The call of God in Christ Jesus #2

Okay, well today we come to the second part of what I call the call of God in Christ Jesus. And I'd like to have someone read for me in Philippians chapter 3 verses 10 through 16. In Philippians chapter 3. That I may know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, But one thing I do, by getting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, the prize, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. And if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by the same standard which we have attained. Thanks Wayne.

So last week you know this is a section I kind of spread out in the in the schedule over two weeks so last week we covered verses 12 and 13 and we're going to kind of refer back to that because there's some parallel phraseology for example where it says, I press on toward the goal.

If you notice in verse 12 it says, not that I have already obtained, I press on so that I may lay hold of it. So there's some parallel things there. There's also a parallel with the idea of being perfect in verse 15 where it says, let us therefore as many as are perfect. And then back up in Not that I have already attained it or have already become perfect.

So there's some parallel phraseology between the first two verses and the last two or three verses. So we'll see that connection there. So let's just go ahead and look at the first verse here. So I'm just going to cover the first. I press on toward the goal. Just look at that part first. Okay, I press on.

Like I mentioned, this is a phrase that we had before. It's this idea, a good synonym of that is to pursue. I pursue, rather than press on, I'm pursuing toward the goal for the prize of the upper calling of God in Christ Jesus would be And that's in the present tense, so that's something that's to be happening continuously. That's to be our mindset.

I'm focused on the Lord Jesus, that's the focus of my Christian life. So let's just look up there and then we'll just look back in verse 12 and you'll see it says, I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. So the first one was that he desired his, he was pursuing to know who he is in Christ basically. Christ laid hold of him and his desire was to lay hold of that which Christ laid hold of him. So in this one, it kind of changes a slight, it might even be a, you know, synonym, but a comparable verse, I press on toward the goal.

And I'm going to ask that question, what's the goal? But that focus is the Lord Jesus. In either case, whether you're pressing on toward the goal or to know what the Lord Jesus laid hold of you for, the focus is still Christ in both cases. Toward is this preposition. And in this case, it can be translated a couple different ways. In this case, I think the better translation is down or bearing down upon.

I tried to find it. I just was on the strap for time. There's a little preposition diagram. I think Hal presented others. It's like a box and it shows all the prepositions. There's down, into, out of. It's like a cube. Some people are shaking their heads.

I was trying to find that, but of course, when you're trying to find it, you can't find it, right? I think in this case you're bearing down or toward the goal. Let's look at the word goal. It denotes a mark on which we fix our eyes. A lot of these things are, and it's the idea, it's like if you're running the hundred yard dash, you look at the finish line and you run as hard as you can, your eyes are just, I'm going to reach that finish line before anybody else. That's kind of the goal. So my question here, actually, we'll skip past these verses for a second. And this should be pretty straight.

So what's the goal and the mark? The Lord Christ Jesus. Right. I mean, that's it. The focus of our Christian life is the Lord Jesus Christ. So the goal, imagine you're out there running and people will put all kinds of things out there. I talk to these runners, I really concentrate. Everything's on my mind. All I think about is just looking for them. Everything else is blocked out of their minds.

I think that's a good, you know, not that we're to be so rigid, I guess I would say, because it's a relationship with a person. But the fact is that's our, you know, to know him. So I think that's really cool. Some of these verses here, I think help. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And could someone read, why don't we read verses 1 and 2, Hebrews chapter 12.

Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Thanks, Roy.

Just look in there, the phraseology of a race, everything that all the encumbrances are put aside, the racers, like in swimming, the guys will shave their legs, so will the bicycle racers, just to prevent every little piece of hair that might slow them down, they'll put aside every encumbrance. It's interesting, that's kind of in focus. You don't let the little things of life, you don't let some TV program, You know, unfocus you from the lore. You think, well, I just got to see my XYZ.

When I was a kid, it was I Love Lucy. I don't know, this is going to really date me. I Love Lucy was so popular in the 50s that people would virtually, stores would close down. So this is, I grew up in Miami, Florida. I don't know whether it was quite as popular in the West as well, but it was so popular, they would shut stores down so people could go home to watch that show.

