"Only"

Hi COTC, 

Philippians offers several of my favorite exhortations in Scripture, one of which was part of our readings this past week: “Only let us live up to what we have already attained” (3:16).

In our world that prioritizes accumulation and agility, there is something in this verse that invites me to a holy simplicity, a holy focus. Another word for that might be “devotion.”

It is easy to feel like we don’t know enough. So we buy another book. We open a new tab for the breaking article. We follow another account on Twitter or Instagram. We see comments like “Educate yourself”, and we race to do so, even if it’s partly to feel competent or to stave off shame rather than to move toward our world in unadulterated love (guilty!).

Growing in loving knowledge is deeply good. And yet we are - I am - tempted to forgo devotion in favor of accumulation and agility. I love how Paul seems so very unconcerned with this kind of frenetic activity. His trust in the Holy Spirit to move a devoted people in the right direction, towards Christ and his kingdom, allowed Paul to be gracious and relaxed on minor points of difference.

And yet we can’t miss that there is something that is being lived up to, something that has been attained: knowing Christ.

The late Dr. E.V. Hill preached in 1980 about a time when a woman burning with anger and disgust confronted him after a sermon and asked, “If I had accepted Jesus, what would I have now? If I had gotten up and accepted Christ and been born again and filled with the Spirit - in other words, preacher, what do you have when you have Jesus?” 

He advised her to take note, because he was going to share 12 things you have when you have Jesus. I will neither rob you of joy nor snuff your curiosity in enumerating them!
 

But I do wonder, if we listened to Philippians read aloud for 20 minutes with paper and pen nearby, what would we find? What *do* we have when we have Jesus? What might the Spirit want to remind us we have, but are prone to forgetting in our weariness and leeriness?

The call to live up to what we have attained is, at heart, both a passionate charge and a profound mercy. In many ways, we have attained far more knowledge than we are able to live up to. Yet chiefly we are living into knowledge of Jesus, whose yoke is easy and burden is light. We are living into the forgiveness of God, the presence of God, the peace of God. We are living into that which takes hold of us, rather than that which we must grasp. And that is good news.

Yours in devotion to Jesus,

Sarah+