Bible Time

¹PAUL and Timotheus, servants of Jesus Messiah, to all the saints in Jesus Messiah who are at Philippi, together with the elders and deacons: ²Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Messiah.

³I give thanks to my God for your steady remembrance of me. ⁴In all my prayers for you, I make supplication with joy, ⁵For your fellowship in the gospel from the very 1st day until now, ⁶Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun the good work among you, will continue it until the day of our Lord Jesus Messiah.

⁷And this is the right way for me to think of you all, for I have you in my heart because through all my imprisonment and my defense and confirmation of the truth of the gospel, you have been partakers with me of grace. ⁸For God is my witness of how much I love you through the love of Jesus Messiah.

⁹And for this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all spiritual understanding, ¹⁰So that you may choose the things that are excellent and that you may be pure and without offence in the day of Messiah, ¹¹And be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Messiah, to the glory and the praise of God.

¹²Now I would have you know this, my brothers, that my work has been greatly furthered by the gospel; ¹³And the reasons for my imprisonments have been made manifest by Messiah to all Caesar's court and to all men. ¹⁴And many of the brothers in our Lord have grown confident by my imprisonment and, with increasing boldness, speak the word of God without fear.

¹⁵While some of them preach only because of envy and strife, others preach Messiah in good will and love; ¹⁶For they know that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; ¹⁷But those who preach Messiah out of contention, do not do it sincerely, but do it expecting to increase the hardship of my imprisonment. ¹⁸And I have rejoiced and still do rejoice in this, that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Messiah is preached.

¹⁹For I know that through your prayers and the gift of the Spirit of Jesus Messiah, all these things will ultimately turn out for my salvation, ²⁰Just as it is my earnest hope and expectation that in nothing will I be ashamed, but that openly as always, so now will Messiah also be magnified through my body, whether in life or death.

²¹For Messiah is my life, and to die is gain. ²²Even if in this life of the flesh my labors bear fruits, I do not know what to choose. ²³For I am torn between 2 desires, the one to depart, that I may be with Messiah, which is far better; ²⁴Nevertheless, for me to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. ²⁵And this I surely know, that I will be spared and remain for your joy and for the furtherance of your faith. ²⁶So that when I come to you again, your rejoicing in Jesus Messiah will abound through me.

²⁷Only conduct yourselves as becomes the gospel of Messiah, so that whether I come and see you or whether I am far away, I may hear of your good conduct, that you are standing firm in one spirit and in one soul, and triumphing together through the faith of the gospel, ²⁸And that in nothing are you terrified by our adversaries, whose conduct is the sign of their own destruction, but your salvation, and this is from God. ²⁹For it has been given you, not only to believe in Messiah but also to suffer for his sake, ³⁰That you may endure such trials as those which you have seen me in and such as you now hear that I am in.