So, I mean, it's just incredible. So, anyway, there are encumbrances to our Christian life, and we're to press on, we're to pursue the goal, which is the fourth, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not to say we're going to pursue a particular thing, a prize, and we'll talk about that in a second. I think this is just really cool. I see an axe there. Let's see, what's the one with an axe about here? Let's look at axe 615. I think this is just more kind of keeping your gaze fixed, so to speak. Axe 615. Could someone read that for me? And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel. Right, okay.

So in this case, it's just, they were steadfastly, yours says, my head's fixing their gaze, and yours had steadfastly gazing? Yeah. So it's the idea that you're focused. And we are to be focused, not in a law-based sense. Well, let's see, Lord, I got 59 minutes out of this hour. I focused on you. I only got one minute I didn't. You may be losing your job at that point. It's got to be in context, so to speak.

And we do all of the glory of God. And it's a person. It's a relationship. So we don't make this a law. It's a wonderful thing to focus on. OK, so now we're going to kind of shift gears here. That's the first part of the verse. We press on toward the goal. We bear down upon the goal. We're focused on the goal. And it's for something. It's for the prize. And the word prize is, the idea is a prize bestowed in connection with the games. Like if you win the Olympic Games, you get the gold medal. You get a prize. So that's kind of what's in view here. And it's another verse, this word prize isn't used a whole lot of times, but it is in 1 Corinthians 9. Let's look at that. It actually kind of uses one of the other words we've had earlier. 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Can I get someone to read that?

Know ye not that they which run in a race run at all, but one receiveth the prize. that you may obtain. Okay, so basically this word lay hold actually, I'm sorry, receives. Did you have receives, Doris? You had, but only one receives a prize in yours, in 24 there. You said Do you not know that those who run in the race, all run, but only one, my has received, or lay hold of, lay hold of the prize.

It's the same word for prize here. Run in such a way as you may win. It's interesting, once you start seeing this athletic kind of thing, it really shows up in a lot of verses, but you somehow I thought I kind of read past it because I think, okay, that's just focusing. The connection, there's an awful lot of athletic things in view here in terms of like the Olympic kind of competition. Okay, so we're to press on or pursue toward the goal for the prize.

And this is the upward or high. It's the idea of higher place. And with the article, it means that which is above. So this is a higher prize, higher call in this case. And call here is this word, I'm not sure I can pronounce it, but it's use of calling. Believers, we are all, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're all called. And so I want to look at a few verses that just kind of talk about that. And then we'll kind of focus in on what's happening here. So in Hebrews chapter 3, in verse 1. Can someone read that?

We're of our holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus. Thanks Gail. It talks about partakers of a heavenly calling. We are partakers of a heavenly calling. God has promised that we will go to be with him. That's a promise that we have.

And this is telling us that we're to pursue the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. So, I'm just going to skip down to the bottom line here. So, a compound question. This shouldn't be too hard, I hope. So, what's the prize? So, it says we're to focus on the prize. So, we're going to get a prize, right? When do we get the prize? And there might be multiple answers to this, possibly. So I won't be like Mike. I won't try to embarrass you if you have a different idea of prize than I do. But I think there's a couple of things that just came to my mind. So what's the prize?

We're to press on and pursue the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Okay, that's a fine answer. Can we hone in a little bit more? Think about salvation. There's a past aspect. We have been saved. We are being saved. And we will be saved. It seems to me...

Anybody else want to... In the passage you just read in Hebrews, partakers of the heavenly calling I think, forgive me if I'm wrong, that that context is that we enter into his rest. That we don't miss that. I think in that context. that we may know him, and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable to the dead. That's the immediate preceding time. Right. And I agree with that.

I guess I was looking for, sort of like I was saying, past, present. So what's the future about? I think that's where the prize is. I don't think the prize is talking about this prize, at least from what I recall. The way I looked at it was that this prize was to be, I think it's actually, let's look at the, do I have the tenths here? No, I don't have the tenths. The prize is a future prize we're looking at. That's why I took it out. So that's why I was trying to focus on what are we looking forward to?

