4. although I myself might
have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has
a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far
more:
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;
6. as to zeal, a persecutor of
the church; as to the righteousness which is in the
Law, found blameless.
7. But whatever things were gain
to me, those things I have counted as loss for the
sake of Christ.
8. More than that, I count all
things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in
order that I may gain Christ,
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,
10. that I may know Him, and the
power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11. in order that I may attain
to the resurrection from the dead.
12. Not that I have already
obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I
press on in order that I may lay hold of that for
which also I was laid hold of by Christ
Jesus.
13. Brethren, I do not regard
myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I
do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward
to what lies ahead,
14. I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus.
15. Let us therefore, as many as
are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything
you have a different attitude, God will reveal that
also to you;
16. however, let us keep living
by that same standard to which we have
attained.
17. Brethren, join in following
my example, and observe those who walk according to
the pattern you have in us.
18. For many walk, of whom I
often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that
they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
19. whose end is destruction,
whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in
their shame, who set their minds on earthly
things
20. For our citizenship is in
heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ;
21. who will transform the body
of our humble state into conformity with the body of
His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has
even to subject all things to Himself.