Brethren, I do not imagine that I have yet laid hold of it. But this one thing I do–forgetting everything which is past and stretching forward to what lies in front of me,
Therefore, my dearly-loved friends, as I have always found you obedient, labour earnestly with fear and trembling –not merely as though I were present with you, but much more now since I am absent from you– labour earnestly, I say, to make sure of your own salvation.
I do not say that I have already won the race or have already reached perfection. But I am pressing on, striving to lay hold of the prize for which also Christ has laid hold of me.
Nay, I even reckon all things as pure loss because of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And for His sake I have suffered the loss of everything, and reckon it all as mere refuse, in order that I may win Christ and be found in union with Him,
Therefore leaving elementary instruction about the Christ, let us advance to mature manhood and not be continually re-laying a foundation of repentance from lifeless works and of faith in God,
But there is one thing, dear friends, which you must not forget. With the Lord one day resembles a thousand years and a thousand years resemble one day.