13 talks of forgetting all that lies behind in order to be focussed on Jesus and pressing on. We need to bring our pasts to Jesus, conffess our sins and then move on. (1 Jn 1:9) Only then can we run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Heb 12:1)
