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Finally, my brothers and sisters, 1 rejoice 2 in the Lord.
To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.
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Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 3
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For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God 4 and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh--
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even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
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circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
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as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
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Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
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More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
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and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, 5 the righteousness from God based on faith.
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I want to know Christ 6 and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
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if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.