It seems like behind the knowing of Christ and growing in Him and focusing on Him that God has something behind that. He has a goal. God the Father has a goal. And us, knowing Christ. Maybe that's the prize. His goal, whatever it is. I was wondering, too, about some of the identification truths. Because the prize is in Christ Jesus. Okay, that's good. This is good. I never got back to Jeremy. I apologize. Jeff, you had something you wanted to add? with death in order that I may attain the resurrection from the dead. And then he's talking about, you know, I haven't attained it yet.

So that seems to be the prize. And just like you're talking about that, that future, you know, God has predetermined, predestined for us to be conformed to the image of his Son. And that's what we're working towards. If anything's a fact, that's a fact. We are going to be conformed to the image of the Son. And that's what God is using everything in our life to bring us to that point.

So, I mean, that's the ultimate prize. Right. Well, that's kind of where I was headed. I was looking at the ultimate end. Now, I think what you guys brought up is actually, you know, that's good. That's good. Could you say also that there we shall always be with the Lord? Right, right. Actually, the verse I was going to offer for the prize was going to be the one in 1st John, we shall be like him.

In 1st John 3.2, we shall be like him.

And 2nd Corinthians 3.18, that he is confirming us. The Holy Spirit is doing that work. And it starts now. And I think that's an excellent point. You know, we are ready.

Eternity has already started for us, right? From John 17. When does eternal life begin? It begins when we believe. So we've already started that process. That actually might fit pretty well with the idea that you're going down the path. We've already started this eternal life. That's kind of neat to think about. We've already started eternal life, and so now we're just... I want to get to the end there where I'm just like the Lord. Go ahead. I was just thinking about a funeral. Right, exactly. Exactly. The whole view of funerals is so skewed from what the Lord tells us.

Right. It's easy to look at this and say, I'm doing this, versus God is doing it. And that's an excellent point. That's an excellent point. that this is like the subjunctive I'm pressing on, that this might be real, that I am raised from the dead in condition, but in position I think that in the Apostle's mind that this is already true. Exactly, exactly. I think Jeremy was talking about that.

We already know that as a fact. We know the end of the road by fact. A lot of people use this to say Oh yeah, I know. But the subjunctive kind of helps me in saying, you know, I can have the wrong focus here. I can miss the focus. That's where the subjunctive in my mind, you may do it or you may not do it. Right, I could be focused on something else.

Roger, how much of this is... I heard just the other day, I heard somebody on the internet from an atheist idea of heaven, and he said, if I knew for a fact there was a greater world waiting for me, then I'd kill myself right now. And that seems to be not a problem, but certainly the world, and most of religion, misunderstands. I mean, for so much of religion, it's that next world. That's so good. We're working towards that.

Why wouldn't you do what you could to expedite, get to that world, and wait for it? Of course, for us believers, what the Bible clearly teaches is that relationship with Christ. And so, this kind of, in my mind, justifies, why do we persist? Why do we continue on in this life, if we know that, even for us, something greater happens? Well, why?

He presses on. He continues through all the suffering, the tribulation, everything that's a part of this life. a goal in mind, and we understand that God is using everything to bring us closer to that goal. So it, you know, the whole Catholic view of, okay, do these things and, oh, you'll be in heaven one day. Well, it's so much more than that. It is. And it's so much more than, oh, we get to walk the streets of gold, you know, drive a nice car, whatever people think is going to be in heaven.

It's that we'll be with Christ, and our time now, we continue on because we know that awaits, but we also know that the time here is building up to that, is in a sense preparing us for that. So, in my mind, that kind of helps justify, well, why do we continue on in this life? Well, we know the goal, but we know that God is using this that you believe in Him whom He has sent. That's what God is doing. They wanted to know what they could do. And Paul says at the end of his life, and Timothy is at the end, I finished the course I had fought the good fight of faith. depressing here.

Yeah, that's good. I agree. That's great. Some have argued that the prize given could be the judgment seat. The place, but actually I like the time. I like actually when we leave to go and be with the Lord. OK, so let's look at the next part. So that's verse 14. So based upon that, so based upon the fact we're pressing toward the goal of the prize for the upper call of Christ Jesus, so he's going to give us some information that's germane here. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. Now I found these next two verses to be tough.

And just in terms of trying to say, what's he saying here? So I broke down to, let's talk about the subject. So what's the subject? That first little section there. I believe it is as, that whole thing is the subject, as as many are or would be perfect. So in that little section there, and what also makes it a little bit of a challenge, that's an implied verb that are and would be are actually part of the adjective there, perfect. So he's speaking about the as many. So one question, who are the as many's? And it shouldn't be hard, I mean, believers, right? It wouldn't be just, it's not anyone, it's the as many.

Based upon the previous, it's those, it's ones who are, you know, focused on the goal. And he says, as many that are perfect, or I think would be probably a better translation. Remember perfect, whoops. Okay, let's talk, and the direct object, which I'm gonna get to in a second here, the verb and the direct object are, let us therefore have this attitude. There's actually some extra words that have been added, but it's literally let us think this. So we're going to talk about thinking here. As Paul calls it, mindedness. What's our mindset about this? So let's just look at the perfect here. We've actually covered this kind of before.

If you look at this verse here and go back to verse 12, In Philippians, back in Philippians 3.12, it says, not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, Now in that case, perfect was used as a verb and it was in the perfect tense, which means past completed action with results up in the present, on in the future. So he says I haven't, in verse 12, I haven't gotten there yet. I'm not perfect. I haven't fully matured in the Christian life.

Now here it's used as an adjective and the idea here is that as many that it seems like would be perfect. He's going to tell us about being perfect or being mature. So let's look at a few of these other passages here. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 2.6. So here we're going to focus on, many times the word perfect is translated mature, and the reason it is is because the meaning of teleos, I think it is, means full age, adult, fully grown. So you're going to see it in these passages, at least in the Numerical Standard, it's translated mature, that you're mature, as many as are mature, and then he's going to tell us something about that. So 1 Corinthians, We speak wisdom, however, among them that are full-grown, yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing.

Okay, so yours has full-grown, okay, that's good. So I'm just kind of, I want to give you a couple other usages here. How about 1 Corinthians, just over a couple of chapters, or a few chapters, 1420? Brethren, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. Okay, so that's very much going to be along what we're going to see here. He wants us to be perfect or mature in our thinking.

And then lastly, Ephesians 4.13. Until we all attain unto the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's the goal, isn't it, of only gifting?

Yeah, I mean actually some of these, I found, in looking at these, and it's kind of neat, a lot of times when you look at these words and you track them through, you'll find, well boy, there's a piece of information that actually applies to what I'm talking about. My original intent is, I just want to find how this word is used, but then I get some additional wonderful information about just what we're talking about.

So that's really cool. That's really cool. So now we talked about the subject with the word perfect in there. As many as would be mature or perfect. Let us therefore think. Let us therefore So it's a little bit hard. Actually, I think probably the best way to look at this is, let us therefore be thus minded, because this word, this is phrenao.

And actually, if you've been here a while, Vern did a whole study. Phrenao is one of his favorite words. He did this in Philippians. He did this long study. And it's a tremendous word. And it's appeared several times that we're going to look at. But basically, this is how we're to be minded. So it's saying, as many as are mature, or would be mature, were to be this minded this way. So let's look at a couple of other usages of this phrenao. Is that first word in the verse as well?

Yes it is. I flipped it around here a little bit. The subject is... Yes. Yeah, it is. Let us therefore, at least in my transliteration, let us therefore is phreno, right? It only occurs, well it occurs later on too. You're right, it's coming up in the last half of the verse too. Okay, you're right. Okay, so the first part is, as many as are mature, be minded this way.

So I want to look at some other things about being minded or being, so let's look at Philippians, Philippians 1.7. It says, for it is only right for me to feel this way. Actually, I don't, it's actually to be minded this way. Does someone have a different? Okay, good. If you look at the translations here, I think it's good. So it's used there. And it's present, so it's an ongoing.

