Paul distinguishes here between the 'mark' and the 'prize.' He aims at
the one for the sake of the other. The one is the object of effort; the
other is the sure result of successful effort. If I may so say, the
crown hangs on the winning post; and he who touches the goal clutches
the garland.
Then, mark that he regards the aim towards which he strains as being the
aim which Christ had in view in his conversion. For he says in the
preceding context, 'I labour if that I may lay hold of that for which
also I have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ.' In the words that follow
the text he speaks of the prize as being the result and purpose of the
high calling of God 'in Christ Jesus.' So then he took God's purpose in
calling, and Christ's purpose in redeeming him, as being his great
object in life. God's aims and Paul's were identical.
What, then, is the aim of God in all that He has done for us? The
production in us of God-like and God-pleasing character. For this suns
rise and set; for this seasons and times come and go; for this sorrows
and joys are experienced; for this hopes and fears and loves are
kindled. For this all the discipline of life is set in motion. For this
we were created; for this we have been redeemed. For this Jesus Christ
lived and suffered and died. For this God's Spirit is poured out upon
the world. All else is scaffolding; this is the building which it
contemplates, and when the building is reared the scaffolding may be
cleared away. God means to make us like Himself, and so pleasing to
Himself, and has no other end in all the varieties of His gifts and
bestowments but only this, the production of character.
Such is the aim that we should set before us. The acceptance of that aim
as ours will give nobleness and blessedness to our lives as nothing else
will. How different all our estimates of the meaning and true nature of
events would be, if we kept clearly before us that their intention was
not merely to make us blessed and glad, or to make us sorrowful, but
that, through the blessedness, through the sorrow, through the gift,
through the withdrawal, through all the variety of dealings, the
intention was one and the same, to mould us to the likeness of our Lord
and Saviour! There would be fewer mysteries in our lives, we should
seldomer have to stand in astonishment, in vain regret, in miserable and
weakening looking back upon vanished gifts, and saying to ourselves,
'Why has this darkness stooped upon my path?' if we looked beyond the
darkness and the light to that for which both were sent. Some plants
require frost to bring out their savour, and men need sorrow to test and
to produce their highest qualities. There would be fewer knots in the
thread of our lives, and fewer mysteries in our experience, if we made
God's aim ours, and strove through all variations of condition to
realise it.
How different all our estimate of nearer objects and aims would be, if
once we clearly recognised what we are here for! The prostitution of
powers to obviously unworthy aims and ends is the saddest thing in
humanity. It is like elephants being set to pick up pins; it is like the
lightning being harnessed to carry all the gossip and filth of one
capital of the world to the prurient readers in another. Men take these
great powers which God has given them, and use them to make money, to
cultivate their intellects, to secure the gratification of earthly
desires, to make a home for themselves here amidst the illusions of
time; and all the while the great aim which ought to stand out clear and
supreme is forgotten by them.
There is nothing that needs more careful examination by us than our
accepted schemes of life for ourselves; the roots of our errors mostly
lie in these things that we take to be axioms, and that we never examine
into. Let us begin this new year by an honest dealing with ourselves,
asking ourselves this question, 'What am I living for?' And if the
answer, first of all, be, as, of course, it will be, the accomplishment
of the nearer and necessary aims, such as the conduct of our business,
the cultivating of our understandings, the love and peace of our homes,
then let us press the investigation a little further, and say, What
then? Suppose I make a fortune, what then? Suppose I get the position I
am striving for, what then? Suppose I cultivate my understanding and win
the knowledge that I am nobly striving after, what then? Let us not
cease to ask the question until we can say, 'Thy aim, O Lord, is my aim,
and I press toward the mark,' the only mark which will make life noble,
elastic, stable, and blessed, that I 'may be found in Christ, not having
mine own righteousness, but that which is of God by faith.' For this we
have all been made, guided, redeemed. If we carry this treasure out of
life we shall carry all that is worth carrying. If we fail in this we
fail altogether, whatever be our so-called success. There is one mark,
one only, and every arrow that does not hit that target is wasted and
spent in vain.