One thing I want to do
[Philippians 3:10-14]
“What is one thing that you want to do in your life of faith?” As I was meditating on Philippian 3:1-14, I asked myself this question. When I did that, I thought about doing one thing definitely, that is a threefold perspective of one thing. The threefold perspective of one thing is faith, love and hope.
First, regarding "faith" it is John 6:29 – “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent’.”
My first priority is to know Jesus Christ whom God has sent. I want to know Jesus more and more. So I also want to know, like Apostle Paul, “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). I also want to be able to confess, like Apostle Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16:16). I want to be a faithful believer who professes the right faith. To do so, I want to keep on listening to the words of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:17). I want diligently listen to the Word of God so that there may be a progress of my faith (Phil. 1:25). Therefore, I want to live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
Second, regarding "love" it is Matthew 22:37-40: “Jesus replied: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’.”
When we live a life of loving God and loving our neighbors as Jesus commanded us to do so, not only that my heart will become heaven, but also our home and our church will become heaven. In pursuing this life of heaven, it is my sincere desire to obey Jesus' twofold command (Mt. 22:37-40). However, I am realizing more and more that my flesh is weak and I cannot obey this twofold command of Jesus with my own strength. So I seek God, the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is love. It is my hope and prayer that God may increase the fruit of the Holy Spirit more abundantly in my life, so that I may be able to live a life that loves God and loves my neighbors more and more.
Third and last, regarding "hope", it is Psalms 27:4 – “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”
Among the American gospel songs I once loved to sing the song "One Thing I Ask". This is how the song goes: “One thing I ask/ One thing I seek/ That I may dwell in Your house, oh Lord/ All of my days/ All of my life/ That I may see You Lord.” Like the psalmist of Psalms 27, I also have a "one thing" that I ask of God. And that one thing is that I live in the house of Lord all the days of my life, looking at the beauty of God and seek Him in His temple.
In Philippians 3:13-14, this is what Apostle Paul said to the Philippian church saints: “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Based on this Word of God, I want to mediate on Philippian 3:10-14 under the title “One think I want to do.”
When we look at Philippians 3:13-14, Paul said to Philippian church saints that “one thig I do” (v. 13). Here, what was "one thing" that Paul was referring to? What was the one thing that Paul did? It was “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,” he pressed on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (vv.13b-14). One thing that Paul was clearly doing was running towards the goal. Paul was running toward the goal, as if a runner was running and doing his best to finish his race while looking at the goal line. Then what was the goal Paul was running toward? It was “that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (v. 12), “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (v. 14). These two phrases describe the same goal of Paul. And the goal was the Paul’s mission, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (v. 14). Paul was caught up in this mission. So Paul wrote the letter to the Philippian church saints, saying that he was pressing on toward his mission, as he had been caught in the heavenly mission given by God in Christ Jesus (vv. 12, 14).
Then the question that we have to ask here is what Paul's mission was. I think Paul's mission was twofold. In other words, Paul's mission is one thing, but that one thing had two sides of his mission, just as a coin has both the front and back sides. One side of Paul's mission is written in Acts 20:24 – “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.” Paul's mission was to testify to the gospel of God's grace. In other words, his mission was to preach the gospel (the good news) of Jesus Christ. And he didn’t regard his life as precious in order to complete this mission. To that extent Paul was on fire in a sense to complete his mission to the Lord. For Paul, who was on fire to complete his mission in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, had another aspect of his mission which was to live a life worthy of that gospel. In other words, Paul's mission, externally, was to bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but internally was to live his life worthy of the gospel by becoming more like Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:27).
That was why in Philippian 3:10, Paul said to the Philippian church saints, “I want to know Christ.” This is related to the word of Philippian 3:8, “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Although Paul, who was a Pharisee as to the Law in the past (v. 5), had much knowledge of the Law, he didn’t know that “the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). In particular, even though he might have much knowledge of Christ, he didn’t know that Jesus was the Christ (cf. Acts 9:20). That was why he persecuted those Christians who believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and followed His way. But when Saul (Paul) heard the voice of the resurrected Jesus on the way to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4), and when he believed that the Lord of those Christians whom he persecuted zealously was Christ and the Son of God (v. 20), he realized “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). The "knowledge" Paul speaks here is not merely his intellectual knowledge about Him. When we look at the Greek word (γνώσεως) that Paul used, he meant that he knew Christ Jesus "experientially" or "personally" (cf. Jn. 10:27, 17: 3, 2 Cor. 4:6; 1 Jn.5:20). Also this knowledge is equal to the life weshare with Christ (Gal. 2:20). And this is consistent with God knowing His people (Amos 3:2) and His people loving and obeying God as they get to know Him (Jer. 31:34, Hos. 6:3, 8:2).
