| 3:1 | Finally, my brothers and sisters,* rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. |
| 3:2 | Beware of the dogs,* beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!* |
| 3:3 | For we are the circumcision,* the ones who worship by the Spirit of God,* exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials* |
| 3:4 | – though mine too are significant.* If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials,* I have more: |
| 3:5 | I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee.* |
| 3:6 | In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. |
| 3:7 | But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. |
| 3:8 | More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung!* – that I may gain Christ, |
| 3:9 | and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness* – a righteousness from God that is in fact* based on Christ’s* faithfulness.* |
| 3:10 | My aim is to know him,* to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings,* and to be like him in his death, |
| 3:11 | and so, somehow,* to attain to the resurrection from the dead. |
| 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.* |
| 3:13 | Brothers and sisters,* I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded:* Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, |
| 3:14 | with this goal in mind,* I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God* in Christ Jesus. |
| 3:15 | Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view.* If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.* |
| 3:16 | Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard* that we have already attained.* |
| 3:17 | Be imitators of me,* brothers and sisters,* 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.* |
| 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 ours* into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself. |
Philippians 3 - NET Bible [draft]
