Philippians 3

¹Finally, my brothers, rejoice in [the] Lord. [It is] no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and [it is] a safeguard for you.

²Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!

³For [it is] we [who] are the circumcision, we who worship by [the] Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and [who] put no confidence in [the] flesh —

⁴though I myself could have such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in [the] flesh, I [have] more:

⁵circumcised on [the] eighth day, of [the] people of Israel, of [the] tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to [the] law, a Pharisee;

⁶as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in [the] law, faultless.

⁷But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.

⁸More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider [them] rubbish, that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from [the] law, but that which [is] through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

¹⁰[I want] to know [Christ] and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to [Him] in His death,

¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from [the] dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained [all this], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

¹³Brothers, I {do} not consider myself yet to have taken hold [of it]. But one thing [I do]: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what [is] ahead,

¹⁴I press on toward [the] goal to [win] the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵All of us who [are] mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.

¹⁶Nevertheless, we must live up to what we have already attained.

¹⁷Join one another in following my [example], brothers, and carefully observe those who walk according to the pattern we set for you.

¹⁸For [as] I have often told you {before}, and now say [again] even with tears: Many live [as] enemies of the cross of Christ.

¹⁹[Their] end [is] destruction, [their] god [is] [their] belly, and [their] glory [is] in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from [there], [the] Lord Jesus Christ,

²¹who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.