25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need; 26 for he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may have less anxiety. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy; and honor men like him, 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. 3 1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those mutilators of the body. 3 For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I myself have reasons for confidence in the flesh. 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; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever was gain to me, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count everything to be loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order 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 Christóthe righteousness that comes from God and is by faith, 10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained 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 Brethren, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who live according to the pattern you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ.