Paul compares our pursuit of Christ in this life to an athletic race where the runners give their whole concentration and effort to reaching their goal and receiving their prize. We discuss why the pursuit of Christ to know Him is also necessarily the pursuit of Christ-likeness - the more we are like Him, the more we can be one with Him.

Paul refutes the idea that sinless perfection is possible in this life, which means whatever level of spiritual maturity we have reached, we are not to settle on our laurels, and just coast along, but to keep pressing on to know Christ more and lay hold of Him and experience more of His grace, wisdom, life and power.

We discuss what it means to forget our past failures and successes, so that we can fully focus on Christ and give our all in the present moment to fulfilling His will and purpose for our lives, so that after completing our race, we may receive His reward, when we are called upward to stand before His Judgment Seat. This is the mature mindset that Paul tells us we need to have (v15).