Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Philippians 3
Rejoice in the Lord
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and for you it is a safeguard.
Warning Against Confidence in the Flesh
Watch out for the dogs. Watch out for the evil workers. Watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision—we who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reasons for confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks they have reasons for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew 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, I have come to regard these as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have lost all things, and I regard them as rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him—not having my own righteousness from the law, but the righteousness that comes through the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness from God grounded in trust.
I want to know him—the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings—becoming conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Pressing On Toward the Goal
Not that I have already received this or have already been made complete, but I press on to take hold of it because Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of God's upward call in Christ Jesus.
So let those of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal that to you as well. Only let us keep living in line with what we have already attained.
Our Citizenship Is in Heaven
Brothers and sisters, join together in imitating me, and pay 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 about them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform our humiliated body to be conformed to his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to bring all things under his rule.