Philippians 3:12-21 - Reaching Forward To God's Goal

¹² Not that I have secured it yet, or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have captured it yet, only, forgetting what is behind me, and straining toward what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I am pressing toward the goal, for the prize to which God through Christ Jesus calls us upward. ¹⁵ Let as many of us therefore as are mature have this attitude. If you have any different attitude, God will make this clear to you. ¹⁶ Only we must live up to what we have already attained. ¹⁷ Follow my example, brothers, all of you, and notice those who follow the pattern we have set you. ¹⁸ For there are many who live, as I have often told you, and tell you now with tears, like enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ They are doomed to destruction: their appetites are their god; they glory in their shame; they are absorbed in earthly matters. ²⁰ But the commonwealth to which we belong is in heaven, and from it we are eagerly awaiting the coming of a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will make our poor bodies over to resemble his glorious body, by exerting the power he has to subject everything to himself.