Charles Ellicott Commentary Philippians 3:13

"Brethren, I could not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before," — Philippians 3:13 (ASV)

I count not myself . . .—The “I” is emphatic, evidently in contrast with some of those who thought themselves perfect. (See Philippians 3:15.) Not only does Saint Paul refuse to count that he has yet attained; he will not allow that he is yet in a position even to grasp at the prize. (Compare to 1 Corinthians 9:27.)

Forgetting those things which are behind . . .—The precept is absolutely general, applying to past blessings, past achievements, and even past sins. The ineradicable instinct of hope, which the wisdom of the world (not unreasonably, if this life is all) holds to be a delusion, or at best a condescension to weakness, is sanctioned in the gospel as an anticipation of immortality. Accordingly, hope is made a rational principle and is always declared to be not only a privilege but also a high Christian duty, coordinate with faith and love (as in 1 Corinthians 13:13; Ephesians 4:4).

Saint Paul does not hesitate to say that, if we do not have it, for the next life as well as this, we Christians are of all men most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19). Hence, past blessing is but an earnest of the future; past achievements of good are stepping-stones to greater things; past sins are viewed in that true repentance which differs from remorse—the sorrow of this world which worketh death (2 Corinthians 7:10)—in having a sure and certain hope of the final conquest of all sin. The eternal life in Christ is a present gift, but one test of its reality in the present is its possession of the promise of the future.