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In Philippians 3:8-11 a number of matters are covered. Nevertheless, there is just one outstanding point — to be conformed to the death of Christ so that by any means we may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead. For this, we first need the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. By means of such an excellency, we will be willing to count all things as loss in order to gain Christ and be found in Him in a condition of not having our own righteousness out of the law but having the righteousness that is God Himself lived out of us. Then we will experientially know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. We will also be conformed to His death in order to arrive at the out-resurrection from the dead.
Arriving at the out-resurrection means that our entire being has been gradually and continually resurrected. On the day the Spirit of God came into us to regenerate our spirit, the process of resurrection began. First, God resurrected our deadened spirit. From that time onward, He has been working within us to resurrect every part of our being — our mind, emotion, and will. Eventually, even our body will be resurrected and transfigured. This means that we will be fully resurrected out of our old being into the new creation. This is God’s economy, God’s intention, God’s goal. Through this process Christ will be thoroughly wrought into us. It is in this way that we experience Christ.
Experiencing Christ is not merely a matter of enjoying His love, grace, or help. To experience Christ is to have Christ wrought into our being to resurrect us out of our old being into the new creation. When the New Jerusalem comes with the new heaven and the new earth, every part of our being will be a new creation. The way to become the new creation is to have our being processed in resurrection from the old creation to the new. All of us are partly resurrected. This means that another part is still unrenewed and remains in the old creation. Therefore, we are in the process of resurrection to be renewed from the old creation to the new creation. This process of resurrection enables us to participate in Christ and to partake of Christ. This is the experience of Christ.
The experience of Christ is not something so superficial as merely receiving grace, obtaining help, or enjoying love from the Christ in the heavens or from the Christ in us. To experience Christ is to be conformed to His death. In this death we are processed in resurrection from the old creation to the new creation. Eventually, the new creation will simply be Christ wrought into our being and enlarged in us.
In verse 12 Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” Here Paul seems to be saying, “I have not reached the goal. Rather, I am still in the process. Although I may be ahead of all of you, I have not yet obtained, nor have I been perfected. I am still on the way.” Although the apostle Paul was very mature when he wrote the Epistle to the Philippians, he still said that he had not yet been perfected.
In verse 12 Paul says that he pursued in order to lay hold of that for which he had been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. This word is not easy to understand. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he was zealous for the law. He was zealous to such an extent that he even persecuted the church. The Greek word rendered pursue is also the word for persecute. Thus, when Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the church, he pursued it in a negative sense. On the way to Damascus he suddenly saw a light from heaven, and he was knocked to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). On that day Saul of Tarsus was laid hold of by Christ. He was laid hold of by Christ so that he might lay hold of Christ. Therefore, in Philippians 3:12 Paul seems to be saying, “Christ has laid hold of me for the purpose of my laying hold of Him. It was easy for Him to lay hold of me. By one action as I was on the road to Damascus, He thoroughly laid hold of me. But it takes a long time for me to lay hold of Him. From the day He laid hold of me, I have been doing my best to lay hold of Him. Throughout all the years since then, I have been laying hold of Christ.”
On the day we were saved, we were laid hold of by Christ. He laid hold of us in order that we might lay hold of Him. How good it is to be laid hold of by Christ! Do you realize that even now He is embracing you so that you may lay hold of Him? To repeat, for Him to lay hold of us is easy. By one action He laid hold of us all. But our laying hold of Him is not once for all. Rather, it is an ongoing process. When I consider the situation among today’s Christians, I am very disappointed. But when I consider the brothers and sisters in the churches, I am quite encouraged, for many of them have been laying hold of Christ. Continually and gradually, daily and even hourly, we need to lay hold of more of Him. The more we lay hold of Him, the more we are resurrected. In other words, the more we lay hold of Christ, the more we are renewed and transformed from the old creation into the new creation. Because this is a continuing process, Paul says that he was still on the way to lay hold of Christ. He had not yet laid hold of everything of Christ.
Philippians 3:13 and 14 say, “Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.” In these verses Paul seems to be saying, “I have not yet reached the end of the process in God’s economy, but I am pursuing toward the goal. When I was Saul of Tarsus, I pursued the church in a negative way, but now I am pursuing Christ in a positive way.” Paul undoubtedly was of a very strong character, both when he was Saul of Tarsus and when he was Paul the apostle. Being a strong character, he never did anything halfway. When he was Saul of Tarsus, he persecuted the church negatively, and after he became the apostle Paul, he persecuted Christ positively.
In order to experience Christ, in this sense we need to persecute Him. When some hear such a word, they may say, “It is heresy to say that we, the lovers of Christ, should persecute Him.” Yes, we need to persecute Christ. We should say, “Lord Jesus, I don’t care whether You are willing or unwilling, You must be for me. Even if You say that You are not ready for me to experience You, I shall persecute You to make You ready.” When this is viewed in a positive sense, it is not too much of an extreme. Mary Magdalene was an example of one who persecuted the Lord Jesus in a positive way. Early in the morning on the day of His resurrection, she pursued Him. She persecuted the resurrected Christ and persuaded Him to do something that He was not willing to do. We all need to seek the Lord in such a way.
