The Attitude of the Mature Christian
3:15a Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude.
This verse begins a difficult section in Paul’s epistle of Philippians. There are many strange things from here to the end of the chapter which have proved a challenge to students of the Bible. Up to this point Paul has been using the story of Christ (2:5-11) and then his own story (3:3-13) to show the Philippians the appropriate attitude for them to have (compare 2:5 with 3:15). In this section he exhorts them to follow his example, which he has just finished laying out.
One of the dilemmas in this passage is that Paul uses the same word here in v.15 that he used in v.12. He says in v.12 that he has not yet become perfect and then implies in v.15 that he has become perfect, along with a number of others in the Philippians congregation. What is even more strange is the fact that Paul in effect says here that those who are perfect ought to have this attitude he has just described of not having attained perfection.
What seems to be going on here is that Paul is using a term that was being used by Philippian believers to elevate themselves over one another. It was a word which meant perfect, complete, mature. (We have all observed children arguing with one another over who is mature and who is immature.) So, with tongue in cheek, he says that the mature/perfect ones among them ought to have an awareness that they haven’t arrived yet (i.e. that they are not mature/perfect yet), but are pressing on earnestly toward the goal. It is like an adult saying to the arguing children, “The mature one is the one who doesn’t claim to be mature.”
Besides the enjoyment of Paul’s way with his beloved but imperfect children, this verse reminds us that the attitude Paul has been describing in 3:7-14 is the attitude of the mature Christian. In our flesh we are very immature. But God is out to perfect us through fatherly discipline and instruction, through the fellowship of Christ’s suffering and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. It is not an easy process; it is especially hard on the pride (I can say that from experience!). But what God wants to do in each of us is a wonderful thing. He wants to help us grow into people not attached to this world, but yearning and striving and straining to pursue the goal of Christ, people who have traded the shallow and deceptive pleasures of sin for the abiding joy of the Holy Spirit. Pray that, by God’s grace, the pattern of 3:7-14 would be worked out in your own life.
Dear Father, I thank You for the marvelous work You are doing in me. I thank You that You love me enough to patiently rip the idols out of my heart. You are the only source of true joy and satisfaction. Please continue the good work you have begun in me. Please bring me to maturity. I want more of what You have already given. I want more faith in Your word and more joy in the heavenly prize and more love for my Jesus and more appetite for heaven. Keep breaking me and melting me and winning me and fixing me, O Lord.