INTRODUCTION
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ,
To all the saints, bishops, and deacons in Christ at Philippi:
2 Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
THANKSGIVING
3 I give thanks to my God every time I think of you. 4 I always remember you all joyfully in every prayer of mine. 5 For you have been my fellow workers in the Gospel from the first day until now.
6 I am sure that God who inspired you for this good work will bring it to perfection at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is only natural for me to entertain such hopes for you. I have you all in my heart, because you shared my pride in my imprisonment, in my defense, and in my proclamation of the Gospel.
8 God is my witness that I yearn for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ himself. 9 And this is my prayer for you: May your love grow richer and richer in knowledge and insight. 10 May the Lord help you to appreciate what is salutary, and to become pure and blameless in preparation for the day of Christ. 11 May your lives be filled with the fruits of righteousness through Jesus Christ to the gory and praise of God.
BLESSING IN DISGUISE
12 Now, brethren, I want you to know that my ordeals contributed considerably to the promotion of the Gospel. 13 It has become clear to all the praetorian guard and all the people that I have been sent to jail for the sake of Christ. 14 So most of the brethren in the Lord have been inspired by my imprisonment and are now proclaiming the divine Gospel boldly and fearlessly.
15 Some of them, it is true, are moved by jealousy and rivalry. But there are others who are preaching the Gospel of Christ in good faith. 16 The former are proclaiming Christ insincerely for their own ends. They hope to add more distress to my imprisonment. 17 The latter are doing it out of charity. They know that I am here to defend the Gospel.
18 But what difference does it make? In either way, whether with pretense or with sincerity, Christ is proclaimed. So I rejoice in it now. Yes, and I will rejoice in it in the future. 19 I know that this will make for my salvation through your prayers and the assistance of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
LIFE OR DEATH
20 I eagerly expect and hope that I shall not be put to shame. I am sure that with my unfailing courage this time, as always hitherto, Christ will be glorified in my flesh, either by my life or my death.
21 To me life means a Christian life, and death means a Christian prize. 22 But if my life in the flesh can produce fruitful work, I cannot tell which to choose. 23 I am undecided between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ. That is far better.
24 Yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 As I am convinced of this necessity, I know that I will remain and serve you all for your progress and joy in the faith. 26 Thus you will have ample cause to be proud of me in Jesus Christ when I come to you again.
EXHORTATION
27 Only let your way of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then if I come, I will see you. If I am absent, I will hear that you are standing firm with one spirit, and working together with one soul for the faith of the Gospel. 28 Do not be at all terrified by your opponents. Your firmness will be a clear evidence of their coming destruction and of your salvation from God. 29 For it has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for his sake. 30 Your battle is my battle. You saw how I fought it once, and you have heard how I am fighting it now.
UNITY
1 I will tell you how you can give me Christian consolation, comfort of love, communion of the Holy Spirit, fraternal sympathy, 2 and make me perfectly happy: Be one in thought, one in heart, one in soul, and one in mind.
HUMILITY
3 Do nothing from selfishness or conceit. Each one of you must have the humility to think others better than himself. 4 Each one of you must look, not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Be minded as Jesus Christ was. 6 He was divine by nature. Yet he did not cling covetously to his equal status with God. 7 On the contrary, he divested himself of all his divine prerogatives, and assumed the nature of a slave. He was born like a human child. 8 He appeared before us in the form of an ordinary man. He humbled himself and carried his obedience so far as to die the death of a criminal on the Cross.
9 Therefore God exalted him so highly and bestowed on him the name which is superior to every other name. 10 At the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld must fall on his knees. 11 Everyone must acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.
SALVATION
12 Therefore, as you have always been obedient in my presence, be much more so now in my absence, and work out your salvation with reverence and awe. 13 For God makes you both will and act for the fulfillment of his gracious pleasure.
14 Do everything without any complaint or hesitation. 15 Be blameless, innocent, and immaculate children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Shine among them like beacons of mankind. 16 Proclaim the life-giving Gospel. Then, when the day of Christ comes I will be proud of my work. For I will know that I have not contended in vain nor labored in vain. 17 Even if my blood is poured out as a libation on the sacred sacrifice of faith you offer to God, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise, you should be glad and rejoice with me.
TIMOTHY
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you. I also will be cheered by having news of you. 20 I have no one else here who shares my feelings as he does, no one who will concern himself so genuinely with your welfare.
21 For they are looking after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know his tested character. He labored with me for the Gospel as a son with his father. 23 Therefore I hope to send him as soon as I see how things will go with me.
EPAPHRODITUS
24 I am persuaded in the Lord that shortly I myself shall come also. 25 In the meantime, I have thought it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow crusader, whom you sent to minister to my needs.