Have you ever persecuted the Lord Jesus in a positive way? Probably not. Have you ever sought the Lord by persecuting Him until He goes along with you? Whenever you persecute Him in such a positive way, you will forget the things behind. Only those who are lukewarm, who are neither cold nor hot in loving the Lord, consider the things of the past and remember their experiences of years ago. But when you persecute the Lord, you have no time to think about the past. Thus, the best way to forget the past is to be fully occupied with pursuing the Lord right now. If we are not occupied in this way, we will be continually occupied with the things of the past, either positive things or negative things. We must be busy with pursuing Christ and persecuting Him in a positive way. If you get into the spirit of Paul, you will realize how busy he was in persecuting Jesus and in compelling Him to be his enjoyment. There was no room in his mind for considerations about the past. To repeat, to consider the past is a sign of being lukewarm. But when you are burning and are persecuting the Lord Jesus in a positive way, you have no room in your mind to think of the past. Instead, you are occupied with pursuing toward the goal.
Both the goal and the prize are Christ. Christ is within us, but He is also before us at the end of the race as the goal that we are striving to reach. To say that Christ is the goal means that He is the highest enjoyment. The Christ who is in us for our enjoyment today is not the goal. The goal is the highest enjoyment of Christ, that is, the out-resurrection. No matter how much we experience Christ today, we have not yet reached the goal of the highest enjoyment of Christ. This experience of Christ is still before us. As soon as we reach the goal, the goal will immediately become the prize. When you obtain the prize, you may shout with the enjoyment of the highest experience of Christ. At that time you will have the out-resurrection as the top enjoyment. Therefore, the enjoyment is Christ, the experience is Christ, the goal is Christ, and the prize is Christ. Christ is the enjoyment within us, and Christ is the goal set before us. We need to pursue toward the goal so that we may gain the prize.
To pursue Christ in this way we need to be aggressive and to exercise ourselves very much. No lazy person can be a persecutor of Christ. Every persecutor of Christ has a strong character. I say again that we all must pursue Christ in a persecuting way. We need to pray, “Lord Jesus, I intend to persecute You. All day long I will be Your persecutor. I will compel You to be for me and to be my experience.” Have you ever prayed in this way? We need to pray like this, telling the Lord that we will persecute Him until He becomes our experience. If we do this, eventually we shall arrive at the goal and receive the prize.
The prize spoken of in Philippians 3:14 is the prize of God’s upward calling. God is in the heavens calling us. Not only has He called us, but He continues to call us. Furthermore, as we run the race and pursue toward the goal, the angels are cheering us on. What an impressive picture this is!
If we mean business with the Lord, we must be a persecutor of Christ. All the lovers of Jesus should be His persecutors. We should say, “Lord Jesus, because I love You, I will persecute You until I persuade You to be for me.” The Lord Jesus appreciates this. For example, any husband would like his wife to be such a loving persecutor. Suppose a wife would say to her husband, “I will persecute you until you stay home with me so that I can love you. I love you, and I don’t want to lose your presence. You must stay home to enjoy my love.” Surely any husband would appreciate such a wife. This is the best way to love the Lord and to seek Him. We should say, “Lord, even if You want to go, I will not let You go. You must stay with me.” The seeker in Song of Songs persecuted her Beloved in this way. Even if He had begged her to let Him go, she would have refused. May we all persecute the Lord in this way!
Philippians 3:15 says, “Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, have this mind; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also God will reveal to you.” We should not think other things but just think this one thing. This one thing is to experience Christ. Regardless of what stage of life we are in, we all should think this one thing, that is, to pursue Christ to the uttermost.
Verse 16 continues, “Nevertheless whereto we have attained, by the same rule let us walk.” Even those who are young and not yet full grown should walk by the same rule. Some may think that Paul here is very domineering and speaks like a dictator, even telling the saints what to think. He says that whether they are young or old, experienced or inexperienced, they need to walk by the same rule. This verse should be read in the light of 2:2, which says, “Make my joy full, that you think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking the one thing.” Furthermore, in Philippians 4:2 Paul says, “I exhort Euodias, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same thing in the Lord.” The trouble among today’s Christians is that nearly everyone thinks a different thing. It is difficult to find one great preacher who works together with another. On the contrary, each one has his own empire and thinks and speaks his own thing. This is the reason that there is nothing but division and confusion in Christianity today. We must not repeat the history of Christianity. The way to be kept from such a sad repetition is to think the one thing. The one thing that we are to think is revealed in Philippians 3:7-15: it is Christ as our experience, enjoyment, goal, and prize.
