Philippians 3:9-17
3:9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness
– a righteousness from God that is in fact
based on Christ’s
faithfulness.
3:10 My aim is to know him,
to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings,
and to be like him in his death,
3:11 and so, somehow,
to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Keep Going Forward
3:12 Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.
3:13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead,
3:14 with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
3:15 Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.
3:16 Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we have already attained.
3:17 Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example.