12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet …
Paul was very clear about his ultimate mission in life. It was not reaching people for Christ! This is probably one of the most misunderstood things among Christians today. As radical as this may sound, the church is not ultimately all about winning souls.
True, helping people (we call this evangelism) come to Christ in repentance to receive forgiveness of sins is absolutely important. God himself sent His son into the world to save sinners. And the Lord challenged all Christians of all time with the Great Commission (Mat 28:18-20). But that was not Paul’s ultimate goal, nor should it be ours; it was not the thing that helped him arise in the morning after a beating or shipwreck and continue going on in his ministry. He was reaching higher. Evangelism was a means to an end. His real goal wasn’t even the thing that he himself set as a goal. It was a goal God had given him and he was compelled by it.
Paul’s goal was to know to know Christ (vs. 10). Here he put it, “that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (vs. 12). He wanted to line up his life with God’s purposes for him. Nothing more, nothing less. Yes God wanted him to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Gal 2:7-9). But it was not apostleship that Paul coveted, but rather he desired the relationship with God whereby he obeyed what God wanted him to do. In his case, it was being obedient as an apostle to reach the Gentiles. But the specific task was not the ultimate issue. Just as Christ was obedient to His father, so also Paul wanted to be obedient to God. But even Christ had a goal higher than that.
The humble reality of Paul was remarkable. If his goal was just winning people to Christ, he could rest assured that he was quite successful (from human perspectives). However, he had not yet fully attained the real goal for which he was called. A godly, older woman once told me as I was about to embark into ministry fulltime, “Remember, you are not going out to serve people … you are going out to serve the Lord.” Our passion to help people comes out of our commitment to serve God. He is our master, our leader, the head of the church. A devoted child focuses on the gift giver, and then the gift is so much more enjoyable. The servant focuses on the master, and task assignment comes into better focus … because it is tied to the master. Paul set his sights on more and more laying hold of God’s purpose in his life. He was always pressing ahead.
Lord, I set You before my eyes, for You are my goal and my purpose in life.
Tremendous! The Lord has blessed you with a great gift of communicating his truth! I need to meditate on this everyday. This post will be a great aid to avoiding the subtle misdirections of Satan for those who make good use of it.