When some hear that we should think the one thing, they may ask about things such as foot-washing or speaking in tongues. If you want to practice foot-washing or tongue-speaking, you should be free to do so. But do not impose these practices on others. Regarding matters like this, we should neither impose nor oppose, because either imposing or opposing will cause difficulty.
In 1963 some from a Pentecostal group and some from a group with a Brethren background proposed that we come together in Los Angeles to practice the church life in oneness. I told them that it is wonderful for Christians from different groups to come together to practice the church life but that in order to have the church life we all had to drop our differences. I pointed out that if we want to have the Body spoken of in Romans 12, we must learn the lessons in Romans 14. Without Romans 14 it is impossible to have Romans 12. Furthermore, I told them that Christians have been divided and still are divided over various practices. Thus, if we want to have the oneness in the proper church life, we must drop all the differences. Those from each group said that they were happy with this and promised to drop the differences. However, in just a few weeks problems developed over the matters of speaking in tongues and playing a tambourine in the meetings. Those from the group with the Brethren background simply could not tolerate these things. Neither those who favored speaking in tongues and playing the tambourine nor those who opposed these practices would listen to any word about not insisting on their way. Eventually, that meeting had to be disbanded.
We should not oppose anything unless it involves idolatry or fornication. Some have asked me about the so-called holy rolling. I said, “If someone is so repentant over his sins that he wants to roll on the floor, that is all right. We should not oppose it. But if someone insists upon this or imposes it upon others, he is divisive. We bear with anything or go along with any practice as long as it is not sinful or a cause of division.”
In 1966 we began to practice pray-reading, and in 1968, the calling on the name of the Lord. I can testify that I never insisted upon these practices. However, in a certain place messages were repeatedly given opposing pray-reading and calling on the name of the Lord. As Christians, we need to see that we are not for a particular practice or for a certain way. Rather, we are for one thing — to pursue after Christ. We all need to think this one thing and to walk by this same rule. If someone is so happy in a meeting that he jumps up and down, I would not oppose him. However, if someone seeks to impose this practice on others, insisting that all the saints or all the churches engage in it, I would not agree with it, because we are not for jumping but for pursuing after Christ. We do not impose anything, nor do we oppose anything. Instead, we are simply pursuing the all-inclusive Christ. We are not here for any way or practice; we are here only to pursue the Lord and to be conformed to His death.
Whatever we do must be done by being conformed to the death of Christ. If we do everything in this way, there will be no problems, and we will surely think the one thing. Christ must be our experience, goal, and prize. Christ is everything. In the Lord’s recovery there is nothing but Christ. This is the only way for us to take in the Lord’s recovery.
Although the situation in Philippi was very good, unlike the situation in Corinth, there was still a problem because the saints there were not all thinking the same thing. Thus, Paul besought Euodias and Syntyche, two of his co-workers in the gospel, to think the same thing. It is possible that one of the sisters was in favor of Judaism. Whether or not this was so, the fact remains that they were not thinking the one thing. According to the first chapter of Philippians, there was envy and strife even in the preaching of the gospel (vv. 15-16). Surely this was an indication that some were not thinking the one thing. This is the reason that in chapter 2 Paul asked the saints in Philippi to make his joy full. If there was any fellowship of spirit, any consolation of love, any tenderheartedness and compassions, they were to make Paul’s joy full. He wanted them to make his joy full by thinking the same thing, having the same love, and being joined in soul.
We all need to learn to think the one thing, that is, to be occupied with pursuing Christ. We should not be concerned about foot-washing, head covering, speaking in tongues, or any other such matters. Let us leave these things alone and think about the experience and enjoyment of Christ. We need to pray, “Lord, teach me how to persecute You. I don’t care for so many other things. I only care to pursue You.” Do not be troubled by things such as the playing of a tambourine in the meetings. Playing a tambourine is not our goal, prize, or enjoyment. Our enjoyment, experience, goal, and prize are Christ. If others want to play the tambourine, I will not oppose it. After they play the tambourine for a certain period of time, there will eventually be an opportunity for me to share Christ with them. This illustrates the fact that we must all learn that for us there is simply one thing: Christ as our experience, enjoyment, goal, and prize. We do not insist on anything, and we do not oppose anything. If we take this way, we will maintain a good spirit in the churches for the experience and enjoyment of Christ.
We need to honor Christ and allow Him to do everything. Do not persecute Christ regarding things such as speaking in tongues, foot-washing, or playing the tambourine. Instead, persecute Him until He becomes your experience. We need to say, “Lord, it is not up to me whether or not Your people speak in tongues. Lord, I persecute You so that You will be my experience. Lord, when the opportunity comes in the meeting, I would like to share with Your saints something concerning my experience of You.” This is the only thing we need to do. Let us all do the same thing and think the one thing. Do not have any other consideration, and do not be bothered by all the different practices. There is only one thing for us to do: pursue Christ and let Him become our experience, enjoyment, goal, and prize.
