3:1-21
Nasty!
3:1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.
3:2
Beware of the dogs,
beware of the evil workers,
beware of those
who mutilate the flesh!
3:3
For it is we who are the circumcision,
who worship
in the Spirit of God and
boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh--
3:4 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: 3:5 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; 3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
3:16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
3:17
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me,
and observe those
who live according to the example you have in us.
3:18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ;
I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.
3:19 Their end is destruction; their god is the belly;
and
their glory is in their shame;
their minds are set on earthly things.
3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.