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OCTOBER 9
12 Not that I have already attained, or am
already perfected; but I press on, that I may
lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also
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3:7 what things were gain…I have counted laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count
loss. The Greek word for “gain” is an account- myself to have apprehended; but one thing I
ing term that means “profit.” The Greek word do, forgetting those things which are behind
for “loss” also is an accounting term used to and reaching forward to those things which
describe a business loss. Paul used the lan- are ahead, I press toward the goal for the
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guage of business to describe the spiritual prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
transaction that occurred when Christ 15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature,
redeemed him.All his Jewish religious creden- have this mind; and if in anything you think
tials that he thought were in his profit column otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
were actually worthless and damning (Luke 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have
18:9–14).Thus, he put them in his loss column already attained, let us walk by the same rule,
when he saw the glories of Christ.
let us be of the same mind.
17 Brethren, join in following my example,
3:8 knowledge of Christ Jesus. To “know”
Christ is not simply to have intellectual knowl- and note those who so walk, as you have us for
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edge about Him. Paul used the Greek verb a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have
that means to know “experientially” or “per- told you often, and now tell you even weeping,
sonally” (John 10:27; 17:3; 2 Cor. 4:6; 1 John that they are the enemies of the cross of
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5:20). It is equivalent to shared life with Christ. Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god
It also corresponds to a Hebrew word used of is their belly, and whose glory is in their
God’s knowledge of His people (Amos 3:2) shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
and their knowledge of Him in love and obe- 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which
dience (Jer. 31:34; Hos. 6:3; 8:2). rubbish. The we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Je-
Greek word refers to garbage or waste and sus Christ, who will transform our lowly body
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can even be translated “dung”or “manure.” that it may be conformed to His glorious body,
according to the working by which He is able
even to subdue all things to Himself.
DAY 8:Who was the prophet Jeremiah?
Jeremiah, who served as both a priest and a prophet, was the son of a priest named Hilkiah.
He was from the small village of Anathoth (1:1), today called Anata, about 3 miles northeast of
Jerusalem.As an object lesson to Judah, Jeremiah remained unmarried (16:1–4).He was assisted in
ministry by a scribe named Baruch, to whom Jeremiah dictated and who copied and had custody
over the writings compiled from the prophet’s messages (36:4,32; 45:1). Jeremiah has been known
as “the weeping prophet” (9:1; 13:17; 14:17), living a life of conflict because of his predictions of
judgment by the invading Babylonians. He was threatened, tried for his life, put in stocks, forced to
flee from Jehoiakim, publicly humiliated by a false prophet, and thrown into a pit.
Jeremiah carried out a ministry directed mostly to his own people in Judah, but which
expanded to other nations at times. He appealed to his countrymen to repent and avoid God’s
judgment via an invader (chaps. 7; 26). Once invasion was certain after Judah refused to repent, he
pled with them not to resist the Babylonian conqueror in order to prevent total destruction (chap.
27). He also called on delegates of other nations to heed his counsel and submit to Babylon (chap.
27), and he predicted judgments from God on various nations (25:12–38; chaps. 46–51).
The dates of his ministry,which spanned 5 decades,are from the Judean king Josiah’s thirteenth
year, noted in 1:2 (627 B.C.), to beyond the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 B.C. (chaps. 39; 40; 52).
After 586 B.C., Jeremiah was forced to go with a fleeing remnant of Judah to Egypt (chaps. 43; 44).

And becomes another man’s,
OCTOBER 9 May he return to her again?’
Would not that land be greatly
polluted?
Jeremiah 3:1–4:31
But you have played the harlot with
“They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, many lovers;
3 And she goes from him Yet return to Me,” says the LORD.

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