In this verse Paul repeats and expands what he has said in the preceding verse. He says literally “Brothers, I do not count myself to have grasped.” “I myself” is emphatic in Greek, with the force of “I on my part” or, as Good News Translation renders it, of course … I really. The phrase of course may be rendered in some instances as “you may be sure,” while my brothers, or “my fellow believers,” must in some languages be placed at the beginning of the verse

The verb rendered think often occurs in a commercial context, meaning essentially “to calculate.” It is a favorite Pauline term and is often used in the sense of carefully weighing the point under consideration; thus it can mean “reckon” (New English Bible) or “consider” (Revised Standard Version Phillips). The compound verb discussed under verse 12, where it is used twice, is here used for the third time. The perfect infinitive form, which appears here without an object, is translated as I have already won it. The object it, supplied translationally, obviously refers to the prize (Bible en français courant “have won the prize”).

Paul proceeds with an elliptical but forceful statement, literally “but one thing.” Several attempts have been made to bring out the exact force of this expression. Some supply the idea of thinking (Moffatt “my one thought is”); others of speaking (New English Bible “all I can say is this”; cf. Jerusalem Bible). However, the context seems to indicate that one thing refers to what follows, which is a matter of doing. Accordingly, the force and sense of this expression is perhaps best rendered as “but one thing I do” (American Standard Version), or, more forcefully, the one thing I do, however (Good News Translation).

Paul uses the pictorial images of a race to describe the single-mindedness of his purpose. Is to forget what is behind me is in Greek a present participial phrase. The present participle signifies that his forgetting is a continuous action: “keep forgetting.” What is behind me could be a reference to his life in Judaism, but more probably it includes his achievements as a Christian. The runner has lost when he turns back to see what is behind him. To translate to forget what is behind me in a strictly literal fashion is to risk the introduction of a wrong connotation, since this might imply that Paul wished to forget even the mistakes he had made. In this context it may be preferable to translate to forget as “to pay no attention to” or “to refuse to be concerned about.” In reality Paul was not trying to forget; he simply refused to be concerned about what was behind him.

Do my best to reach what is ahead translates another participial phrase, literally “stretching forward to the things that are before.” The participle is a double prepositional compound which pictures the runner with his eyes fixed on the goal, his hand stretching out to it, and his body bent toward it. It is a graphic description of the runner’s intense desire and utmost effort to reach the goal (Barclay “to strain every nerve to reach”). It may be difficult to speak of what is ahead without being more specific, for example, “the goal which is ahead,” or “the end of the race which is ahead.” Thus the figurative expression of running introduced in verse 14 is anticipated. It is also possible to use a more general expression, for example, “to accomplish what I must do in the future.”

Quoted with permission from Luo, I-Jin. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .