Chapter 3
1 Finally , my brothers, rejoice in the Lord ! To write the same things to you , to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe .
2 Beware of the dogs ; beware of the evil workers ; beware of the false circumcision .
3 For we are the circumcision , who worship God in the Spirit , and rejoice in Christ Jesus , and have no confidence in the flesh ;
4 though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh . If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh , I yet more :
5 circumcised the eighth day , of the stock of Israel , of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews ; concerning the law , a Pharisee ;
6 concerning zeal , persecuting the assembly ; concerning the righteousness which is in the law , found blameless.
7 However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ .
8 Yes most certainly , and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus , my Lord , for whom I suffered the loss of all things , and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him , not having a righteousness of my own , that which is of the law , but that which is through faith in Christ , the righteousness which is from God by faith ,
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings , becoming conformed to his death ,
11 if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead .
12 Not that I have already obtained , or am already made perfect ; but I press on , that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus .
13 Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold , but one thing I do : forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before ,
14 I press on towards the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus .
15 Let us therefore , as many as are perfect , think this way . If in anything you think otherwise , God will also reveal that to you .
16 Nevertheless , to the extent that we have already attained , let’s walk by the same rule. Let’s be of the same mind.
17 Brothers, be imitators together of me , and note those who walk this way , even as you have us for an example .
18 For many walk , of whom I told you often , and now tell you even weeping , as the enemies of the cross of Christ ,
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly , and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things .
20 For our citizenship is in heaven , from where we also wait for a Saviour , the Lord Jesus Christ ,
21 who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory , according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself .