¹ PAUL and Timothy, 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 the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ I give thanks to my God on 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 even until now;

⁶ being confident of this very thing, that he who hath wrought in you the good work will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ:

⁷ as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I bear you on my heart, both in my bonds and in my defence and the confirmation of the gospel, as being all of you sharers in my grace.

⁸ For God is my witness, how earnestly 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 all understanding;

¹⁰ that ye may prove the things that are excellent, in order that ye may be sincere and without offence unto the day of Christ;

¹¹ filled with fruits of righteousness, which by Jesus Christ are to the glory and praise of God.

¹² Now I wish you, brethren, to know, that the things which have befallen me have rather conduced to the progress of the gospel;

¹³ so that my bonds are manifest in Christ through the whole palace, and all other places;

¹⁴ and very many of our brethren in the Lord, assuming confidence from my chains, are more abundantly bold, fearlessly to preach the word.

¹⁵ Some indeed do it in a spirit of envy and strife; but some also preach Christ with cordial good-will:

¹⁶ the one indeed preach Christ out of contention, not with purity of intention, thinking to add affliction to my bonds:

¹⁷ but the others of love, knowing that I am exposed for the defence of the gospel.

¹⁸ What then? if Christ is preached in whatever manner it be, whether in pretext or reality, even in this do I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

¹⁹ For I know that this shall issue in my salvation through your prayers, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

²⁰ according to my firm expectation and hope, that I shall be confounded by no event, but that with all boldness, as always hitherto, Christ shall now also be magnified in my body, whether by my life or death.

²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

²² But if it be his will, that I should live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my travail: and what to chuse I know not.

²³ For I am in a strait between the two, having an earnest longing to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, for this is far, far better:

²⁴ but to abide in the flesh may be more necessary for you.

²⁵ And being so persuaded, I know that I shall stay and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith;

²⁶ that your glorying may abound in Christ Jesus for me by my coming again unto you.

²⁷ Only conduct yourselves worthily as 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 soul wrestling together in the faith of the gospel;

²⁸ and not dismayed on any occasion by your adversaries; which is indeed the proof of perdition to them, but of salvation to you, and that from God.

²⁹ For this favour on the part of Christ is granted you, not only that ye should believe on him, but also that ye should suffer for his sake;

³⁰ experiencing the same conflict which ye have seen in me, and now hear to be in me.