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Some people teach things that are not true
1 And now, my Christian friends, before I finish this letter, I want to tell you this. Be happy all the time. Remember that you belong to our leader Jesus. Yes, I told you all these things before, and I am telling you again. I don’t get tired of telling you, and this message will stop you from going the wrong way.
2-3 Look out. There are some men that want to teach you the wrong things and get you to go the wrong way. They are like dogs. They go the wrong way. They only want to cut men’s bodies. They say that you don’t belong to God unless you do what the Jewish law says and have a young man operation. They are wrong. We have God’s spirit in us, and he helps us respect God the right way. We know what Jesus Christ did for us, and we trust him. We know that ceremonies that people do will not save us, so we don’t trust them. So really, we are the ones that belong to God. Those people that only follow that Jewish law don’t belong to him.
Know Jesus properly, this is most important
4 Look at me. I’m more Jewish than they are, and I trusted that Jewish law more than them, but it didn’t save me.
5 I was born into the Israel nation, and I belong to the Benjamin tribe. They did that young man operation on me when I was 8 days old, just like the Jewish law says. When I grew up, I joined the Pharisee mob, that are really strong for the Jewish law. I’m properly Jewish.
6 I really wanted to make God happy, but I followed the Jewish way, and I made a lot of trouble for Christians. And I was strong for the Jewish laws. Nobody could say that I broke any of them.
7 I used to think that if I lived like that, God will like me. But then I found out the true message about Jesus, and I knew that I was wrong. Those things didn’t help at all. Now that I know Jesus Christ properly, I reckon all those things are useless.
8 Yes, they are useless. But I know Jesus Christ. That is the only important thing. He is my leader, and he is really special to me now. I have left every other way, and I only follow him now. I reckon all those other things are rubbish, and I have chucked them away, so that I can join up with Jesus Christ,
9 and belong to him properly. I have stopped trying to follow that Jewish law to get God to say that I’m all right. Instead of that, I trust in Jesus Christ, and that is the reason why God will say that I’m all right. God makes us right because we believe in Jesus.
10 And I really want to know Jesus Christ properly. And I want God’s power to be in my life, the same power he used to make Jesus alive again. And I even want to share the pain that Jesus got. I will even let his enemies kill me, like they killed him.
11 Then later, God will make me alive again, one way or another.
Try hard to be like Jesus
12 I’m not saying that I have already done all that. I’m not saying that I’m properly good now. But, you see, Jesus Christ picked me to be one of his people, so I’m trying hard to be the sort of person that he wants me to be.
13 Friends, I don’t reckon I’m all that good yet, but I keep on looking ahead. I’m like a man running in a race. I forget what I did in the past, and I think about what God wants me to do later.
14 I keep trying to be like Jesus, so that God will take me up to properly join up with Jesus. That will be my prize.
15 And all of us have to think like that. That will show that we are spiritually strong now and live properly for Jesus. But if you think differently about anything, God will help you, and he will show you the right way.
16 We started to learn about the way God wants us to live, so we have to keep on living his way and keep on doing the things he taught us to do. That is the most important thing for all of us to do.
Live the right way, like Paul did
17 My Christian friends, you know how I live, so you all have to try to live the same way. And look around at each other, and see the way you all live. Look at those people that live the same way as I live, and you do the same.
18 You see, there are a lot of people that don’t live the right way. I have often told you this before, and now I’m telling you the same thing again. When I think about it, I get so sad that I cry. There are people that reckon they are Christians, but they are really enemies of Jesus Christ. They live in a way that shows they are against the good things that Jesus died for on the cross.
19 They don’t listen to God. They listen to their own bodies, and they do bad things so that their bodies feel good. They do those bad things, but they don’t feel shame. Instead, they think they are smart. They only think about the things that belong to this world. And in the end God will finish them up for ever.
20 But we belong to heaven. That is our real home. And we are waiting for our leader, Jesus Christ, to come back from heaven. He is the one that saves us, and we really want him to come back.
21 He will change these weak bodies that we have now, and he will make them into new bodies. They will be like the wonderful body that he has now. Jesus can do that because he is really powerful. He is so powerful that he can be the boss over everything.