Greetings from
Paul
1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi,
with the bishops and deacons:
2 grace be unto you, and
peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s prayer
for the Philippian believers
3 I thank my God upon every
remembrance of you,
4 always in every prayer
of mine for you all making request with joy,
5 for your fellowship in
the gospel from the first day until now;
6 being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ:
7 even as it is meet for
me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as
both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye
all are partakers of my grace.
8 For God is my record, how
greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
9 And this I
pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all
judgment;
10 that ye may approve things
that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the
day of Christ;
11 being filled with the
fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and
praise of God.
Honor Christ
by life or death
12 But I would ye should understand,
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather
unto the furtherance of the gospel;
13 so that my bonds in Christ
are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;
14 and many of the brethren
in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak
the word without fear.
15 Some indeed
preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
16 the one preach Christ
of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
17 but the other of love,
knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
18 What then? notwithstanding,
every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I
therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
19 For I know
that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20 according to my earnest
expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with
all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life, or by death.
21 For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh,
this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24 nevertheless to abide
in the flesh is more needful for you.
25 And having this confidence,
I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance
and joy of faith;
26 that your rejoicing may
be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
27 Only let
your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether
I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that
ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith
of the gospel;
28 and in nothing terrified
by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but
to you of salvation, and that of God.
29 For unto you it is given
in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer
for his sake;
30 having the same conflict
which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
