by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
What a statement Paul made in Philippians 3:12. He had not already obtained the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Neither was he already perfect.<\/p>\n
Don’t forget Paul’s circumstance in writing. He was in prison. For all he knew, he was going to receive a death sentence. He may full well be in the final days of his life. And in that moment, he declared he was not perfect. He hadn’t become all he wanted to be in Christ or all Christ wanted him to be. He still had growing to do.<\/p>\n
But, he pressed on. He refused to be distracted by the past. He was running a race. He wasn’t going to slow down and look backward. He wasn’t going to be overcome by past failures. Neither was he going to be distracted by past successes. He was going to keep looking ahead to the goal and pressing on.<\/p>\n
He pressed on to make the goal and perfection his own because Christ had made Paul His own. Which calls to mind how Paul started this letter. Paul was confident that the one who started a work in him and in the Philippians would bring it to completion on the day of Christ. That is, He would bring it to perfection.<\/p>\n
This drives home the point. Our job is not perfection. That’s God’s job. Our job is pressing on. If we press on, God will perfect us. Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n
But here’s the fantastic point. The same Paul who in Philippians 3:12 says, “I am not perfect,” said in Philippians 1:22-23 that if he died in that imprisonment, he would go be with the Lord. The path to God is not our perfection. The path to God is Jesus Christ. So, no matter what happened yesterday or today, put your eyes on the prize and press on. God will perfect you. And if you die today in Christ, have faith He will bring you into His eternal home.<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Edwin Crozier What a statement Paul made in Philippians 3:12. He had not already obtained the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Neither was he already perfect. Don’t forget Paul’s circumstance in writing. He was in prison. For all he knew, he was going to receive a death sentence. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[513,56],"class_list":["post-95232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-maturity","tag-perfection"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2272,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-become-perfect\/","url_meta":{"origin":95232,"position":0},"title":"Can we become perfect?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is perfection? Can we, as Christians, obtain perfection? If so, how do we obtain it? Answer: The Greek word translated as \"perfect\" is the word\u00a0teleion. It means something that is complete, perfect, whole, full-grown, ripe, mature, or adult. Thus, becoming perfect is just another way of saying you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6843,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-admit-that-i-ignored-the-recruiter-at-my-interview\/","url_meta":{"origin":95232,"position":1},"title":"Should I admit that I ignored the recruiter at my interview?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, This might be confusing, but I\u2019m going to try to explain this the best I can. I apologize in advance. Recently I have been searching for jobs. I have had two businesses interested in me (we will call them Companies A and B). I chose B over A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-go-from-feeling-so-much-peace-and-joy-to-the-exact-opposite\/","url_meta":{"origin":95232,"position":2},"title":"How can I go from feeling so much peace and joy to the exact opposite?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My zeal for God, I think now, was in the wrong direction.\u00a0 The last couple of days have been really hard.\u00a0 I can't tell you how many times I wanted to just give up and go buy a pack of cigarettes and have a beer at a bar.\u00a0 I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42447,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/potential-is-not-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":95232,"position":3},"title":"Potential Is Not Enough","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done\" (Samuel Johnson, 1770). Potential has to do with something that can happen but has not yet happened. It has to do with possibilities: unrealized and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95222,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/look-to-exemplary-disciples\/","url_meta":{"origin":95232,"position":4},"title":"Look to Exemplary Disciples","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier I'm sometimes surprised by how Christians talk about the selfishly ambitious teachers in Philippians 1:15-17. The way I hear some people talk about these men is as if Paul were unconcerned about their envy and rivalry. Oh, sure, they should probably do better than that, and they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/personal-perfection-to-get-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":95232,"position":5},"title":"Personal Perfection to Get to Heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall Ever hear someone say, \"I hope I did enough to go to heaven?\" Or have you heard preached, \"That church isn't 'sound' so anyone baptized there is still lost\"? Those are dangerous thoughts. If we have to be perfect in all areas to get to heaven, then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}