Philippians chapter 3

vs 12

Paul hasn't obtained his resurrection, apparently. This may be clear from the lack of death he has done so far. Interesting that he links perfection in here, which he didn't really mention before. But obviously with resurrection comes perfection, at least in Paul's mind.

vs 13

So here Paul sees a striving towards perfection. He knows his past life hasn't been great, but he isn't going to be phased by that. He'd rather press on forward towards this goal.

vs 14

This verse seems like an extra little appendage. I mean, I feel Paul's made his point pretty clear up till now. The repetition I suppose is so it is remembered.

vs 15

For all those morons who use this verse to say "See, Paul says that women can't speak, and then he also says that every mature Christian has his point of view and as you grow more mature you'll come around to it", please witness the context of this verse. No women mentioned in a hundred yards.

I totally agree with Paul that mature Christians will understand more and more the necessity to strive towards holiness and be perfect. That they need to forget the past, or at the very least disregard it when it comes to attaining future perfection. That they should focus on Christ and what he has done for us, and grasping hold of that. Contextually, Paul's being very astute.

vs 16

Even as we are striving ahead for that perfection (which will only come in heaven anyway), we should not forget that we are now children of God, the Holy Spirit marking us as such, and we should live according to that too. We shouldn't focus on future perfection to the exclusion of current Christian living.

vs 17

This is something Paul obviously wants the Philippians to do. Not only should they follow his example, but even the example of those who already are. So some were. But not enough that Paul didn't need to write this to them.

vs 18

Is Paul talking about people outside the church here, or inside the church? I guess we know that in the end, both are true.

vs 19

Their glory is the most interesting part of this verse, all the others are obvious and clear. These people, who are on the way to destruction, they do do things that they consider glorifying, and that probably other people would consider to be gloriful things. But in doing them, they are shamed. Perhaps because they seek for the glory to be their own? It's funny - someone can do something excellent, and we want to give them glory for it because it was a good thing, but in the end that is a shame to them, because they didn't give proper glory to God.

vs 20

Paul wants a clear distinction here - Christians are heaven dwellers. Our minds are there because our saviour is there. He's coming from there. Wouldn't it be great if people saw how we acted as Christians and said "Wow, you guys do things so differently, where are you from?" And we said "Heaven".

vs 21

Our glory comes from Christ. That won't be a shameful glory. It will be because of a perfecting, so that's good. Interesting that Paul links this to God's creative power - Christ uses the same power to control everything to transform our bodies.