The Conversion of Paul and the last day of the week of prayer for christian unity.
Philippians 3:12
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Reflection
Today we are celebrating the conversion of St Paul and it is also the last day of the week of prayer for Christian unity. In today’s text, Paul is responding to a group of people who were criticizing his ministry. In this verse, he makes sure that we understand that he has not attained perfection. Its only God who can attain the state of perfection, we are all sinners and once we put our faith and trust in Christ for salvation, we don’t immediately become these super Christians. We’re on a journey of faith and we’re constantly growing. It’s dangerous to begin to believe that we have somehow attained a higher status than others. With such behaviour it is very easy to become complacent, especially for those of us who have been saved for a long time. We get into a groove of living the Christian life by habit. Going to church, reading the Bible, and even praying may become second nature. When we do all of these things, we start to think we have arrived, that we are a good Christian. But a key to living a holy life is to realize that you haven’t arrived yet. There is always room for growth in every single area of our lives. If we pridefully think that we are “pretty good,” or get into the habit of comparing ourselves with others, then we will not grow. And from this passage, we see that every believer needs to continually push forward to grow to be more like Christ each day.
Collect
Lord Jesus, who prayed that we might all be one, we pray to you for the unity of Christians, according to your will, according to your means. May your Spirit enable us to experience the suffering caused by division, to see our sin and to hope beyond all hope. Amen.
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