1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same [things] to you [is] not troublesome to me, but [is] a safeguard for you.
2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation.
3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and do not [put] confidence in the flesh,
4 although I [could] have confidence even in the flesh.
5 {circumcised on the eighth day}, from the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew [born] from Hebrews, according to the law a Pharisee,
6 according to zeal persecuting the church, according to the righteousness in the law being blameless.
7 But whatever [things] were gain to me, these [things] I have considered loss because of Christ.
8 {More than that}, even consider all [things] to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for the sake of whom I have suffered the loss of all [things], and consider [them] dung, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and may be found in him, not having my righteousness [which is] from the law, but [which is] through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith,
10 so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,
11 if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already received [this], or [have] already been made perfect, but I press on if indeed I may lay hold of [that] for which also I was laid hold of by Christ.
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold of [it]. But [I do] one [thing], forgetting the things behind and straining toward the things ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore as many as [are] perfect, {let us hold this opinion}, and if you think anything differently, God will reveal this also to you.
16 Only to what we have attained, to the same hold on.
17 Become fellow imitators of me, brothers, and observe those who walk in this way, just as you have us [as] an example.
18 For many live, of whom I spoke about to you many times, but now speak about even weeping, [as] the enemies of the cross of Christ,
19 whose end [is] destruction, whose God [is] the stomach, and [whose] glory [is] in their shame, the ones who think on earthly things.
20 For our commonwealth exists in heaven, from which also we eagerly await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our humble body [to be] conformed to his glorious body, in accordance with the power that enables him even to subject all [things] to himself.