26 He has been longing for you all, and he has been greatly distressed because you heard that he was sick. 27 Indeed he was sick, and nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, for he did not let me have one sorrow after another.
28 So I am all the more eager to send him. You will be glad to see him again, and I will feel more relieved. 29 Therefore receive him joyfully in the Lord. You must honor men like him. 30 For he came near death in the service of the Lord, and risked his life to carry out his mission of mercy on my behalf as your delegate.
PRIVILEGES
1 Brethren, I greet you in the name of the Lord. I do not mind writing the same message to you so long as it is safer for you.
2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for the mutilators. 3 We are the true representatives of circumcision. For we worship God in spirit. We are proud of Jesus Christ. We do not rely on privileges of the flesh. 4 I myself have reason to rely on such privileges. For I am more entitled to rely on privileges of the flesh than any other man.
5 I was circumcized eight days after my birth. I come from the stock of Israel, I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, born of Hebrews. In legal observance I was a Pharisee. 6 In zeal I was a persecutor of the Church. In practicing the commandments of the Law, I was beyond reproach.
RENUNCIATION
7 But I now count all my former gains as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss compared with the supreme privilege of knowing my Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake I lost everything, and I count everything as refuse. Thus I hope to win Christ, 9 and dwell in him. For I believe that I can obtain justification, not through the observances of the Law, but through faith in Christ. For justification from God depends on faith. 10 So I hope to understand Christ and the miracle of his Resurrection, to share his sufferings, to die like him, 11 and, if possible, to obtain resurrection from the dead.
12 I do not mean to say that I have received this blessing, or that I have already achieved perfection. But I press on to capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ. 13 Brethren, I do not consider that I have captured it yet. I am doing only one thing. I forget what I have left behind. 14 I reach out for what lies ahead, and I press on toward the goal of my heavenly and divine vocation in Jesus Christ.
15 All of us who are mature must be like-minded. If you disagree with me, God will enlighten you also and show you the way. 16 Therefore let us have the same purpose, let us follow the same faith, and let us stick to the achievements we have attained.
FOLLOWERS AND OPPONENTS
17 Brethren, follow my example. But watch those who pretend to be my followers. 18 I have told you often, and again I tell you with tears that many of these men behave like enemies of the Cross of Jesus.
19 But they are doomed to destruction. For they worship their bellies as their god. They glory in their shameful vices. They crave for infernal abominations.
20 But our home is in heaven from which we hope that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, will come. 21 He will transform our humble bodies and make them look like his glorious body through his power as the Master of the Universe.
HARMONY
1 Therefore, my dear brethren, whom I love and long for, who are my joy and my crown, stand firmly in the Lord.
2 I entreat Euodia and Syntyche to make up their differences in the name of the Lord. 3 I also appeal to you, my true comrades, to help these women. They both toiled hard for the Gospel with me, with Clement, and my other fellow workers whose names are written in the Book of Life.
DIVINE PEACE
4 Brethren, farewell. May the Lord be with you always. 5 Let all men see your gentleness. The Lord is coming. 6 Do not worry about anything. But make all your petitions known to God through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving.
7 Then, the peace of God, which transcends all human understanding, will keep your minds and your thoughts in Jesus Christ.
8 Now, brethren, let your minds dwell on what is true, noble, righteous, pure, amiable, kindly, virtuous, and praiseworthy. 9 Practice what you have learned, received, and heard from me, or seen me do. May the God of peace be with you.
APPRECIATION
10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that your interest in me has been revived again after so long. Indeed, you have always been interested. But you have had no opportunity to show it.
11 I am not complaining. I have learned to be contented in whatever condition I am in. 12 I know how to enjoy plenty. Everywhere and among all people I have learned the secret of having my fill and of going hungry, of having plenty and of suffering want. 13 I can do anything through Christ who strengthens me.
14 However, it was very kind of you to share my distress. 15 As you Philippians know, in the early days of the Gospel, after I left Macedonia, no Church had any financial dealings with me except yours only. 16 Even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent money for my needs more than once. 17 Not that I want your gifts, but I want you to enjoy the benefits of your liberality.
18 I have everything in abundance, I am fully supplied, now that I have received your gift from Epaphroditus. It was like fragrant incense, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God. 19 May the Lord reward you by supplying all your needs with his wealth of glory in Jesus Christ. 20 Glory to God our Father forever and ever. Amen.
GREETINGS
21 Greet all the saints in Jesus Christ. The brethren who are with me send you greetings. 22 All the saints, and especially those who belong to Caesar’s household, send you their greetings also.
23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.