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Now, my brothers, I say be glad for what the Lord has done for you. It is not hard for me to write the same things to you over and over. And it is good for you.

Watch out for those teachers who are like dogs. Watch out for those teachers who do wrong things. And watch out for those teachers who want you to have the mark of a Jew cut in your bodies.

We have God's Spirit and we worship God in the Spirit. So we are the people who have the mark of God. Christ Jesus is our reason for being joyful. We do not trust in having a mark cut in our bodies.

And yet I could trust in things about myself if I wanted to. If any other man thinks that he has something about himself to trust in, I have more things.

I had the mark of a Jew cut in my body when I was eight days old. I was born of the people of Israel. I belong to the family of Benjamin, so I was born a true Jew. I was a Pharisee, so I obeyed the Jewish law very carefully.

I was so full of my own ideas that I sent Christians to prison. But I was a good man in the way the Jewish law calls a man good.

But all these things that might have helped me, I call them all nothing, because of Christ.

Yes, I call them all nothing, because to know Christ Jesus my Lord is much better. It is for his sake that I have given them all up and call them just dirt. I have lost them but gained Christ.

I do it so that I will belong to him. I do not want to be called good because of the Jewish law. But I want to be made good by believing in Christ. I want to be put right with God through faith alone.

10 I want to know Christ. I want to know the power that raised him from death. I want to have a part in his trouble. I want to be like him in his death.

11 Then I hope to be raised from death.

12 I do not mean to say that I have got there yet, or that I am perfect yet. But I am trying hard to get there, because that is why Christ saved me.

13 My brothers, I do not yet think that I have got all the things of Christ. But there is one thing that I am doing. I forget what is behind me and reach out to what is ahead of me.

14 Like a man running a race, I try hard to reach the line so that I will receive the prize. Because we belong to Christ Jesus, God is calling us to receive this prize that he has for us in heaven.

15 All of us who are grown-up Christians should feel this way. And if you do not think this way, God will show you the right way.

16 But no matter how far we have gone, we must keep on going that way. And let us do it together, having the same things in mind.

17 My brothers, do as I do, all of you. Look at the people who live the way we have lived.

18 Many people live as if they hated the cross of Christ. I have often told you about them, and I tell you now with tears.

19 They will be lost for ever. Their belly is the god they worship. They boast about things they should be ashamed of. They think only about things of this world.

20 But we belong to heaven. And we are waiting for the Saviour to come from heaven. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

21 He will change our body which was made for this world. He will make it like his own wonderful body. He will do this by his power to make all things obey him.

No Confidence in the Flesh

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again,(A) and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs,(B) those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision,(C) we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus,(D) and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence.(E)

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised(F) on the eighth day, of the people of Israel,(G) of the tribe of Benjamin,(H) a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;(I) as for zeal,(J) persecuting the church;(K) as for righteousness based on the law,(L) faultless.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss(M) for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing(N) Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ(O) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,(P) but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness(Q) that comes from God on the basis of faith.(R) 10 I want to know(S) Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings,(T) becoming like him in his death,(U) 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection(V) from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,(W) but I press on to take hold(X) of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.(Y) 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind(Z) and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on(AA) toward the goal to win the prize(AB) for which God has called(AC) me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Following Paul’s Example

15 All of us, then, who are mature(AD) should take such a view of things.(AE) And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.(AF) 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

17 Join together in following my example,(AG) brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.(AH) 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears,(AI) many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.(AJ) 19 Their destiny(AK) is destruction, their god is their stomach,(AL) and their glory is in their shame.(AM) Their mind is set on earthly things.(AN) 20 But our citizenship(AO) is in heaven.(AP) And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,(AQ) 21 who, by the power(AR) that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies(AS) so that they will be like his glorious body.(AT)

Footnotes

  1. Philippians 3:9 Or through the faithfulness of