Philippians 3

¹Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not a burden for me, and for you it is a safeguard.

²Watch out for those dogs! Watch out for those evil workers! Watch out for the incision! ³For we are the circumcision—those who offer service by the Spirit of God, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who do not put our confidence in the flesh. ⁴Although I myself have reason for confidence even in the flesh; if anyone else thinks they have reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; ⁶regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the justice that is found in the law, I was blameless.

⁷But whatever things were gains to me, these I have come to regard as a loss because of the Christ. ⁸More than that, I even regard all things to be a loss because of the surpassing value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as refuse, so that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him—not having a justice of my own derived from the law, but the justice that comes through the faithfulness of Christ, the justice from God that is based on faith. ¹⁰My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the koinonia of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already been perfected, but I pursue it to see if I might also take hold of that for which I was taken hold of by Christ. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet. But one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forward to the things that are ahead, ¹⁴I pursue the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Therefore, as many of us as are mature, let us think this way; and if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you as well. ¹⁶Only let us hold the line to the point we have already reached.

¹⁷Become fellow-imitators of me, brothers, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. ¹⁸For many walk—of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping—as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame; they have set their minds on earthly things. ²⁰For our citizenship exists in the heavens, from which we also eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹He will transform the body of our humble state to be conformed to the body of his glory, by the exertion of the power he has even to subject all things to himself.