1 Now there are other things that I want to write about. My fellow believers, continue to rejoice because you belong to the Lord. Though I will now write to you about those same matters that I mentioned to you before, this is not tiresome for me, and it will protect you from those who would harm you spiritually.

2 Beware of those people who are dangerous [MET] like wild dogs. They are dangerous evildoers [DOU]. Beware of them since they are like people who cut other people’s bodies [MET]. They will harm you spiritually by insisting that you must let someone circumcise you in order for you to become God’s people [MTY, MET]. 3 Those people think that they are God’s people because someone has circumcised them. But we, not they, are truly God’s people [MET], whether or not someone has circumcised us. God’s Spirit enables us to [MTY] worship God; we praise Christ Jesus because he has enabled us to become the people of God. We do not believe that God will consider/make us his people as a result of what someone has done to our bodies [MTY, SYN]. 4 We do not trust in those rituals to make us acceptable to God, although I could very well do that if it would be useful for me.

In fact, if I could benefit from it for my salvation, I could rely upon what I have done and who I am [MTY, SYN] more than anyone else could! I will tell you why. 5 I was circumcised {Someone circumcised me} when I was one week old. I am from the people of Israel. I am from the tribe of Benjamin. I am completely Hebrew in every way. While I was a member of the Pharisee sect, I strictly obeyed the laws that God gave Moses. 6 I was so zealous to make people obey those laws that I caused the people who believe in Christ to suffer because I thought they were trying to abolish those laws. Indeed, as far as my obeying those laws is concerned, no one could have accused me by saying that I had disobeyed any of those laws.

7 Nevertheless, all such things as those, which I used to consider to be useful to me, those very things I now consider worthless, because I want to know Christ (OR, in order that I may know Christ). 8 More than that, I consider all things to be worthless, compared to how great it is to know Christ Jesus my Lord. Because I want to know him better (OR, In order that I may know him better), I have rejected all things as worthless. I consider them as useless as [MET] rubbish, in order that I may have a close relationship with Christ [MET], 9 and in order that I may completely belong to him. It was not as a result of my obeying the laws he gave Moses that God erased the record of my sins. Instead, it is because I have trusted in Christ that God has declared that I am no longer guilty for my sins, and he enables me to act righteously. It is God himself who has erased the record of my sins, and he enables me to act righteously, only because I have trusted in Christ. 10 I want to know Christ better and better. Particularly, I want to continually experience his working powerfully in my life, just like God worked powerfully when he caused Christ to become alive after he died. I also want to be continually willing to suffer in order that I may obey God, just like Christ suffered in order that he might obey God. I also want to be completely willing to die for Christ, even as he died for me, 11 because I expect that, as a result of God’s goodness, he will cause me to live again after I have died.

12 I do not claim that I have already become completely like Christ Jesus; that is, I have not already become all that God intends me to be [DOU]. But I earnestly try to become more and more like Christ, because he chose me in order that I might become like him. 13 My fellow believers, I certainly do not consider that I have already become completely like Christ. But I am like a runner. A runner does not look backward [MET]. Instead, he leans/stretches forward as he runs straight toward the goal in order that he might win the race and get the prize. Similarly, I do not think about what I have already done. 14 Instead, I concentrate only on continuing to become more and more like Christ right up to the end of my life [MET]. As a result, because of my relationship with Christ Jesus, God will call/summon me to receive a reward from him in heaven. 15 So, all of us who are spiritually mature should think this same way. If any of you do not think this same way regarding what I have written here, God will reveal that to you. 16 What is important is that we must conduct our lives according to what God has already revealed to us.

17 My fellow believers, all of you should follow my example, and observe those people who act as I do, in order that you may imitate them also. 18 Keep in mind that there are many people who say that they believe in Christ, but who act in such a way that shows that they are opposed to the teaching about Christ dying on the cross [MTY]. I have told you about those people many times before, and now I am sad, even crying, as I tell you about them again. 19 God will severely punish them. The things their bodies desire [MTY] have become like gods to them [MET]. They are proud of the things they should be ashamed of. They think only about what unbelievers [MTY] think about. 20 But remember that we are citizens of heaven. And we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to return from there. 21 By the power that enables him to put everything under his own control, he will change our weak bodies to become like his glorious body.