Philippians 3

1 For the rest, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and for you it is safe. [a] 2 Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for the mutilation. [b] 3 For we are the circumcision — we who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and do not put confidence in flesh, [c] 4 though I myself have confidence even in flesh. If anyone else thinks he has confidence in flesh, I more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the family of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to law, a Pharisee; [d] 6 as to zeal, persecuting the gathering; as to the righteousness that is in law, having become blameless. [e]

7 But whatever things were gains to me, these I have counted loss because of Christ. 8 But more than that, I even count all things to be loss because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I was made to lose all things — and I count them filth, so that I may gain Christ [f] 9 and be found in him, not having my own righteousness that comes out of law, but the righteousness that comes through faith of Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith: [g] 10 to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and a sharing of his sufferings, being shaped to his death, [h] 11 if somehow I may arrive at the resurrection out from the dead. [i]

12 Not that I already received it or already have been completed, but I press on to see whether I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ. [j] 13 Brothers, I do not count myself to have laid hold of it. But one thing: forgetting the things behind and straining toward the things ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. [k] 15 So then, as many as are complete, let us think this; and if you think anything differently, this also God will reveal to you. 16 Only — to what we have reached, to keep in line by the same. [l]

17 Become fellow imitators of me, brothers, and watch those who walk this way, just as you have us for a pattern. [m] 18 For many walk — of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping — as the enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think earthly things. [n] 20 For our citizenship is in the heavens, from which we also eagerly await one who rescues, the Lord Jesus Christ, [o] 21 who will transform the body of our lowliness, shaped like the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to make all things subject to himself. [p] †