This is the way we're to think. This is how we're to be minded. We're to have a mindset. We're to have a mindset, and our mindset is to be the Lord Jesus' mindset. We have the mind of Christ. So he's saying, I want you to be minded in this way. This is how as many that are mature, a mature believer is going to be minded as Christ is minded.

We have that. Once again, we have these wonderful things in position, but we live them out in our condition. Why? Why are we minded that way? Because it's true. There's a reality there that he's given us. And that's why we're to be minded that way. But that's what the world does.

I'm going to be transformed by whatever it is, right? This latest new thing, I'm going to be whatever. So could you say here, this is a description of those that are mature? I would say that's true. So we can almost rewrite it. If you are perfect, then you'll have this mind. If you're not sure, this is going to be your attitude. Exactly.

And then we're going to see the last half of the verse. He's going to say, you know, if you have a different, if your mind is off someplace else, that's not good. And he's going to say, God's going to show you about that. He's going to talk to you. I don't think in a hard sense. Actually, I think this is just Revelation, this is just, hey, look at this, look who I am, why am I doing this? And this is a very gentle, I've seen some translations have a little bit harsher, and I don't think it's there, this is just God's going to show it to you. It's not the imperative mood, it's subjunctive, it's the potential. Exactly, that's good.

Isn't that also a progressive Exactly. I mean we never are going to be perfect. The Lord is always teaching us. In Ephesians 4 it says that we're being renewed in our minds. That's passive there. That God is doing this. And here it looks like the exhortation is, let this be true. Allow it to be true. Don't get in the way. That's kind of cool. You're getting in the way. That's good. Actually, I found this, there's just so much more that can be done with this.

Now, the couple other Philippians 2.2 and 2.5, 2.2 says, make my joy complete by being of the same mind. And then the one in 2.5 says, have, it uses the word attitude, which I think, I actually like mindedness better because attitude kind of has an attitude about it. Mindedness doesn't seem to carry that weight with it.

It says this is how we're to think. Have this mindedness in yourselves that was also in Christ Jesus. Okay, so that's the first part up to the end. This is the description of a mature believer. His mindedness is called mature. And if any of you have a different attitude or a different mindedness, God will reveal that also to you. So if in anything you have a different attitude, I like, by taking the word attitude, because I had a problem with that word, and put a different, and actually, so a translator is the same thing. If anything, you think different. So if we aren't, if we aren't having our mind think as Christ thinks, then that's the problem. And in this case, if is assumed to be true. So it's not like, so it's assumed to be true. And here's our word for nao again. It appears twice. This is the second case. You get it three times? Okay. Let me see here. Okay. So what do I have here?

Different. So this is this word. You're familiar with allos and heteros of the same kind of a different kind. So this word different here is heteros, differently minded. He's saying if anything in you is differently minded, then God's going to do something about that. That's the next part of this. And then actually I did, I put down what Wiest had. And if, as is the case, in anything you are differently minded. That kind of helped, I think that was, you know, helped me at least to have differently minded than didn't have attitude in there.

Okay, so then here's what God's going to do. God will reveal that also to you. What we reveal is to lay bare, uncover. And this is future indicative active. So he's going to show that to you as you walk with him. So I had a couple of verses about that. Let's just see here.

And most of these talked about, Romans 8.18 says, this talked about basically being in glory with Him, with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Almost all of these really spoke of not immediate in our Christian walk revelation, but revelation when we're with Him in glory. Okay, so is there a bottom line here? Okay. Most of that, we have some extra words, let's see. God also revealed that, basically, this to you. So he's going to reveal this different mindedness, this mindedness that's different than the mind of Christ to you. He'll reveal that to you.

And it made me think about, in 1 John, Let's look at 1 John 2.27. It may not be exact, but I think it has the idea. We studied this back last year sometime.

And as for you, the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true, and is not a lie, just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

So, I thought that kind of put it in perspective that God's desire is to reveal to you His mind. And that interaction comes by interacting with His Word. So as we interact with His Word, we'll see His mind. we'll see what we have positionally, we'll see it in our condition. So it's kind of cool, God's, you know, He says, here's the case of the believer with the proper mindedness. So Roy, you had another place? Mindedness is another place? Maybe we can talk after class. I don't know. Yeah, the only other place I can think of is in chapter 14, things of mine and put them unto you. That's revealing through the word Christ and taking everything of Christ and giving it to us. Wow.

