Philippians 3:4-9

Php_3:4-9. Privilege and Renunciation. The contrast between Jew and Christian leads Paul to refer to himself in a striking autobiographical passage, which, though brief, may be compared for spirit and tone to Augustine's Confessions. He begins with his origin and early experience. A Jew punctually circumcised, of the royal tribe of Benjamin, a rigorous Pharisee and persecutor of the Church, he had better claims for boasting on these lines than the wretched denizens of the ghetto at Philippi. Yet he treated all these claims with contempt in exchange for the knowledge of Christ, content to be excommunicated from Judaism in order to gain Christ and the God-given righteousness obtained through faith, all instead of his own righteousness got through the Law.