THIS ONE THING I DO

Phil. 3:13-14

Morning Meditation 10/8/2013

Verses 13-14 say: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do. . .”

The modern Christian never says, “This one thing I do.” It is always “These many things I am doing.” There is no single-mindedness. Jesus said in Matthew 6:22: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Now Paul did a lot of things. He made tents to support him and his missionary team. But all the things Paul did were incidental to his main purpose in life. He declares that main purpose here.

Paul says first of all, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.” The word “apprehended” (katalambano) means “to lay hold of so as to make one's own, to obtain, attain to.” With the use of this word he is saying “This is my goal. I am not saying I have reached it yet.” This word is a perfect active infinitive. The perfect tense expresses a completed action in the past with the result of that completed action remaining in the present. This means that this has always been Paul’s goal, something for which he has striven but hasn’t made it yet. Before there can be attainment, there must be a determined purpose. Paul sought constantly to know all that God had in mind for him and that became his goal in life.

The words, “but this one thing I do” state a single purpose in a testimony. The Holy Spirit could have inspired Paul to say to the “Brethren”, “You need to have a single purpose in life. You need to find out from the Lord all that he had in mind for you when he saved you. Then you need to make that the single purpose of your life.” It is better the way the Lord did it. It always is. I think if he had stated it as I have just mentioned, there would be a host of people who would have said, “He is telling us to do the impossible. No one will ever live that kind of a life.” But the Holy Spirit said, “Paul I want you to give your personal testimony concerning this matter. I want people to know that what I am going to say is being practiced by someone they admire. So, Paul, go ahead and give this in the form of a testimony.” This is how Paul came to state this truth in this manner. He used the personal pronoun “I.” “But this one thing I do.”

If I were to give you a piece of paper and at the top left-hand corner I had written, “This one thing I do” and had left the rest of the page blank, and I ask you to fill in the blank page with your testimony, what would you write? You ought to do this. Put it on paper. Paul did and it is a part of the inspired Word of God. Do you have a single purpose in life? If you do not, then the Lord’s will for your life just shares an equal place among the other things you have planned.

Do you see it? God will not share a place in the purposes of your life. He is God. He made us. We are his creation, the objects of his infinite wisdom. He did not create us to share a place in our lives. Jesus said this in many different ways. Matt. 16:24: “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Mark 8:34: “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Luke 9:23: “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” In each case, man has to give up his own plans and give his undivided allegiance to Christ. There is a cross involved because it amounts to death to our own plans for our lives.

Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” What can the branch do without the vine? Nothing. He says in verse 4 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” Why does he say, “Abide in me?” Because we have a choice. Paul made a choice. He said, “This one thing I do.”

You say, “There are things that keep me from making that choice. I just cannot.” Write your excuse on paper, sign it, and show it to the Lord. The Lord dealt with every conceivable situation in real life situations or in parabolic illustration. Luke 9:57-62 is a good example. Here we have a man who says to Jesus, “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” Jesus’ answer to him was “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (9:58). Jesus has a volunteer. He says, “Now before you commit yourself to what you just said, I want it to be clear from the start, I have nothing but hardship to offer you. My staff is unpaid and we do not stay in hotels. We sleep out under the stars.” That is the last we hear of this man!

Then there was this other man, who I think, Jesus read his mind. Many times Jesus addressed himself to the thoughts of men. How would like to have a preacher who was up preaching and you had some crazy thought and he suddenly stopped and looked at you and answered your thought. Luke 9:59-60 says, “And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” I think this man was ready to go but when Jesus dealt with this other man as he did, he began immediately to consider more seriously the price that is involved in following the Lord. So Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” The man said, “I have something to do first. I have a father dying at home. And I must wait until he dies and bury him. Then I will follow you.” But Jesus answered the man, “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” Well, Jesus just shot another good prospect! We don’t hear of him any more. I can just hear one of the aspiring apostles say, “Jesus, do you think maybe that you should turn the invitation over to one of us. You preach a good message. We have never heard better. But you are ruining our report. What you are telling them when they come forward is running them off! I mean Lord, this won’t make a good prayer letter to our churches. We are having problems getting commitments!” Well, we don’t hear of this man anymore. I don’t know if he ever got his father buried.

Then, there was another, he had heard the first two. He had an uneasy feeling that Jesus knew what he was thinking. So before Jesus could say anything he said, “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.” I think this man used the wrong word. He said let me FIRST. And Jesus said to him, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” And we don’t hear from this man again.

But we do hear from Paul. He says, “. . . this one thing I do . . . ” Paul says, “Jesus, you are first. If it is a jail cell (and that’s where this letter came from) or if it is out under the open sky at night, I have nothing that is nearly as important to me as fulfilling that for which you have chosen me.”

May we all be able to say, “This one thing I do.” There may be other things but they are only incidental to the main purpose for which I live.

May the Lord bless you.

In Christ

Bro. White