Yeah, that's good. Brother, I hope I'm not pulling too much out of this, but almost, if you look at the logical structure, you may have this, the same, if you are mature then you'll have this attitude. The second part of the verse would be the negation of that, the collective positive.

If you don't have that attitude, then you're not mature. God will reveal it to you. But it seems like the key thing is, it'd be easy for us to say, well, if I make sure I have this attitude, then I'll be mature. But to put it in that way is putting it on yourself, rather than on God. And that's not necessarily true, to say that if I have this attitude, then I must be mature.

Well, no. it seems like the attitude, that mindset, is almost a result of your maturity in Christ, and that's something that God does. Right. Because we're, you know, that verse in John you read about abiding, resting in Him. We behold Him in His Word. We don't simply say, okay, if I think this way, you know, like we're already saying. I have this mindset. If you think it, then it's going to be zero to you. I'm going to think it, I'll make it true, right? I'll think slim, I'll be slim, right? But that's not what this passage is saying.

We're going to have that proper mindset of thinking about God and ourselves in God the right way. I know a couple of weeks ago we talked about our self-image, how we should see ourselves. Well, it's the Holy Christ. It's not, well, I've got to be this way. We behold Christ and He reveals it to us. He shows us. It's all Him that is bringing us to a place of maturity. We don't have, like we said, a legal code. Well, simply you'll think this way, then everything... No, we're resting in Christ and it's all... him that's doing the maturing.

Isn't it cool that God takes on the responsibility of revealing it to you? He doesn't say, I want you to think really hard and figure out why you're wrong now. I'm going to reveal it to you. That's really comforting. I think you said earlier, don't get in the way. Exactly. It's comforting too and encouraging because it's not tied to how smart you are, or how you were born, No, I know, it's cool. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, and actually with the tense there, it's a statement of fact.

He's going to reveal it to you. Now the question you might say, well I'm not going to listen. I'll listen to the parts I want to listen to. In some ways we do that, speaking from my own experience. telling us about maturity. I haven't come to maturity, and for those of us who are now mature, it's sort of a contradiction there, isn't it? But actually he's talking about two different maturities, isn't he? I mean, he's talking about, I haven't really attained that perfection in my position.

My condition hasn't reached that of the image of Christ. But I'm pressing on that Christ may be formed in me by believing God, by allowing him to make Christ so magnificent in my eyes, that he is my focus. That's my mindset. And so we that are not be what we're thinking, that we are indeed being made into Christ in his image. That's pretty incredible stuff that's going on here. There's no contradiction really. No, I agree, that's good. Okay, so let's look at the last verse. However, this one wasn't easy.

However, let us keep living by the same standard to which we have obtained. Okay, so basically the first part, I'm just going to take it in kind of sections. However, nevertheless, only one thing, so this is kind of his, don't forget this, so to speak. Let us keep living by the same standard. And actually standard, if you notice it's italicized, it's ruins in the King James, so it's not in the original. So literally, we are to follow the same.

To follow is the idea to, and this is kind of cool, it's translated walk in quite a few cases. I'll show you that. It's to walk in line, to walk in relation to others, and the place that it shows up that you'll really Well, first of all, let's just look at a common ordinary case.

Actually, I apologize, because I messed up on the verses here. That's wrong. Let's look first at, just cross that out. Let's look at Acts 21, 24. And this is just going to use the word just kind of generically how it's, what it says. 21, 24 says, Take them and purify yourselves along with them and pay their expenses in order that you may shave their heads and all will know that there is nothing to the things which have been told about you but that you yourselves also walk orderly. So that walk orderly is kind of the same idea as here as follow, walk orderly. So that's just kind of a generic case.

So let's look at the case here. Let's look at Galatians 6. Galatians 6.16 is the second one.

Galatians 6.16.

