Chapter 3

¹Now, my brothers, goodbye, and the Lord be with you. I do not mind writing the same thing over and over to you; it is necessary for your safety.

²Look out for those dogs, those mischief-makers, with their amputation! ³We are the true circumcision, who worship God by his Spirit, priding ourselves only on Christ Jesus, and not relying on physical advantages, ⁴though I at least am entitled to rely on them.

If anyone thinks he can rely on his physical advantages, still more can I! ⁵I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a descendant of Israel. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and the son of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee; ⁶as to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church; and by the Law’s standard of uprightness, no fault could be found with me. ⁷But for the sake of Christ I have come to count my former gains as loss. ⁸Why, I count everything as loss compared with the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have lost everything, and think it rubbish, in order to gain Christ ⁹and be known to be united to him, with any uprightness I may have not based on law but coming through faith in Christ—the uprightness that comes from God through faith. ¹⁰I want to know him in the power of resurrection, and to share his sufferings and even his death, ¹¹in the hope of attaining resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have secured it yet, or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have captured it yet, only, forgetting what is behind me, and straining toward what lies ahead, ¹⁴I am pressing toward the goal, for the prize to which God through Christ Jesus calls us upward. ¹⁵Let as many of us therefore as are mature have this attitude. If you have any different attitude, God will make this clear to you. ¹⁶Only we must live up to what we have already attained.

¹⁷Follow my example, brothers, all of you, and notice those who follow the pattern we have set you. ¹⁸For there are many who live, as I have often told you, and tell you now with tears, like enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹They are doomed to destruction: their appetites are their god; they glory in their shame; they are absorbed in earthly matters. ²⁰But the commonwealth to which we belong is in heaven, and from it we are eagerly awaiting the coming of a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹He will make our poor bodies over to resemble his glorious body, by exerting the power he has to subject everything to himself.