Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

Paul now addresses the Philippians by the endearing title “brothers” and repeats the thought of v.12. He did not regard himself as having obtained the final knowledge of Christ and the fullest conformity to him. One thing, therefore, was the consuming passion of his Christian life. Using the metaphor of a footrace, Paul describes it as involving the continual forgetting of “what is behind” and the relentless centering of his energies and interests on the course that is ahead of him. “Forgetting” did not mean obliterating the memory of his past (cf. vv.5–7), but was a conscious refusal to let it absorb his attention and impede his progress. He never allowed his Jewish heritage nor his previous Christian attainments (vv.9–12) to obstruct his running of the race. No present attainment could lull him into thinking he already possessed all Christ desired for him.