18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

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Timothy and Epaphroditus

19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy(A) to you soon,(B) that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. 20 I have no one else like him,(C) who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21 For everyone looks out for their own interests,(D) not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father(E) he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23 I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.(F) 24 And I am confident(G) in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

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25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker(A) and fellow soldier,(B) who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.(C) 26 For he longs for all of you(D) and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him,(E) so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. 29 So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him,(F) 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.(G)

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No Confidence in the Flesh

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again,(A) and it is a safeguard for you.

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Watch out for those dogs,(A) those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.

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For it is we who are the circumcision,(A) we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus,(B) and who put no confidence in the flesh—

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though I myself have reasons for such confidence.(A)

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised(B) on the eighth day, of the people of Israel,(C) of the tribe of Benjamin,(D) a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;(E) as for zeal,(F) persecuting the church;(G) as for righteousness based on the law,(H) faultless.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss(I) for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing(J) Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ(K) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,(L) but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness(M) that comes from God on the basis of faith.(N) 10 I want to know(O) Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings,(P) becoming like him in his death,(Q) 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection(R) from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,(S) but I press on to take hold(T) of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.(U) 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind(V) and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on(W) toward the goal to win the prize(X) for which God has called(Y) me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

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Footnotes

  1. Philippians 3:9 Or through the faithfulness of

Following Paul’s Example

15 All of us, then, who are mature(A) should take such a view of things.(B) And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.(C)

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