Paul’s Driving Ambition

by: Geoffrey Cox

What do you most want in life? Paul had one driving ambition. One, and because it was so important and because he so passionately wanted to share it, he takes seven verses to express it. Long and complex this passage may be, but it is so important that it deserves to be learned by heart.

A phrase in verse 7, “for the sake of Christ,” dominates the passage. Jesus is the center and the circumference and the content of Paul’s desire. “The surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord” (v. 8) shows how Paul is struggling to refine his present ambition from what he has already achieved. So he continues, I want to “gain Christ and be found in him” (v. 8). Paul’s Christian faith cost him his whole old life: his career, his religion, even his family. But it’s all trash compared with the treasure of gaining Christ. And that is just the start. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”

Sometimes achieving our great ambition can be sadly disappointing because there is nothing left to strive for. But to know Christ is an ambition that can always be realized but never be fulfilled because there is always more of him to know. So let us “press on toward the goal.”