New Revised Standard NRS
Common English Bible CEB
1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.
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So then, my brothers and sisters, be glad in the Lord. It's no trouble for me to repeat the same things to you because they will help keep you on track.
2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!
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Watch out for the "dogs." Watch out for people who do evil things. Watch out for those who insist on circumcision, which is really mutilation.
3 For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh—
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We are the circumcision. We are the ones who serve by God's Spirit and who boast in Christ Jesus. We don't put our confidence in rituals performed on the body,
4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
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though I have good reason to have this kind of confidence. If anyone else has reason to put their confidence in physical advantages, I have even more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
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I was circumcised on the eighth day. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. With respect to observing the Law, I'm a Pharisee.
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
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With respect to devotion to the faith, I harassed the church. With respect to righteousness under the Law, I'm blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
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These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
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But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
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and be found in him. In Christ I have a righteousness that is not my own and that does not come from the Law but rather from the faithfulness of Christ. It is the righteousness of God that is based on faith.
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
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The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death
11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
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so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
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It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose.
13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
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Brothers and sisters, I myself don't think I've reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me.
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
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The goal I pursue is the prize of God's upward call in Christ Jesus.
15 Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.
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So all of us who are spiritually mature should think this way, and if anyone thinks differently, God will reveal it to him or her.
16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
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Only let's live in a way that is consistent with whatever level we have reached.
17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.
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Brothers and sisters, become imitators of me and watch those who live this way—you can use us as models.
18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.
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As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many people live as enemies of the cross.
19 Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.
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Their lives end with destruction. Their god is their stomach, and they take pride in their disgrace because their thoughts focus on earthly things.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Our citizenship is in heaven. We look forward to a savior that comes from there—the Lord Jesus Christ.
21 He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
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He will transform our humble bodies so that they are like his glorious body, by the power that also makes him able to subject all things to himself.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible