Philippians 3:1–16

The Goal of Life

¹Finally, my brethren, ^arejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

²Beware of the ^adogs, beware of the ^bevil workers, beware of the ¹false circumcision;

³for ^awe are the true ¹circumcision, who ^bworship in the Spirit of God and ^cglory in ^dChrist Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,

⁴although ^aI myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:

^5acircumcised the eighth day, of the ^bnation of Israel, of the ^ctribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, ^da Pharisee;

⁶as to zeal, ^aa persecutor of the church; as to the ^brighteousness which is in the Law, found ^cblameless.

⁷But ^awhatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

⁸More than that, I count all things to be loss ¹in view of the surpassing value of ^2aknowing ^bChrist Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

⁹and may be found in Him, not having ^aa righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, ^bthe righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

¹⁰that I may ^aknow Him and ^bthe power of His resurrection and ^1cthe fellowship of His sufferings, being ^dconformed to His death;

¹¹¹in order that I may ^aattain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already ^aobtained it or have already ^bbecome perfect, but I press on ¹so that I may ^clay hold of that ²for which also I ^dwas laid hold of by ^eChrist Jesus.

¹³Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: ^aforgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

¹⁴I ^apress on toward the goal for the prize of the ^bupward call of God in ^cChrist Jesus.

¹⁵Let us therefore, as many as are ^1aperfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a ^bdifferent attitude, ^cGod will reveal that also to you;

¹⁶however, let us keep ^1aliving by that same standard to which we have attained.