Joy in Service; Forgetting, and Pressing Onward; Until the Day Dawn | Page 7

sin, is the time to begin. I do not show you so exalted a Jesus as to
put him beyond the reach of imitation. He came to make us like himself.
And I ask if any other ideals of life can compare with this--if they are
not poor and mean--if this does not soar above them. You claim to seek
nobility and greatness and victory. Here they are. Come, learn from

Jesus the love of God. Let it win your heart; and as at his feet you look
in that infinite, eternal sea of love, whose depths are fathomless and
whose billows break on the shores of time--that love of God to man out
of which Christ came to save our souls by death--as you gaze on it, rise
with this resolve: "By thy grace, O Christ, I too will joy to do the will
of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

FORGETTING, AND PRESSING FORWARD.
"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."--PHILIPPIANS 3:13, 14.

FORGETTING, AND PRESSING ONWARD.
We are not to take the first part of this text too literally, nor press the
apostle's words too closely. He certainly did not mean to say that he
had forgotten all his past life and blotted out the memory of all that lay
behind him. The Bible must be interpreted naturally, as you would
interpret the language of ordinary writers. If we were to take texts =out
of their connections and press the literal meaning of every clause and
word, we would soon make the book a bundle of contradictions and
reduce it to an actual absurdity. Unfortunately this has sometimes been
done, and not a few of the differences of opinion which believers of the
Bible have among themselves arise from such false and unreasonable
methods of interpretation. So, as I have said, Paul did not mean that he
had really forgotten the things that lay behind him. In fact, he refers
again and again to his past life and experience. In this very chapter he
relates his pedigree. Often he refers to his state of mind before he
became a Christian--to his spiritual unrest and vain efforts after peace.
Still oftener does he recount the story of his conversion, and hold
himself up to all ages as a miracle of grace and a monument of Divine
mercy. He was very far, therefore, from having forgotten the way along
which he had been led. It had been too momentous both for himself and
others. It had been too full of both storm and sunshine not to be worth

remembering. It had written, as with a pen of steel, lessons of law and
love upon the soul of the apostle, and in characters too deep ever to be
obliterated.
What, then, did Paul mean when he here describes himself as
"forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before"? He meant his language to be understood
comparatively and relatively. He was thinking chiefly of the new life
which had been opened before him by Jesus Christ, and of the
enthusiasm and devotion with which he pursued it. He likens himself to
a contestant in a foot-race, whose eye is bent on the track before him,
not on that behind his back--who is ever measuring in thought the
distance yet to be traveled until the prize is won. He meant, therefore,
that he was so absorbed in the new pursuits and duties given him by
Jesus Christ that his past life was comparatively forgotten. He did not
mourn the honors in the Jewish Church which he had lost by becoming
a Christian. He did not dwell upon the anger of his Hebrew friends,
now that he had the friendship of Christ himself. He did not regret the
sacrifice he had made, since a better reward had been bestowed upon
him. He did not let past troubles hamper present actions, nor past
successes cause him to rest upon his laurels, nor past services satisfy
him, nor past losses embitter him. He turned resolutely to the future. He
pushed ahead in his divinely appointed way. He let the dead past bury
its dead, while he was absorbed in the living present and the coming
future. Speaking relatively, in comparison with the absorbing business
of his life, he could say, "Forgetting those things which are behind and
reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Thus understood, St. Paul's language becomes exceedingly suggestive
of things that it is worth our while to forget,