The Upward Call of Christ: Take it or Leave it
3:7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
3:8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
3:11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
3:15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
3:16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
3:17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.
