4. though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!
5. I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.
6. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
7. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
8. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ
9. and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
10. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death,
11. so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
12. I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.