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Philippians 3 · a question people ask

"Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect" (3:12), and then, "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way." (3:15). How do the two go together?

In the text

The letter sets them a few verses apart. Here they are whole: "Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus." (3:12). "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you." (3:15). These notes don't say how the two go together, and set no other verse beside them.

The verses

“Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12 · World English Bible
“Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.”
Philippians 3:15 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Philippians 3

Philippians 3: A loss for Christ

Philippians 3 turns gain and loss around: "I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ" (3:7), and then "I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ" (3:8). And the Greek verb behind "persecuting the assembly" (3:6) is the verb behind "I press on" (3:12, 3:14).

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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions