Paul describes the Christian life as a race—demanding, focused, and unfinished. He openly admits he hasn’t reached perfection, showing that true maturity isn’t marked by completion, but by the resolve to keep pressing forward. The spiritually mature, he says, are those who know they haven’t arrived and yet refuse to stop running.

Paul calls believers to forget what’s behind—whether victories or failures—and strain forward with eyes fixed on Christ. The race is fueled not by self-effort, but by the grace that first took hold of us. The goal is not simply moral improvement, but full participation in the resurrection life of Jesus.

To run well means to live with a holy urgency, pressing into Christ with intentionality and endurance. It is the daily choice to move forward in grace, letting go of anything that hinders, and living as those called upward—toward glory, toward transformation, toward Him.