Philippians 3:1–16

No Confidence in the Flesh

3Further, 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. ²Watch out for those dogs,^q those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. ³For 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—⁴though I myself have reasons for such confidence.^t

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised^u 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.

⁷But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss^b for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing^c Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ^{d 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 in^a Christ—the righteousness^f that comes from God on the basis of faith.^{g 10}I want to know^h 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 resurrection^k from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,^l but I press on to take hold^m 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 behind^o and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on^p toward the goal to win the prize^q for which God has called^r me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Following Paul’s Example

¹⁵All of us, then, who are mature^s 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.