Shining as Lights in the World

¹² Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling,^{(A) 13} for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do all things without murmuring and arguing,^{(B) 15} so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world,^{(C) 16} holding forth the word of life so that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.^(D)

¹⁷ But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with all of you;^{(E) 18} in the same way also you should rejoice and rejoice together with me.

Pressing toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal,^[a] but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ^[b] has laid hold of me.^{(A) 13} Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold^[c] of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,^{(B) 14} I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly^[d] call of God in Christ Jesus.^{(C) 15} Let those of us, then, who are mature^[e] think this way, and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you.^{(D) 16} Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.^(E)

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.^(F)