6th April 2025

One of my grandchildren is four years old, and two of them are three years old and often I’ll hear them say, ‘My daddy can do this’ or ‘My mummy can do that’. It’s cute when they say such things, but it wouldn’t be quite so endearing if they were saying the same sort of thing when they are 25 or 30. You would expect them to act appropriately for their age and, as they get older, to mature in their understanding, language, and behaviour.

Just as we expect to see maturity in the physical, emotional, and mental realms as toddlers grow into children, and children grow into teenagers, and teenagers grow into adults, so we should expect to see maturity in the spiritual realm, as time goes by in our Christian lives.  

In our header scripture Paul explains a certain characteristic will mark our lives and our walk with God, if we are growing in maturity, and that is to keep moving forward, not stagnating. Paul here is looking ahead and pressing towards the goal of ‘…somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.’ (v.11). The use of the word somehow here is not a note of uncertainty or doubt, but it means one way or another. It reflects, not Paul’s lack of confidence, but his circumstances: whether I attain the resurrection of the dead now (Christ comes back right away), or after my death (eventually when Christ returns). However it happens, he says, I want to attain the resurrection of the dead. 

It’s in this context Paul says, ‘I want to know Christ’ (v.10). Now this was written by an apostle who had ‘known’ Jesus for years, which can only mean that he wants to know him better. Paul is not setting himself up as having arrived; he is on a pilgrimage. He’s not saying, ‘I’ve arrived as a Christian myself. I wish you would follow me.’ Rather, he is saying, ‘I am pressing on. Follow me on my pilgrimage.’ That’s why what follows is inoffensive: ‘Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters…as you have us as a model…’ (v.17).

So, Paul says, ‘Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.’ (v.12). How can we move forward to the goal? Only in so far as Christ has taken hold of us. We do so in his strength and not our own.

It is this example of pilgrimage: moving forward in Christ and pressing on steadily and consistently toward growth that Paul wants us to follow, and is a sign of Christian maturity.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead 
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:  
wordoflife@gracecom.church