Throughout the Bible we find a unity of purpose that unites the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit each accomplishes different aspects of our redemption and our sanctification. However, what we might observe as many different works in the Godhead actually all combine to accomplish what Paul calls “the eternal purpose which he [the Father] purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11).

The Apostle Peter also demonstrates this same eternal purpose in his first epistle, where he describes the believers to whom he is writing, “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:2). The Father foreknew, the Spirit sanctified, and the Lord Jesus shed His blood in order that we might live in Him.

It would be an oversimplification to say that there is only one purpose God has in all of His doings. Man cannot know the mind of God. God’s purposes are far beyond our human comprehension! But one thing we can say with certainty is that God never works against Himself. The Father is never at contrary purposes with the Son. The Holy Spirit never speaks apart from the witness of the Word. The Son never acts alone and for His Own glory. There is a unity of purpose in the Godhead.

A proper understanding of the attributes of God should affect the way that we live in daily life. One important application of the unity of God is to recognize that we, as God’s children, are to be single-minded in our affections, our desires, and our ambitions. We ought to work, act, and speak, along with our fellow believers, in harmony with what God has revealed about Himself.

The Bible warns often about the danger of being “double-minded.” The Apostle James wrote, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). A double-minded man has wavering affections, uncertain loyalties, and misplaced priorities.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul provided a splendid example of serving the Lord wholly with unity of purpose. He described this attitude of wholehearted service in his own personal words of testimony, “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, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14). Let’s look more closely at Paul’s statement.

This one thing I do

What one thing did Paul do? The context makes it very clear exactly what “one thing” had captured Paul’s heart. He was speaking of “the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (verse 8). Paul had an intense desire to be found in Christ, “not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (verse 9).

This “righteousness which is of God by faith” is the “one thing” that Paul was striving so earnestly to obtain. All other pursuits and all other ambitions have faded away in the all-consuming ambition to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Forgetting those things which are behind

What did Paul need to forget? He described in great detail the very things that he personally had to lay aside. He needed to lay aside his trust in his own human righteousness. Paul spoke of his credentials as one who was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews” (verse 5). He spoke of his zeal for outward righteousness and his pursuit of the holiness demanded by the law.

All of these pursuits, as worthy as they might have been, Paul laid aside. They were “gain” to him, but he counted them “loss for Christ” (verse 7). In laying aside the things of the past, we often think of our sins and failures. But it is not just our failures we must forget; we must also forget our successes! We dare not glory in our accomplishments or even our spiritual attainments.

What are you seeking? Are you clinging to your past successes? Or, are you discouraged by your past failures? Do the distractions of “things on the earth” pull your affection away from Christ? If any of these situations are so, learn with Paul to forget those things which are behind!

And reaching forth unto those things which are before

Paul next described that ultimate, single-minded ambition that now consumed him—the longing to become that for which he was apprehended for by Christ. He realized fully that when he was “apprehended” on the road to Damascus, God had a purpose for his life. All other human goals are nothing compared to this divine purpose.

Are you reaching for the purpose the Lord has for you? Each one of us has a destiny that our Heavenly Father has placed before us. God’s plan for Peter was different from His plan for John. So it is with each one of us: to be wholehearted demands that we reach forward toward God’s ultimate purpose for each one of us.

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus

Just as a racehorse stretches his neck forward toward the goal, or a marksman aims for a target, or an athlete prepares for a long jump, so Paul set his entire focus upon the purpose that God had placed before him. This ambition kept Paul going when he was stoned at Lystra, when he was mobbed at Ephesus, when he was beaten in the prison at Philippi, when he was arrested in Jerusalem, when he was shipwrecked at Malta, and when he was awaiting death in the dungeons of Emperor Nero in Rome.

An understanding of Paul’s wholehearted pursuit of God’s calling gives significance to the words written by the aging apostle in his final letter. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (II Timothy 4:7).

A proper unity of purpose allows us as followers of Christ to strive toward the same goal alongside our brothers and sisters. Paul urged believers, “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing” (Philippians 3:16).

We are not striving against our brothers and sisters; rather, we are striving with them! True unity of purpose binds us together, just as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are united in our redemption. Each of us have unique gifts and a unique function in the Body of Christ, but we are bound together in a common, eternal purpose.