Philippians
Chapter 3
Overview
Paul writes to Jesus’ followers in Philippi, warning them against teachers who treat religious credentials and physical rituals as the way to belong to God. He measures his own impressive background against knowing Jesus the Messiah—and finds that the old scorecard no longer matters. The chapter then turns into the language of a race: Paul has not arrived, but he keeps reaching for the finish. He urges his friends to follow faithful examples, resist lives ruled by appetite and shame, and remember that their true citizenship and hope lie with Jesus in heaven.
1Finally, my brothers and sisters, find your joy in the Lord. Writing the same things to you is no trouble for me, and it helps keep you safe.
2Watch out for those dogs! Watch out for those who do evil! Watch out for those who insist on cutting the body as a religious ritual!
3We are the true circumcision—the people truly marked out as God’s. We worship by God’s Spirit, take pride in the Messiah Jesus, and do not put our confidence in outward human credentials.
4Yet I have every reason to be confident in such credentials myself. If anyone else thinks he can rely on them, I have even more reason:
5I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I was born into the people of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew born to Hebrew parents. In my commitment to the Jewish law, I was a Pharisee, a member of the strict religious movement.
6I was so zealous that I persecuted the community of Jesus’ followers. As for obeying what the law required, no one could find fault with me.
7But whatever once seemed like a gain to me, I now consider a loss because of the Messiah.
8More than that, I consider everything a loss compared with the surpassing value of knowing the Messiah Jesus, my Lord. Because of him I have lost everything, and I consider it garbage so that I may gain the Messiah
9and be found united with him. I do not want a right standing with God that comes from obeying the law. I want the right standing that comes through faith in the Messiah—the right standing God gives on the basis of faith.
10I want to know the Messiah, experience the power of his resurrection, and share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11in the hope that somehow I may reach the resurrection from the dead.
12I do not mean that I have already gained all this or have already been made complete. But I keep pursuing it, hoping to take hold of what the Messiah took hold of me for.
13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But I focus on one thing: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14I press toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly call in the Messiah Jesus.
15So all of us who are mature should think this way. If you think differently about anything, God will make that clear to you as well.
16In any case, let us continue living by the truth we have already reached.
17Brothers and sisters, join together in following my example. Pay attention to those who live according to the pattern you see in us.
18Many people live as enemies of the Messiah’s cross. I have often told you about them, and now I say it again with tears.
19Their end is destruction. Their stomach is their god, and they brag about things that should make them ashamed. Their minds are fixed on earthly things.
20But our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we eagerly await a rescuer, the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
21He will transform our weak and humble bodies to become like his glorious body. He will do this by the power that enables him to bring everything under his authority.