4. though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5. circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6. as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
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
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.
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,
11. and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
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.
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,
14. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
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.
16. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
26. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
27. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
2. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.