And that one says, and those who will walk by this rule. So let's render that. Walk by this rule. by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the God of Israel. So walk here again is this walk in line. The one that really is interesting here, I had not picked up on this before, go to the chapter before, Galatians 5 and look at verse 25. It says, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

And that walk is the same walk as we have here. So there's actually two walks in that very familiar passage. The normal walking is this peripateo, just to walk about. I'm walking about. This other one is like walking in line. They're very close. So it's interesting, it says in 524, if we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit.

And then actually up in Galatians 5.16, it says, when I say walk by the Spirit, that's the peripeteia one. I'm getting a little bit too over the top here on this. But anyway, this walking is to walk in accordance with who you are.

So actually what people have done is they've kind of said, You know, walking is sort of our lifestyle. They use the word life for lives. So, Weiss comes along and says, let us keep our lives in the same path. Kind of the same idea. It's walking by, as the Lord shows us, we walk by faith. Go ahead.

Does that tie in with the pressing on, that there's a focus? I think there is. The walking in line kind of narrows it down. We're just not walking about here. Actually, I think that's kind of cool. It does kind of do that. I actually hadn't thought about that, but that's really good.

Because walking in line is different. You tell your kids, like at school, just walk about. Well, the kids will just go crazy, right? You say you're going to walk in line, that's a different story. They're going to line behind one another, and they're focused on the person in front of them.

So I think that's really good. kind of begin to see this verse a little bit better maybe. To which we have attained. Attained is to reach. This is almost another thing for goal. To arrive at, to reach. So far as we have come. So I actually had a hard time coming up with a final kind of putting it all together in this one, let's just see if we can do it. It says, however, or this is one, nevertheless, we are to follow our walking line. Actually, I think to... It's not just saying, you've matured, now walk in concert with that, or walk in mind of that. I don't know. I'm open to other ideas. I found this is a tough verse.

One way to look at this is that he's giving a summary that says that the Lord has brought us this far. Walk according to what we've been brought to. That we have attained. We haven't attained that perfection. But we're in the process of being made into Christ and we continue on. Good. That's excellent. You say walk in accordance to our position. Yeah. You already have, you have attained, you already have a position. I mean, as a believer, you've attained to that. That's, that's excellent too.

I think it seems like this is not, I look at this and I say, boy, of course, you know, translators are stuck with, they have the words and you have to accurately translate it based on the words. You can't. Now what I'm going to show you next is what Verne did. He expanded that. He tried to put in some of what we've just done by studying it out. So I'm going to show you how to expand and explain. But just looking at the words, looking at that last is going to be tough.

We're to walk in line with who we are in Christ. And we've arrived at that place. So that's wonderful. So let's look at the Verne's expanded and explained. So the first one is, Verse 14, I am right now continuing to press on without hesitation or let up, looking with constant attention toward the person of Christ for the prize of the upward call of God in the heavenlies. When this life is complete, at his declaration, which is the upward call of me as a victor I have by reason of my being in Christ which will bring me to a place of being rewarded by Christ and being fully conformed to Him only at the victorious moment with my condition permanently conformed to my position I already have in Christ.

So I think a lot of the things you talked about are in there. Okay. Fifteen. Let us therefore as a character of those who are approaching spiritual maturity have this mindset involving all of the mind and the settled perspective and values. And if in anything regarding any one of you has a mindset that is not in line with what I have written above, he will bring to you, he will bring you to a place of personal understanding these essential truths that I have just now written down. Lastly, however, let us as believers in Christ continue all together in an orderly and consistent manner in our condition as is fitting to the eternal position that we already have now in Christ. Stuffing a lot of ideas in there.

Okay. Well, you guys have been great. I think you guys should teach a class. I should just listen. No, it's good. This section is marvelous, really. I mean, I feel after I finish this, I said, well, now I can start over again, you know, do it again, and maybe have some other ideas, you know, next time around. Okay. Well, let's close. Dear Father, We thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have on the Lord Jesus. We thank you for your word and thank you that we can walk by faith in who we are and focus on you, Lord. In Christ's name, amen.