Outline
.
Against Judaizers or
Legalists (3:1-16)
VII.
Final Exhortations,
Thanks and Conclusion (4:2-23)
.
Exhortations
concerning Various Aspects of the Christian Life (4:2-9)
A. Concluding Testimony and Repeated Thanks (4:10-20)
B. Final Greetings and Benediction (4:21-23)
Philippians 3 NLT
1 Whatever happens, my dear brothers
and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these
things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.
2 Watch out for those dogs, those
people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be
saved.
3 For we who worship by the Spirit of
God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has
done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,
4 though I could have confidence in my
own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in
their own efforts, I have even more!
5 I was circumcised when I was eight
days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of
Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees,
who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.
6 I was so zealous that I harshly
persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without
fault.
7 I once thought these things were valuable,
but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
8 Yes, everything else is worthless
when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his
sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I
could gain Christ
9 and become one with him. I no longer
count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become
righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with
himself depends on faith.
10 I want to know Christ and experience
the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him,
sharing in his death,
11 so that one way or another I will
experience the resurrection from the dead!
12 I don’t mean to say that I have
already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I
press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have
not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking
forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on to reach the end of the
race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is
calling us.
15 Let all who are spiritually mature
agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make
it plain to you.
16 But we must hold on to the progress
we have already made.
17Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your
lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.
18 For I have told you often before, and
I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows
they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 They are headed for destruction.
Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think
only about this life here on earth.
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where
the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as
our Savior.
21 He will take our
weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the
same power with which he will bring everything under his control.