When Paul realized “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”, he had the goal that had two sides. And those two sides are ‘gaining Christ’ (v. 8) and “be found in Him” (v. 9). Paul wanted to gain Christ whom he didn’t know before, and be united with Christ spiritually, a state of righteousness. Since he was already spiritually united with Jesus’ death and resurrection, he was already in the state of righteousness. In other words, since Paul was already spiritually united with Jesus in His death and resurrection, he was united with Jesus. Although he was already united with Jesus and received the righteousness of God, he wasn’t yet in perfect state of righteousness. For him, the time yet didn’t come for him to be in perfect state of righteousness when he would be united with Jesus perfectly. Since Paul desperately wanted this, he considered everything in the flesh that he put confidence in before he believed in Jesus to be not only loss but also rubbish (v. 8).
We, who know the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, must want to do one thing that is fulling the mission that the Lord has given us. And that mission is to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and live a life worthy of His gospel. I want to share the gospel song called “Mission”: “I will follow Jesus who has walked/ This road of suffering water and blood/ That was shed for us/ That’s the path I’ve chosen to go/ Through the mountains or the raging seas/ To the end of the world I go in peace/ Giving all of me to the lost and hurt/ I will gladly answer God’s call/ Here I am, Lord send me to the world/ Father use me as You will/ Take my heart, my life, my everything/ Send me and I will go/ Though the world reject, despise, and hate/ I will choose the path of love/ knowing only that the cross will save/ I will follow Your way/ You gave all to love/ And make me Yours/ Even death upon the cross/ Now I will love You forevermore/ Jesus I am all Yours/ Follow the path of the Lord alone. I will go the way of shedding all the water and blood/ I am okay, even at the end of the sea. I wish you would forsake me for those dying/ Father send me I will run I will not spare my life/ I am okay, even at the end of the sea. I wish you would forsake me for those dying./ Father send me I will run I will not spare my life/ I will love even if the world hates me. I will follow the cross to save the world/ You are the one who loves me until you give up your life
Accept this little me I love too” (Internet).
The righteous man who has realized that he is justified by God’s grace in Jesus Christ and who knows the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ live a life of throwing away and abandoning (Phil. 3:7, 8). At the same time, the life of the righteous wants to know more about Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:10). The reason is because he wants to imitate Jesus Christ and to live a life that is worthy of the gospel (1:27). Here, what was the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus? Based on Philippians 3:10, I want to think about in three ways:
First, Paul wanted to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
Look at Philippians 3:10 – “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection ….” Here, what was the power of His resurrection that Paul wanted to know?
A couple of weeks ago, during the Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, our church retired Pastor Kim preached the Word of God based on Romans 8:10-11: “But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” After listening to his sermon and after we finished the Prayer Meeting, I went into my office and summarized his sermon: ‘Someday all of us will die (Eccl. 7:2). We are made up of the body and the spirit (Rom. 8:10). And we have our mortal body (v. 11). Not only our body but our soul had to die eternally because of one man Adam’s sin (5:12). But if Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, then even though our body dies our spirit is alive (8:11). When we die, the body returns to the earth, but our spirit enters into the heaven. “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). Jesus was resurrected. Since Jesus was resurrected, those who belong to Him (v. 23), those who believe in Jesus will also be resurrected. Jesus' resurrection is our resurrection. God who raised Jesus from dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in us (Rom. 8:11). Since resurrection is the work of Triune God (v. 11), we will surely be resurrected. When the last trumpet sounds (1 Cor. 15:52) and when Jesus comes (v. 23), our lowly bodies will be transformed so that they will be like His glorious body (Phil. 3:21; cf. 1 Jn. 3:2). Therefore, we must give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58).
In Philippians 3:10, Paul, who was saved and received the commission when he met Jesus on the way to Damascus, said to the Philippian church saints that he wanted to know power of His resurrection. The power of His resurrection which he wanted to know was like God who raised Jesus from the dead through the Holy Spirit, Paul wanted to know and experience the resurrection of his body through the Holy Spirit who was dwelling in him who believed Jesus (Rom. 8:11). The reason he wanted it was even though he “already” was in a state of righteousness by being united with Jesus, he wasn’t “yet” fully enjoy that state of righteousness by being completely united with Jesus that was about to come in the future.
When the last trumpet sounds, we will be change (1 Cor. 15:51). We will no longer wear perishable, mortal and sinful bodies. Instead, we will put on the imperishable, immorality, powerful and glorious bodies (vv. 42-44, 52-54). And He will transform our lowly bodies so that we will be like His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). On the last day, those who sleep in the Lord will be resurrected and will put on His glorious and spiritual bodies, and we will ascend to eternal heaven and dwell with the Lord forever (1 Thess. 4:17). As we are Christians who have the eternal hope of resurrection, I hope and pray that we may know the power of Jesus' resurrection while we are living on this earth.
Second, Paul wanted to know the fellowship of sharing in Jesus’ sufferings.
