Martyrs Eulampius and Eulampia at Nicomedia; Blessed Fool for Christ Andrew of Totma (1637); Pinytos, Bishop of Knossos

Yes 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 Christ ⁹and 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 for which 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 behind and 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. ¹⁵Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. ¹⁶Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let’s walk by the same rule. Let’s be of the same mind.

¹⁷Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example. ¹⁸For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

“To what then should I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? ³²They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, saying, ‘We piped to you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned, and you didn’t weep.’ ³³For John the Baptizer came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ ³⁴The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ³⁵Wisdom is justified by all her children.”