Philippians Chapter 3 verse 15 Holy Bible

Philippians 3 : 15 Bible Verse Songs

• Forgiveness Rushes In by KXC

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 15. - Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. "Perfect" here means mature, full grown, as opposed to babes or children. The word is so used (in the Greek) in 1 Corinthians 14:20; Ephesians 4:13; Hebrews 5:14. "There is a difference," says Bengel, on ver. 12, "between the perfect and the perfected: the first are ready for the. race; the last are close upon the prize." St. Paul exhorts all full-grown Christians to imitate his perseverance; like him, to forsake any claims to legal righteousness; to seek that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ; to know Christ, to win Christ; to press ever forwards to obtain the prize. And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.. If only we be in earnest, pressing onwards in the Christian race with sustained perseverance, God will, by the manifestation of his Spirit in our heart, correct any minor errors of doctrine or of practice. Comp. John 7:17, "If any man willeth to do (θέλῃ ποιεῖν) his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." "Otherwise" (ἑτέρως) seems here to mean otherwise thin is right, wrongly, amiss - a meaning which it has not unfrequently in classical Greek, and in our word "heterodox." Even this; rather, this too, as well as the one thing needful, the knowledge of Christ, which he has already revealed. Mark the word "reveal." Paul may teach, but living spiritual knowledge is a revelation from God. This passage shows that the word "perfect" is used here in a restricted sense, not of consummated holiness; as it implies that some of the "perfect" may be "otherwise minded," may be involved in minor errors. Good Christians must have that righteousness which is through faith; they must persevere: they may err in less essential points. It is a lesson of charity and humility.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(15) Perfect.--The word is apparently used with a touch of irony (as perhaps the word "spiritual" in Galatians 6:1), in reference to those who hold themselves "to have already attained, to be already perfect." It is, indeed, mostly used of such maturity in faith and grace as may be, and ought to be, attained here (Matthew 5:48; 1Corinthians 2:6; 1Corinthians 14:20; Ephesians 4:13; Colossians 1:28; Colossians 4:12; Hebrews 5:14). But, strictly speaking, this life, as St. Paul urges in 1Corinthians 13:10-11, is but childhood, preparing for the full manhood, or "perfection" of the next; and his disclaimer of perfection above suggests that this higher meaning should in this passage be kept in view. The prospect of being "perfect" in indefectible faith or grace is the Christian's hope; the claim to be already "perfect" is always recurring in various forms--all natural but unwarrantable anticipations of heaven on earth. St. Paul, by a striking paradox, bids those who hold themselves perfect to prove that they are so by a consciousness of imperfection. If they have it not, he says, they have something yet to learn. "God will reveal even this unto them." The conviction of the Holy Ghost unites inseparably the "conviction of sin" and the "conviction of righteousness." The "judgment" of absolute decision between them is not yet. . . .