The reason we cry out for the redemption of our body is because they grow old and, I can tell you - I am in pain at 76 and look for Jesus to come any day.
Php 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Php 3:16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Php 3:17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
"Perfect" (NASB) means "mature" (NIV, Gr. teleios), not sinless.
In Php_3:12 Paul used the same root word and claimed he was not perfect.
Probably there he meant that he was not absolutely perfect or mature, and here he meant that he was relatively mature compared to the immature. [Note: See Müller, p. 125.] He may have been using "perfect" here somewhat ironically.
". . . for the time being true Christian perfection 'consists only in striving for perfection.'" [Note: Hawthorne, p. 158.]
"I may attain" Here again is the dialectical or paradoxical model of Paul's theology. Paul knew he was a Christian and that as Christ was raised by the Spirit so he would also be raised (cf. Rom. 8:9-11). However, Paul saw salvation not only as a past completed event (cf. Acts 15:11; Rom. 8:24; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5), but also an ongoing process (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18; 15:2; 2 Cor. 2:15) and ultimately in a future consummation (cf. Rom. 5:9,10; 10:9; 1 Cor. 3:15; Phil. 1:28; 1 Thess. 5:8-9; Heb. 1:14; 9:28). Christianity is resting in the character and gift of God in Christ and an aggressive, constant, vigorous life of grateful service to God (cf. Eph. 2:8-9 and 10). George E. Ladd's A Theology of the New Testament, pp. 521-522, has a good discussion on this subject.
"I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet"
This is a Perfect active infinitive.
This term is used three times in Phil. 3:12-13. Paul strove to be mature in Christ but he knew that he fell short of Christlike maturity (cf. Romans 7). Yet the great truth of the gospel is that in Christ he (and all believers) were already complete (justified and sanctified, cf. Rom. 8:29-30).
The terms "regard," "impute," or "reckon" (cf. Rom 4:3; 6:11; 1 Cor. 13:5) all refer to a mental affirmation whereby fallen mankind understands the gospel and chooses to live in light of its new truth and new worldview in Christ!
There is a manuscript variation in this sentence with the word "yet" versus "not." The ancient texts are split between these two options. The best explanation is that scribes changed Paul's "not" to "not yet" because they perhaps thought he was being too modest. Like most manuscript variations this affects interpretation very little.
"as many as are perfect"
This is the same term "perfect" as Phil. 3:12 but Paul is using it in two different senses
. Christians can be mature without being sinless (cf. 1 Cor. 2:6; 14:20; Eph. 4:13; Heb. 5:14; 6:1).
1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect:[mature] yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect [mature] man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
J.