First ReadingPhilippians 3:8-14
From the Letter of Paul to the Philippians
8Yes most certainly,and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things,and count them nothing but refuse,that I may gain Christ9and be found in him,not having a righteousness of my own,that which is of the law,but that which is through faith in Christ,the righteousness which is from God by faith,10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,and the fellowship of his sufferings,becoming conformed to his death,11if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.12Not that I have already obtained,or am already made perfect;but I press on, that I may take hold of that forwhich also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
13Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold,but one thing I do:forgetting the things which are behindand stretching forward to the things which are before,14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.