Philippians 3:12-4:1
New Catholic Bible
12 Racing toward the Goal.[a] It is not that I have already attained this or have yet reached perfection. But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ once took hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not claim to have taken hold of it as yet. Only this one thing: forgetting what is behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the finishing line to win the heavenly prize to which God has called me in Christ Jesus.
15 Those of us who are mature should adopt this same attitude. If on any matter you have a different point of view, this too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us hold fast in our conduct to what we have already attained.
17 Our Citizenship Is in Heaven.[b] Brethren, join in imitating me,[c] and take note of those who conduct themselves in accord with the model you have in us. 18 As I have told you before, and now remind you with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach. Their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven,[d] and from there we await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be conformed to his glorified body by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
Chapter 4
1 Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and for whom I long, my joy and crown: stand firm in the Lord, beloved.
Footnotes
- Philippians 3:12 Grasped by Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul strains toward him with his whole being, and this aim of his life energizes all his forces. The Christian life is inner growth, deepening, and development, and Paul loves to describe it as a course to be run. Once anyone has begun the race, there cannot be any stopping: “If you say ‘Enough,’ you are already dead” (St. Augustine). Those who have already “reached perfection” are Christians whose faith can be termed “mature.”
- Philippians 3:17 Paul stresses that the Christian life is carried along by a profound hope. We turn that hope away from its goal when we fix its fulfillment in the realities of earth and even more when we polarize it on failed religious practices. Paul was probably thinking of the Jewish dietary customs and the circumcision that some Jewish-Christian preachers wanted to impose on new communities.
- Philippians 3:17 Join in imitating me: since Paul’s wholehearted imitation of Christ is well known to his readers (1 Cor 4:6; 11:1; Phil 4:9; 1 Thes 1:6; 2 Thes 3:7, 9), he encourages them to follow his example in that respect.
- Philippians 3:20 Our citizenship is in heaven: Christians are, as it were, aliens in this world, for their real home is heaven. They are not of the world but fully involved in it (see Jn 17:14-16; 1 Cor 7:29-31; 1 Pet 2:11).
