And now, brethren, joy to you in the Lord. I find no difficulty in always writing the same message to you, and it is your safeguard.

Beware of these prowling dogs, beware of their evil practices, of their disfigurement.✻

As for circumcision, it is we who practise it, we who serve God with the spirit, and take pride in Christ Jesus, instead of putting our trust in outward observances.

Not that I have no outward claims to give me confidence; if others put their trust in outward claims, I can do so with better reason.

I was circumcised seven days after I was born; I come from the stock of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew-speaking as my parents were before me. Over the law, I was a Pharisee;

to prove my loyalty, I persecuted the Church of God; in observing what the law commands, I was beyond reproach.

And all this, which once stood to my credit, I now write down as loss, for the love of Christ.

For that matter, there is nothing I do not write down as loss compared with the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord; for love of him I have lost everything, treat everything else as refuse, if I may have Christ to my credit.

In him I would render my account,✻ not claiming any justification that is my own work, given me by the law, but the justification that comes from believing in Jesus Christ, God’s gift on condition of our faith.

Him I would learn to know, and the virtue of his resurrection, and what it means to share his sufferings, moulded into the pattern of his death,

in the hope of achieving resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already won the prize, already reached fulfilment. I only press on, in hope of winning the mastery, as Christ Jesus has won the mastery over me.✻

No, brethren, I do not claim to have the mastery already, but this at least I do; forgetting what I have left behind, intent on what lies before me,

I press on with the goal in view, eager for the prize, God’s heavenly summons in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are fully grounded must be of this mind, and God will make it known to you, if you are of a different mind at present.

Meanwhile, let us all be of the same mind, all follow the same rule, according to the progress we have made.✻

Be content, brethren, to follow my example, and mark well those who live by the pattern we have given them;

I have told you often, and now tell you again with tears, that there are many whose lives make them the enemies of Christ’s cross.

Perdition is the end that awaits them, their own hungry bellies are the god they worship, their own shameful doings are their pride; their minds are set on the things of earth;

whereas we find our true home in heaven. It is to heaven that we look expectantly for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to save us;

he will form this humbled body of ours anew, moulding it into the image of his glorified body, so effective is his power to make all things obey him.