maturity
I have always loved the book of Philippians. This book brings out so many themes: joy, hope, facing adversity, sacrifice, and
struggling through life and yourself. Today when I dug into the Philippians 3 I found some insights I have not seen there before.
Let me also preface that my life has been lately thinking a lot about what is disciple-making and how does transformation happen. I’ve run into a number of people who are accomplishing it in different ways, so I’m coming at this text through the lens of maturity and transformation.
My method of studying the text was to summarize each paragraph into a sentence. I try to change it into my own words, so I’m not copying directly from the passage. Putting it in one thought forces me to consider the main issue of each paragraph. I got the paragraphs from NIV 2011 version.
Philippians 3
Paragraph 1: Paul puts confidence in the Spirit, not it the flesh.
Paragraph 2: Paul has plenty of reason to be confident in his accomplishments (flesh).
Paragraph 3: Paul’s accolades don’t count at all, because being found in Christ is of infinite importance.
Paragraph 4: Paul knows he’s not completely there yet, he keeps on seeking and learning from Christ.
Paragraph 5: This is maturity and we should all view it that way.
Paragraph 6: Follow my model, not those in the flesh, and remember the Spirit will transform you.
As I reviewed my findings I thought about what this passage says about transformation. How do we become mature?
- It is not us. — Paragraph 1
- Humility — Paragraphs 2-4
- Modeling — Paragraph 5
- The Spirit — Paragraph 5
Pass on your paragraph summaries. I’d love to hear what you’re being impress with.
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Groups Guy 
One of the scriptures that stays with me is 3:14 where Paul says that he is pressing on towards the goal of living Christlike.
The verb – Press – in Strong’s Concordance: to pursue while experiencing persecution.
And, then in 3:17: the Philippians (and us) should follow Paul’s example and others that live Christlike.
To your point, Dane, Paul is a model for us as someone that Walked and Talked the life of a Christian with a lot of everyday issues and problems.
Tim good to hear from you again. I hope you are well.
I like that verb you found. That opens up a lot of meaning to the passage. So many times in life we must “press” on, leaving behind the pain, the embarrassment, our sin. It is hacking our way through those difficulties that we must continue to do.