No confidence in the flesh
1For the rest, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. Writing the same things to you is no burden to me, and it is a safeguard for you. 2Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3For we are the circumcision — we who worship by the Spirit of God, who boast in the Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4though I myself have grounds for confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he can be confident in the flesh, I more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, 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 the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
Everything counted as loss
7But whatever was gain to me, that I now count as loss for the sake of the Christ. 8More than that, I count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing the Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have lost it all, and I count it as refuse, so that I may gain the Christ 9and be found in him — not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but the one that comes through faith in the Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and rests on faith; 10to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the sharing of his sufferings, being shaped to the likeness of his death, 11if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Straining toward what lies ahead
12Not that I have already obtained it or have already been made complete; but I press on to take hold of it, since the Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not reckon that I have taken hold of it yet. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in the Christ Jesus. 15So all of us who are mature should have this mind; and if you think otherwise about anything, God will reveal that to you as well. 16Only, let us hold to what we have already reached.
Our citizenship is in the heavens
17Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and keep your eyes on those who live according to the pattern you have in us. 18For many live as enemies of the cross of the Christ — I have often told you about them, and now I tell you even weeping. 19Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, their glory is in their shame, and their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in the heavens, and from there we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform the body of our humiliation to share the form of the body of his glory, by the power that enables him to bring all things under himself.
