No Confidence in the Flesh

3 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again,p and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs,q those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision,r we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus,s and who put no confidence in the flesh—4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.t

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcisedu on the eighth day, of the people of Israel,v of the tribe of Benjamin,w a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;x 6 as for zeal,y persecuting the church;z as for righteousness based on the law,a faultless.

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider lossb for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowingc Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christd 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,e but that which is through faith ina Christ—the righteousnessf that comes from God on the basis of faith.g 10 I want to knowh Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings,i becoming like him in his death,j 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrectionk from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,l but I press on to take holdm of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.n 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behindo and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press onp toward the goal to win the prizeq for which God has calledr me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Following Paul’s Example

15 All of us, then, who are matures should take such a view of things.t And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.u 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

17 Join together in following my example,v brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.w 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears,x many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.y 19 Their destinyz is destruction, their god is their stomach,a and their glory is in their shame.b Their mind is set on earthly things.c 20 But our citizenshipd is in heaven.e And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,f 21 who, by the powerg that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodiesh so that they will be like his glorious body.i