Pressing On
For the week of July 12-18, 2026
FREE PREVIEW: Philippians 3:12-21 —Pressing On
This is a condensed preview of this week's full Bible study lesson, available exclusively to paid subscribers.
Introduction
Having just told the Philippians that his single ambition is to know Christ, Paul immediately adds a clarification that keeps the whole letter honest: he has not arrived yet. The greatest Christian who ever lived describes himself not as a man who has finished but as a runner still on the track — forgetting what lies behind, straining toward what lies ahead, pressing on with everything in him toward the prize. The Christian life, Paul insists, is not a trophy already won. It is a race still being run.
I. The PURSUIT of the Prize — Pressing Toward the Goal (vv. 12–14)
“Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14).
Paul reaches for the image of a runner in full stride. He refuses to coast on past attainments and refuses to be paralyzed by past failures — forgetting what is behind, he leans his whole body toward the finish line. The Christian life is single-minded forward motion, a deliberate, daily pressing on toward the prize that God has called us upward to receive.
II. The PATTERN to Follow — and the People to Avoid (vv. 15–19)
“Be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example. For many walk... as the enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:17–18).
Paul calls the mature to share his forward-leaning mindset and to fix their eyes on living examples of it — beginning with himself. But he also warns, through tears, of another pattern: those whose god is their appetite, whose glory is their shame, and whose minds are set on earthly things. Two ways of walking lie before every believer, and the company we imitate shapes the direction we go.
III. The PROSPECT of Glory — Citizens Awaiting a Savior (vv. 20–21)
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory” (Philippians 3:20–21).
Paul lifts his readers’ eyes to the reason the race is worth running. Believers hold a citizenship in heaven, and they await a Savior who will return to transform their frail, mortal bodies into the likeness of His own glorious body. The runner presses on because the finish line is certain and the prize is the Lord Himself.
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