Then you will be able to approve of [only] what is best and be sincere and without just blame on the day of Christ's [return],

So, what [should I think about the situation]? Just this: I am happy and will continue to be happy that, in every way, Christ is being preached, [regardless of] whether it is in pretense or with sincerity.

Instead, He gave up what He had and took on the form [i.e., the nature] of a slave, becoming like a man, [and even] His appearance was found to be like a man's.

for it is God who is at work in you, both to motivate the desire and to carry out what pleases Him.

because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to provide me with what you were not able to.

What is more, I consider everything to be a loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus [as] my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things. [I now] consider [all of] them to be trash, in order to gain Christ

[It is] not that I have already arrived at the goal [of spiritual maturity], or have already been made perfectly [righteous], but I am pushing onward in order to take hold of what Christ Jesus took hold of me for [i.e., to receive all that Christ intended for me].

Brothers, I consider that I, myself, have not yet taken hold [of Christ's ultimate purpose for me]. But there is one thing that I am doing; I am forgetting about my past [See verses 5-7], and reaching forward to what lies ahead.

Their [ultimate] end is [spiritual] destruction; their god is their appetite; they boast of what they ought to be ashamed of, and they [constantly] think about worldly things.