As many therefore as [are] perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you.
Paul has just said he has not yet arrived. Now he speaks to "those of us who are mature." Three verses earlier he refused that same word for himself. The verse holds two things at once: one settled standard for the mature, and patience with believers who see things differently.
Older translations read "perfect" here, where the ESV reads "mature." One commentator shows why this does not clash with verse 12: the word carries two senses.
He speaks of himself and others also as "perfect"; but there is no contradiction of what went before. In verse 12 he denied that he had yet received the prize or been made perfect. He meant that he was still in the conflict and not yet in a resurrection condition. But when he urges here, "as many as are perfect," he means those who are grown up in the faith. They stand firmly in the Christian position, and they enter into it by faith and spiritual understanding. He means a Christian who is not a baby, but full grown. Even now we can grow into the full knowledge of the mind of God, and this comes through having Christ in glory before us as the personal object of our souls.
So what marks a mature believer? It is the truth he has laid hold of about his own position.
The "perfect" ones in Philippians 3:15 are those who have laid hold of the truth that they are risen and glorified with Christ on high. They not only know the forgiveness of sins; they grasp the higher truth of resurrection in Christ. And it is as these we are called to walk. The only perfection the apostle has before him is to be like Christ in glory.
The call to "think this way" points back to all Paul has just described about his own race. He sets it out as ordinary Christian life, not as a rare life story.
The apostle sets it before us as normal Christian experience, not just something to admire in Paul: "let us, as many as are perfect." ... "Think this way" — have no other mind and no other aim than the one set before us in the experience of this devoted servant. "And if in anything you think otherwise" — he will not lower the standard to anyone's poor grasp of it — "God will reveal that also to you."
But room to think otherwise has a limit. One commentator draws a line between the foundation and what is built on it.
There may be many points of detail about the building above the foundation, and on these believers may not see eye to eye. Here we have to be patient with one another while we seek a clearer understanding. That is the spirit of the word, "if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you" (Phil. 3:15). But there must be no hesitation at all when the foundations are at stake.
Paul does not leave the slower believer where he is. He does not force him to agree either. He hands the matter over to God.
If some think otherwise, the apostle does not encourage them to stay that way. He does not demand that they fall in with his thoughts either. He turns their eyes to God, who will reveal the truth to those who want it. Yet whatever level our faith has reached, let us act fully on the truth God has made known to our souls. The Word of God measures my own responsibility, not what I see in others.
Until God does that, a difference in light is no reason to love less.
I can walk with one who only knows his redemption in Christ with just the same love, but I look for him to get hold of this also.
The believer who is further on has his own danger. One writer names it, and says when it is strongest.
Our natural tendency is to look down on those less advanced than we are. It shows itself in despising them, or even attacking them, because they do not fall in with what we see to be right. This tendency is strongest when the progress we pride ourselves on is more a matter of knowledge than of real spirituality.
- Full-grown, not finished — "Perfect" here means mature: a Christian who is no longer a baby. The perfection Paul denied in verse 12 is being like Christ in glory, and that waits for resurrection.
- Grown by what grips you — Maturity shows in what has laid hold of you. Not only sins forgiven, but knowing yourself risen with Christ, and walking as such.
- Standard held — Paul asks the mature to share his one mind. He will not lower that standard to fit anyone's smaller grasp of it.
- Room to differ, but not on the foundation — Be patient over details of the building. Where the foundation is at stake, there is no room for hesitation.
- God reveals, so love waits — Paul turns the slower believer toward God instead of forcing him to agree. Walk with him in the same love, and watch the pride that comes with knowing more.
But whereto we have attained, [let us] walk in the same steps.
Paul has just described his own life as a race toward Christ in glory. He has also admitted that not every believer sees things as he does. Verse 16 answers that gap. Whatever light we have reached, we are to hold to it and move on together. Older translations end the verse "let us walk in the same steps," and the writers below explain that wording.
The word Paul chooses is not a general word for living. It comes from the army.
The word we have translated in this way is a special word. It means to walk in line, in single file, and it suggests many people walking together. People used it especially of soldiers marching in file to battle, each keeping step with the other. In the Athenian military oath, a man promised never to desert the soldier he walked with — not the one at his side, but the one whose step set his own pace.
Differences of outlook are no reason to go it alone.
Someone might think I only have to think of myself, and not mind anybody else. But that would not be Christianity at all. Christianity teaches me to think of everybody but myself. In the end you may have to go on alone. But that will only come after you have tried, by every means and resource of faith, to draw the Lord's beloved ones on with you in the path of pressing on to reach Him.
Some translations add a closing line here: "let us mind the same thing." Trench holds that it cannot belong to the verse, "for the case he supposes is that we do not mind the same thing."
Believers are not all at the same stage. That difference does not have to divide them.
If, however, there are differences in spiritual attainment, there is no reason that we should not walk in the same steps. One may see further along the road than another, but this would not hinder such treading the same path and looking in the same direction.
This verse has most to say to the believer who has come further. It names a danger in knowing more.
We need to take these two verses very much to heart. They show how the more spiritual and advanced believer should treat those who have reached less than he has. Our natural tendency is to look down on those less advanced than ourselves — to despise them, or even attack them, because they do not match what we see to be right. The tendency is strongest when the advance we pride ourselves on is more a matter of intelligence than of real spirituality.
Truth is not only for the mind. It has to be walked.
"Still," he says, "whatever we have already reached, let us walk in the same steps"; that is, whatever our convictions may be at present, let us act according to those convictions. Let us have truth practical. If we want it to be what truth should be, we must walk in it to make it real.
Walking together does not mean lowering the standard. Paul refuses both extremes — cutting off the weaker and abandoning what he has gained.
So he would not despise any true saint, or withdraw from him, because that one had not reached all that he had. Still, he would not be content to let them rest where they were. Nor, on the other hand, would he give up one bit of what he had reached himself.
Trench adds the practical boundary to the same thought: seek out what we have in common and keep step "as long as it is possible without compromise of the truth."
- Step — the word means marching in file. Each soldier keeps time with the man ahead. The call is for a shared pace, not just shared opinions.
- Together — thinking only of yourself is not Christianity. Use every resource of faith to draw others along before you ever go on alone.
- Distance — one believer may see further down the road than another. Both can still walk the same path in the same direction.
- Danger — the warning falls hardest on those who see further. Their instinct is to despise the slower, most of all when their advance is knowledge rather than real spirituality.
- Practice — truth becomes real when you walk in it. Act on the convictions you already hold, and give up nothing of what you have reached.