The Goal of Life
1Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble for me, and it is a safeguard for you.
2Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the
3for we are the true
4although I myself could boast as having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, I have more reason:
5circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;
6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
7But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ.
8More than that, I count all things to be loss
9and 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,
10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and
11if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already
13Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15Therefore, all who are
16however, let’s keep
17Brothers and sisters, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
18For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
19whose end is destruction, whose god is their
20For our
21who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with