Philippians 3

1Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

Breaking with the Past

To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a source of steadfastness.

2 # 2 Cor 11.13; Gal 5.15 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!#3.2 Gk the mutilation 3#Rom 2.28, 29; Gal 6.14, 15For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God#3.3 Other ancient authorities read worship God in spirit and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— 4even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5#Rom 11.1; 2 Cor 11.22circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

7 # Mt 13.44; Lk 14.33 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8#Eph 4.13; 2 Pet 1.3More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9#Rom 10.5and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ,#3.9 Or through the faith of Christ the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ#3.10 Gk him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11#Acts 26.7if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing toward the Goal

12 # Acts 9.5, 6; 1 Tim 6.12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal,#3.12 Or have already been made perfect but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ#3.12 Other ancient authorities read Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. 13#Lk 9.62; 1 Cor 9.24Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold#3.13 Other ancient authorities read yet laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14#2 Tim 1.9; Heb 6.1I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly#3.14 Gk upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15#1 Cor 2.6; Gal 5.10Let those of us, then, who are mature#3.15 Or perfect think this way, and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you. 16#Rom 12.16; Gal 6.16Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

17 # 1 Cor 4.16; 1 Pet 5.3 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18#Acts 20.31; Gal 6.14For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19#Rom 16.18; 2 Cor 11.15Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship#3.20 Or commonwealth is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21#1 Cor 15.43; Eph 1.19He will transform the body of our humiliation#3.21 Or our humble bodies that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,#3.21 Or his glorious body by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

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