Christian Humility

2 If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love,^(A) if any fellowship with the Spirit,^(B) if any affection and mercy,^{(C) 2} make my joy complete by thinking the same way,^(D) having the same love,^(E) united in spirit, intent on one^(F) purpose. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition^(G) or conceit,^(H) but in humility^(I) consider others as more important^(J) than yourselves. ⁴ Everyone should look not to his own interests,^(K) but rather to the interests of others.^(L)

Christ’s Humility and Exaltation

⁵ Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

⁸ More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value^(A) of knowing Christ^(B) Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ^{(C) 9} and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law,^(D) but one that is through faith in Christ^[a]—the righteousness from God based on faith.^{(E) 10} My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings,^(F) being conformed to his death,^{(G) 11} assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Reaching Forward to God’s Goal

¹² Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold^(H) of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not^[b] consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind^(I) and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly^[c] call in Christ Jesus.^(J)