Book of Common Prayer

Warning: don’t trust in the flesh

3 So then, my dear family, it comes down to this: celebrate in the Lord! It’s no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and it’s safe for you.

² Watch out for the dogs! Watch out for the “bad works” people! Watch out for the “incision” party, that is, the mutilators! ³ We are the “circumcision,” you see—we who worship God by the spirit, and boast in Messiah Jesus, and refuse to trust in the flesh.

⁴ Mind you, I’ve got good reason to trust in the flesh. If anyone else thinks they have reason to trust in the flesh, I’ve got more. ⁵ Circumcised? On the eighth day. Race? Israelite. Tribe? Benjamin. Descent? Hebrew through and through. Torah-observance? A Pharisee. ⁶ Zealous? I persecuted the church! Official status under the law? Blameless.

Gaining the Messiah

⁷ Does that sound as though my account was well in credit? Well, maybe; but whatever I had written in on the profit side, I calculated it instead as a loss—because of the Messiah. ⁸ Yes, I know that’s weird, but there’s more: I calculate everything as a loss, because knowing Messiah Jesus as my Lord is worth far more than everything else put together! In fact, because of the Messiah I’ve suffered the loss of everything, and I now calculate it as trash, so that my profit may be the Messiah, ⁹ and that I may be discovered in him, not having my own covenant status defined by Torah, but the status which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness: the covenant status from God which is given to faith. ¹⁰ This means knowing him, knowing the power of his resurrection, and knowing the partnership of his sufferings. It means sharing the form and pattern of his death, ¹¹ so that somehow I may arrive at the final resurrection from the dead.

Chasing on to the finish

¹² I’m not implying that I’ve already received “resurrection,” or that I’ve already become complete and mature! No; I’m hurrying on, eager to overtake it, because Messiah Jesus has overtaken me. ¹³ My dear family, I don’t reckon that I have yet overtaken it. But this is my one aim: to forget everything that’s behind, and to strain every nerve to go after what’s ahead. ¹⁴ I mean to chase on towards the finishing post, where the prize waiting for me is the upward call of God in Messiah Jesus.

¹⁵ Those of us who are mature should think like this! If you think differently about it, God will reveal this to you as well. ¹⁶ Only let’s be sure to keep in line with the position we have reached.

The preaching of John the Baptist

3 In those days John the Baptist appeared. He was preaching in the Judaean wilderness.

² “Repent!” he was saying. “The kingdom of heaven is coming!”

³ John, you see, is the person spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, when he said,

⁴ John himself had clothing made from camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Jerusalem, all Judaea, and the whole area around the Jordan, were going off to him. ⁶ They were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷ He saw several Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized by him.

“You brood of vipers!” he said to them. “Who warned you to escape from the coming wrath? ⁸ You’d better prove your repentance by bearing the right sort of fruit! ⁹ And you needn’t start thinking to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ Let me tell you, God is quite capable of raising up children for Abraham from these stones! ¹⁰ The axe is already taking aim at the root of the trees. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus’ baptism

¹¹ “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,” John continued. “But the one who is coming behind me is more powerful than me! I’m not even worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire! ¹² He’s got his shovel in his hand, ready to clear out his barn, and gather all his corn into the granary. But he’ll burn up the chaff with a fire that will never go out.”