3:1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble for me, and it is a safeguard for you.
3:2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the ①false circumcision;
▷ ①Lit mutilation; Gr katatome
3:3 for we are the true ①circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and take pride in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh,
▷ ①Gr peritome
3:4 although I myself could boast as having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, I have more reason:
3:5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;
3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ.
3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss ①in view of the surpassing value of ②knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, ③for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ,
▷ ①Lit because of ②Lit the knowledge of ③Lit because of
3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and ①the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
▷ ①Or participation in
3:11 if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
3:12 Not that I have already ①grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that ②for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
▷ ①Or obtained ②Or because also
3:13 Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
3:15 Therefore, all who are ①mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well;
▷ ①Or perfect
3:16 however, let’s keep ①living by that same standard to which we have attained.
▷ ①Lit following in line
3:17 Brothers and sisters, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
3:18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their ①appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who have their minds on earthly things.
▷ ①Lit belly
3:20 For our ①citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
▷ ①Lit commonwealth
3:21 who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with ①His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
▷ ①Lit the body of His glory