Look at Philippians 3:10 – “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, ….” Paul, who wanted to know Christ rightly, wanted to know and participate in His sufferings.
Why do we have to suffer? On Saturday, October 11, 2014, our church member sister Kelly's beloved second daughter, Eloise had almost died from drowning in a pool. What sister Kelly told me was when Eloise was drowning, suddenly a man appeared and he jumped into the pool and saved Eloise and did CPR on her. At that time, sister Kelly was praying earnestly to God. Thankfully, her beloved child Eloise was alive and sister Kelly told me by phone. At that time, when Eloise was in the intensive care unit, sister Kelly sent me the Eloise’s picture sitting in the hospital bed and also sent her testimony. The conclusion of her testimony was ‘All answers are Jesus Christ ....’ One of the things I was a little bit surprised at was about two days ago I meditated on the story of Jesus immediately rescuing Peter who was drowning into the water (Mt. 14:24). The conclusion of that meditation was that God's purpose for suffering was for us to know who God is and to make a true faith profession. Do you understand why God allows us suffering? If you are in the midst of suffering now, I would like to offer you three exhortations:
(1) Suffering can be beneficial to us.
Look at Psalms 119:71 – “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” At least there are two benefits of suffering. (1) The first one is that suffering reminds us of the fact that we are going astray. Look at Psalms 119: 67 – “Before I was afflicted I went astray, ….” There are many times when we don’t know that we are going astray until suffering. Then through the suffering that the Lord gives us, we become aware of it. Like a shepherd who strikes a sheep that was going astray and makes the sheep to go to the right direction, the Lord, our Shepherd, uses the stick of suffering to lead us to walk in the right way. (b) The second benefit of suffering is that suffering makes us to obey the word of the Lord. Look at Psalms 119:67 – “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.”
(2) Suffering can be a temptation to leave the Word of God, but at the same time, it can be a good opportunity for us to get closer to the Word of God as well.
When we are suffering, we must hold on to the Word of God's promise and cry out to God. Also, we must keep the Word of God so that the Word of God can become ours (Ps. 119:49-56).
(3) Suffering can be a tool for God to test our hearts.
As a blacksmith puts silver in the furnace to remove the dross from the silver (Prov. 25:4), God put as “in the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48:10) in order to tests our hearts (17:3) and to make us to “come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). The purpose is for God to make us a worthy vessel (Prov. 25:4). The purpose is to cleanse us so that we can be “an instrument for noble purposes, make holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work” (2 Tim. 2:21).
Apostle Paul wanted to participate in Christ's sufferings (Phil. 3:10). Isn’t it interesting that Saul (Paul) the persecutor who gave the Christians suffering wanted to participate in His suffering after he met Jesus Christ on the way to Damascus? What change did Paul have in his heart so that Paul wanted to participate in the sufferings of Jesus Christ? I looked up the answer in Philippians 1:29 – “For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” That is, Paul wanted to participate in Christ's sufferings because he realized that as a believer of Jesus Christ it was God's grace to suffer for Him. So Paul said in Colossians 1:24 – “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” When we are suffering for our church like Jesus, the comfort that the Lord gives us is that fact that Christ is suffering with us (Rom. 8:17) and that no one can break us from the love of Christ (vv. 35, 39).
As Paul was writing to the Philippian church saints, he said he thanked God because of their “participation in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3-5). Then he exhorted them to consider suffering for Christ’s sake as God’s grace (v. 29). Here the Bible teaches us that participating in the gospel of Christ is participating in His sufferings. After that, Paul said in Philippian 3:10 that he wanted to know Jesus Christ and that he wanted to participate in His suffering. Why didn’t Paul mind to participate in the suffering of Jesus Christ? I think there were at least two reasons: (1) The first reason was that Paul wanted to learn obedience by participating in the suffering of Jesus Christ. Look at Hebrews 5:8 – “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” (2) The second reason was because Paul considered his present sufferings were not worth comparing with the glory that would be revealed in him (Rom. 8:18).
We also must learn obedience through suffering. And through obedience we must learn the heart of Heavenly Father (Hos. Ch. 1). Also, we must think about the glory that will be revealed in us in the future that cannot be compared with our present suffering. Like Paul, we must participate in the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
Third, Paul wanted to be conformed to Jesus’ death.
There are three books that take the place of the first place of religious primer books after the Bible. The three books are Augustine's "Confessions", John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim’s Progress" and Thomas A Kempis' "Imitation of Christ". When we look at Chapter 23, ‘About meditating on death,’ the author Kempis said:
"Each morning remember that you may not live until evening; and in the evening, do not presume
to promise yourself another day. Be ready at all times,(Luke 21:36) and so live that death may never
find you unprepared. Many die suddenly and unexpectedly; for at an hour that we do not know the
Son of Man will come.(Matt.24:44) When your last hour strikes, you will begin to think very
differently of your past life, and grieve deeply that you have been so careless and remiss. Happy
and wise is he who endeavours to be during his life as he wishes to be found at his death. For these
things will afford us sure hope of a happy death; perfect contempt of the world; fervent desire to
grow in holiness; love of discipline; the practice of penance; ready obedience; selfdenial; the bearing
of every trial for the love of Christ. While you enjoy health, you can do much good; but when sickness
comes, little can be done. Few are made better by sickness, and those who make frequent pilgrimages
seldom acquire holiness by so doing. … Who will remember you when you are dead? Who will pray
for you? Act now, dear soul; do all you can; for you know neither the hour of your death, nor your state
after death. While you have time, gather the riches of everlasting life.(Luke 12:33; Gal.6:8) Think only
of your salvation, and care only for the things of God. Make friends now, by honouring the Saints of
God and by following their example, that when this life is over, they may welcome you to your
eternal home.(Luke 16:9)” (Internet).
Look at Philippians 3:10 – “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” What does it mean to imitate the death of Christ, as Paul said here? We can think in two ways (Walvoord): (1) First, it may mean that as Jesus died for sin and Paul was already died to sin (Rom. 6:2, 6-7, Col.3:3), he wanted to cut the sinful life of the old man before he believed in Jesus Christ and be separated from his former life of sin daily (Rom. 6:1-4, 11-14). (2) Second, it may mean that just as Christ died as he was preaching the gospel, Paul also wanted to die as he preached the gospel of Christ. In other words, Paul said he wanted to have beneficial death. Look at Philippians 1:20-21: “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” This beneficial death was to say that Paul wanted to submit to the will of the Lord even to death, as Jesus was submissive to the will of the Father God to the point of death (2:8). In a word, when Paul said that he wanted to imitate the Jesus’ death, he meant that he wanted to keep on preaching His gospel and to keep on living the worthy life of His gospel until he died. He even wanted to be martyred. That was why he already said in Philippians 2:17 – “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.” Here, "a drink offering" is a drink that is poured out on sacrifice. What Paul said was he would rejoice even his blood was being poured out into the sacrifice to the point of death for service of the Philippian church saints’ faith (Park Yun-sun). In one word, Paul said he would rejoice even if he was martyred.
I think Epaphroditus imitated this Paul (1:25). The reason I think this way is because Epaphroditus came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in the Philippian church saints’ service to Paul (v. 30). When Paul said he wanted to be conformed to Christ Jesus’ death (3:10), he meant that he wanted to imitate Jesus Christ. He was already saved and justified by faith in Jesus Christ when he met Him on the way to Damascus. But he wasn’t yet in a perfect righteous state. Paul, who was living in this “Already and Not-yet” tension, wanted to imitate Jesus Christ and that was his goal (MacArthur). In other words, he longed for the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. That was why Paul talked about “that which is through faith in Christ” and “the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” in verse 9. In other words, he talked about "justification" which was already justified by faith in Jesus in verse 9 and then in verse 10, he talked about "sanctification".
What is "sanctification"? This is what Westminster Short Catechism question 35 says about sanctification: “Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” Our sanctification is renewed in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness in the image of God (Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:24). Our sanctification will be completed when we are completely free from sin and when we reach God's image completely, at the stage of glorification. There are two elements of this sanctification: (1) Dead: We are gradually dead to our sins (Rom. 6:11), and (2) Alive: We are living to righteousness (v. 13) (Internet). Why then did Paul long for the sanctification of being like Jesus even though he was already justified? The reason was that he wanted to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:11). In other words, Paul, who was already justified by faith in Jesus Christ, longed for sanctification because he eagerly wanted for the resurrection of the dead. Here what does it mean when Paul said “attain to the resurrection from the dead”? We can think in two ways: (1) Actually be raised from the death of the body and (2) Being raised from spiritual dead. Since Paul was already raised from spiritual dead when he met Jesus Christ and believed in Him on the way to Damascus road, he meant to be raised from physical death when he mentioned about attaining to the resurrection from the dead (v. 11). And being raised from physical death is referring to his dead body would be resurrected and wear the glorious body at the moment of Jesus’ return (Second Coming) and would enter into the perfect righteous state. That was why Paul was so eagerly longing to imitate Jesus.
Don’t you want to imitate Jesus? Let’s, like Paul, focus on one thing that is imitating Jesus. Let’s press toward the goal, fulfilling God’s given mission to us as we hold onto that mission. The Lord's mission to all of us is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to live a life worthy of His gospel as we imitate Jesus Christ. This is our responsibility as God’s people who are justified by faith in Jesus through the grace of God. If we truly understand surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, we must throw away and abandon our confidence in the flesh. At the same time, we must want to know more about Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that all of us imitate Jesus Christ and live a life that is worthy of His gospel.