Shared Word Translation
Philippians 3
Rejoicing in You
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is safe.
Warning Against Those Who Take The Law Too Seriously
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh.
True Confidence in Christ
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
circumcised 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; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Loss and Gain in Christ
But whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More 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, and be found in him—not with a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through trust in Christ, a righteousness from God grounded in trust.
I want to know Christ—and the power of his resurrection—and the sharing of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Pressing On Toward the Goal
Not that I have already taken hold of this or have already been made complete, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way; and if in anything you think differently, God will make this clear to you also.
Only let us hold fast to what we have already attained.
Citizens of Heaven
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and pay close attention to those who live according to the pattern you have in us.
For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that enables him to bring all things under his rule.