Philippians 3:13

For I, friends, do not regard myself as having yet laid hold of it. But this one thing I do – forgetting what lies behind, and straining every nerve for that which lies in front,

Open English Bible (US)

In The King James Version

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

In Context

12Not that I have already laid hold of it, or that I am already made perfect. But I press on, in the hope of actually laying hold of that for which indeed I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

14I press on to the goal, to gain the prize of that heavenward call which God gave me through Christ Jesus.

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Cross References

Psalms 27:4One thing have I asked of the Lord, and that do I long for – To live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the grace of the Lord and inquire in his temple.

Luke 9:62But Jesus answered, “No one who looks back, after putting their hand to the plow, is fitted for the kingdom of God.”

Romans 15:23But now there are no further openings for me in these parts, and I have for several years been longing to come to you whenever I may be going to Spain.

2 Corinthians 5:16For ourselves, then, from this time forward, we refuse to regard anyone from the world’s standpoint. Even if we once thought of Christ from the standpoint of the world, yet now we do so no longer.

Philippians 2:12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient in the past, so now work out your own salvation with anxious care, not only when I am with you, but all the more now that I am absent.

Philippians 3:12Not that I have already laid hold of it, or that I am already made perfect. But I press on, in the hope of actually laying hold of that for which indeed I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Matthew Henry on Philippians 3:10-15

The Apostle's Concern, Hope, and Aim. ( a. d. 62.) 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if… Read the whole commentary →

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