St. Paul's humility.
I. HE HAS NOT YET ATTAINED; HE IS NOT PERFECT.
1. The most advanced Christian is always the humblest. The nearer we draw to Christ, the more we feel our own unworthiness. The light of Christ's holiness, manifested in the hearts of his saints, brings out into clearer light the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
2. But he is striving after perfection. The Christian knows his own weakness and sin, but he knows also that he is really following Christ. If we are doing so, we must know it; we must be conscious of real effort in the spiritual life.
3. Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Christ first laid hold of St. Paul, therefore St. Paul strives to lay hold upon Christ; because he was apprehended, he hopes to apprehend. "We love him, because he first loved us."
4. This very sense of imperfection urges the Christian to sustained effort. He is never satisfied with himself, therefore he always presses onwards. He does not dwell with complacency on his attainments, but forgets the progress which he has made; in view of the far greater height which remains to scale, he throws himself into the work with ever-increasing energy.
5. Therefore he presses toward the mark. The crown of righteousness is laid up for all who love the appearing of the Lord. God is calling us thither, calling us upward, to higher degrees of the spiritual life now, to the perfection of that life in heaven. The prize of that upward calling is the heavenly glory. It is the end for which the Christian lives, which makes life worth having, worth living.
II. ALL ADVANCED CHRISTIANS MUST BE THUS MINDED.
1. The love of Christ, faith, humility, are essentials. All Christians alike must set the knowledge of Christ high above all other objects of desire. All must seek that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ; all must strive to win Christ, to be found in Christ, to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. All must be humble, dissatisfied with themselves; all must press onwards towards ever higher degrees of the spiritual life.
2. In this all must agree; in smaller matters there may be differences. St. Paul seems to imply that there will be differences. "If in anything ye be otherwise minded," he says; otherwise than is right, he seems to mean. There will be, there must be, errors. Men cannot all see alike. There are various degrees of illumination, of spiritual knowledge. And men are differently constituted; their characters, theft' early training, their education, their surroundings, their associations, differ indefinitely; all these circumstances act upon their habits of thought. Their opinions are the ultimate outcome of all these multitudinous influences. Doubtless we are to a large extent responsible for our opinions. It is our bounden duty to search the Scriptures, to think, to meditate, to pray for the guidance of God's Holy Spirit. He will guide us into all truth (all that is necessary for our salvation), if we seek his help with a single heart, in earnestness, and in humility. But he does not force all good men to think alike; he leaves room for the play of the individual character, for the manifold influences of temperament and training. The truth is one, the faith is one; but we look upon that one truth from various points of view. Hence there will be differences even among those who sincerely seek the truth. Truth is of momentous importance. Truth of doctrine and holiness of life together make up the saintly character; imperfections in either so far mar the beauty of the whole. But if the two cannot always coexist, holiness is far closer than doctrine to our soul's salvation. The good Samaritan was nearer to God than the priest or the Levite; though they were orthodox, while he was a schismatic.
3. But the promise is that to those who sincerely seek the truth God will certainly reveal it. Only let a man be like St. Paul in his humility and earnest perseverance, never satisfied with himself, never counting himself to have attained, but always pressing towards the mark, and God will reveal the truth to him, as he revealed it to St. Paul. Thus we learn that holy obedience is a condition of living spiritual knowledge, and that living spiritual knowledge is a gift of God. The letter of the Scripture is a subject for intellectual study, but the inner truth of the Scriptures, the knowledge of Christ, is a revelation from God. God hath hidden this from the wise and prudent, but he revealeth it to babes. God the Holy Ghost is the one only Teacher of this precious knowledge.
III. THERE MUST BE NO BACKSLIDING, NO LOSS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE ONCE obtained. It must be our most earnest effort to maintain that degree of grace at which we have arrived, Mark how the apostle dwells on the necessity of perseverance. The life of very many professing Christians is a series of oscillations between permitted sin and feeble repentance. Hence there is no real progress; they remain year after year much as they have been—decent in their lives, and well-intentioned perhaps, but without any real growth in holiness, in self-denial, in humility. "The path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day." This ought to be the record of our lives; but this implies continual perseverance, and perseverance implies constant watchfulness and constant prayer.
Lessons. Learn from St. Paul's example:
1. Utterly to shrink from spiritual pride; it is a deadly poison; it makes men satisfied with their present attainments; it prevents their progress in holiness; it leads to backsliding.
2. Always to persevere.
3. To keep the prize of the high calling before the thoughts.
4. Not to judge harshly those who differ from us.
5. To pray for a fuller revelation of the truth to our souls.