Paul's Ambition

Whatever others may claim for themselves, Paul knows that he has not attained perfection yet. So long as mortal life lasts, there is further progress to be made. Not until the end of the race is the prize awarded.

3:12 Paul now passes from the language of accountancy to that of athletic endeavor (cf. 2:16). He is running a race; he has not yet breasted the tape or won the prize, and he must keep on running until he does so. Some of his converts elsewhere imagined that they had attained perfection and entered into their kingly glory already: Paul tells them ironically that he wishes their claim were true, because then it would be true for him as well, but he knows that he is still exerting himself amid the dust and heat (1 Cor. 4:8–13). If some of his Philippian friends ar…