Keep Going Forward

3:12 Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.18 3:13 Brothers and sisters,19 I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded:20 Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 3:14 with this goal in mind,21 I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God22 in Christ Jesus. 3:15 Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view.23 If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.24 3:16 Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard25 that we have already attained.26

3:17 Be imitators of me,27 brothers and sisters,28 and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example. 3:18 For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. 3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.29 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 3:21 who will transform these humble bodies of ours30 into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.