Philippians 3

¹ Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

² Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for the mutilation.

³ For it is we who are the circumcision — we who worship by the Spirit of God, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh,

⁴ though I myself have grounds for confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks they have reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:

⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

⁶ as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

⁷ But whatever was gain to me, I have come to count as loss for the sake of Christ.

⁸ More than that, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I count them as garbage, that I may gain Christ

⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

¹⁰ I want to know Christ — to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

¹¹ so that somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have yet taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead,

¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ All of us, then, who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, that too God will make clear to you.

¹⁶ Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

¹⁷ Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and keep your eyes on those who live as we modeled for you.

¹⁸ For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ — I have often told you about them, and now I tell you again, even with tears.

¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

²¹ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.