"Therefore, as many as [are] complete, may we be thinking this. And if you are thinking something differently, also this God will reveal to you."
-Paul just said he does not consider himself as having completed the race or as being made perfect yet (Philippians 3.12), but now he addresses those who he says ARE perfect and includes himself in the group. It is the exact same word - teleioi, and it means perfect or complete or mature. Is this a contradiction? Well, the root idea of the word means something which has in fact arrived at the end of something - a journey, a process of some sort. Yes, those who follow Christ are on a journey, a marathon, called to be(come) holy and perfect (1Peter 1.15, 2Corinthians 7.1) - it is part of that high bar calling we talked about in Philippians 2.15 (cf Matthew 5.48). And someday Christ-followers will be fully and finally transformed into the likeness of God’s perfection and glory. But for now, there IS a perfection in this life which looks like having arrived at the place where you know that you have NOT yet arrived. I am not perfect - far from it - and I am perfectly ok with that, but I’m not ok with that. It is not fatalism or apathy or resigning myself to making no more progress towards gaining Christ. I am content, but not complacent. Each day is full of new opportunities to learn and grow, to pursue knowing and following and living like Jesus. And so Paul is encouraging his readers to be thinking this way, to maintain the perspective that they have not finished the race. He is addressing those who are mature/complete enough to know they have not yet arrived at their final destination.
-But there is another kind of perfection in this life, one where all those who are in Christ HAVE arrived at perfection because they are IN Christ. Their identity and their position are actually those of Christ Himself because, as a result of their faith in Christ, God has justified them - declared them righteous such that now in His eyes they have done everything right (i.e. because they are in Christ). It is possible that Paul here is simply addressing all believers, all those who have trusted Christ and who are therefore perfect in God’s eyes. So we know that those who follow Christ ARE perfect, but they are not yet perfect and are in puruit of becoming perfect. It is indeed a paradox, and it needs to be held in tension. Suffice it to say that no matter what Paul is thinking as far as the nature of this perfection, he wants all who follow Christ to relax and enjoy the wonder of knowing Jesus and being right in God’s eyes but also follow and pursue Christ every day with such full devotion that they let nothing they have done in the past hinder them from pursuing knowing and gaining Christ to the fullest. And thus in the end there is no contradiction whatsoever. The only contradiction would be the life of one who claims to be following Jesus but who is not in full pursuit of knowing/gaining and making Him known.
-Paul adds a promise that God will show those who follow Jesus any area of their life or their thinking where they are not living fully into this mindset of doing their utmost to pursue and know and be like Jesus, where there might be anything from their past or in their present which might be hindering this pursuit in any way. Of course, it is one thing for God to show us something. It is another thing altogether for His people to pay attention and actually respond to that revelation. May God give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to understand and want and the strength of will to do what He wants...
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