Forget the Past; Forge the Future

If we are to describe our last year in one word, what would it be? Would it be success, failure, busy, lazy, challenging, joyride, stressful, chill, change, constant, love, sorrow, heartbreak, excitement? The thing is that whether we have had a good or challenging year, we are all going to leave last year behind. Last year is already the past. This is both a scary and a beautiful prospect. For some of us who have had a good year, there is no assurance that we will have another abundant 2018. For those of us who have had a difficult year, we are looking forward for a better one.

The common image in Filipino comics that describes the changing of the year is an old man being replaced by a new baby. There is a new beginning, almost from nothing. The new year affords great opportunities to start again. The apostle Paul, reflecting about his life as a missionary of the gospel, has written one of the most important set of verses in the whole New Testament about what it means to put the past behind as we look forward to the future. This is one of my favorite passages: Philippians 3:4-14 (NIV)

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Our primary verse is this: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” (3:13). These two complement each other. When we look at the life of Paul, the message is very clear.

Forget the Past

Paul’s first advice is to forget what is behind. Typically, Paul’s advice is interpreted from a negative perspective. Paul is thought to be admonishing that we should leave our experiences of troubles behind and forget all of these. We should forget both the offenses of others against us and our own self-inflicted failures. To a certain degree, Paul was probably thinking of these when he was writing the letter. He had the right to say these things, because his past was not a rose-colored story of righteousness and success. He was once a blasphemer, violent, and persecutor of the church (1 Tim 1:13). People persecuted him. People stoned him. He was undeservedly punished. He was a recipient of envy and scorn, even from those he ministered with (the Corinthian believers). He was tossed and battered by the angry sea. He was accused of all sorts of things, arrested, and beaten.

So Paul’s words may be understood as a challenge that if we have been violent blasphemers of our faith, defiling the name of God in the process, we should leave that behind in the coming year. If we have experienced suffering because of persecution, misunderstanding, envy, and others, we should forget about these things and leave them behind. We may have been criticized, talked about negatively, pushed aside, neglected, offended, not respected enough, rejected, or whatever, we are being asked to forget and let go. We should let go of the thoughts of vengeance or bitterness or unforgiveness. We are to leave behind the sufferings of the past year, both self-inflicted and caused by others.

However, I think Paul’s main thought in the passage is about forgetting our sufferings. In fact, when we go back and read verses 4-6, Paul enumerated a few things that he can boast about himself. He was talking about his achievements. It seems to me that Paul’s primary message in Philippians 3 is that if we are to forget something, we must concentrate on forgetting our past achievements. We are entering the new year. We may have accomplished this and that, we may have achieved this and that, we may have received this and that, we may have done this and that, but it is time to forget them and move on. We may be tempted to live in the glories of the past and lose sight of the greater work that is in front of us. We might become conceited about what we have accomplished in the past and develop spiritual pride and superiority complex over others. Paul says in verse 7: “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless” (NLT). Let go of the past, and strain toward what is ahead, because as Paul wrote, “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it” (3:13). There is so much more to do. We have not even reached half of our task and goal.

Forge the Future

When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was in prison. He was probably aware that he was almost at the end of his life. He had an inkling that the Roman empire would not leave him alive. We can sense that he was torn:

“Now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹ For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. ²² If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! ²³ I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Phil 1:20-23).

Whatever the outcome of his imprisonment would be, Paul’s attitude was exemplary. He was discerning that the end for him was very near, but he still admonished that we should all strain toward what is ahead. What is ahead might be death and other many forms of suffering for the sake of the kingdom, but Paul says, strain toward it anyway!

We must forget about our past accomplishments and consider everyday as a new start, because our goals are yet to be achieved. We cannot be content with our past victories. We cannot be content with our historical record, but must strive to break them. We must move toward even more victories, more accomplishments, and more labor. There is no time to be complacent. Our victories in the past should pale in comparison to the victories of tomorrow, so that when we look back, we can laugh and scorn our old selves and say, “How foolish of the old me, thinking that this was the meaning of success.”

However, and more importantly, we should learn why Paul talked about forgetting what is behind and straining toward the future. Why should we forget our past accomplishments behind? What is the goal that we should strain toward? The answer is found in verses 7-10:

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

Let us leave our victories behind. What truly matters is our deepening relationship and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So what if we have earned more money last year? So what if we have been promoted at work? So what if we have served a thousand hours in our ministries? Paul says that these are garbage, because what we should really gain is Jesus Christ (Phil 3:8). He is the goal that we should strain toward. All our efforts should be concentrated on knowing Him, in experiencing the power of his resurrection, in participating in his suffering, and becoming like Him in his death (Phil 3:10). Forget the past, leave it behind, and strain toward our goal, Jesus Christ. He is the true crown of righteousness for us. Our destiny and purpose is not predicated on what we do, but on who we are with. Our desire for this new year must therefore be to get closer to God, to know Him more, and to have Him manifested in our lives.

This is what our 2018 as disciples of Jesus Christ should look like.


[This is first of the sermon series entitled New Beginnings.]