Philippians Chapters

1 | •  ¹From Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to the saints in Philippi, with their bishops and deacons;

to you all in Christ Jesus:

²May grace and peace be yours from God, our Father, and Christ Jesus the Lord.

³I give thanks to my God each time I remember you, ⁴and when I pray for you, I pray with joy. ⁵I cannot forget all you shared with me in the service of the gospel, from the first day until now. ⁶Since God began such a good work in you, I am certain he will complete it on the day of Christ Jesus.

⁷This is my hope for you, for I carry you all in my heart: whether I am in prison or defending and confirming the gospel, you are with me and share the same grace.

⁸God knows that I love you dearly, with the love of Christ Jesus. ⁹In my prayers, I ask that your love lead you each day to a deeper knowledge and clearer discernment, ¹⁰that you may have good criteria for everything. So you may be pure of heart, and come blameless, to the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of holiness that comes through Christ Jesus, for the glory and praise of God.

Christ Is My Life

•  ¹²I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has served to advance the gospel. ¹³Actually, the whole praetorian guard, and even those outside the palace, know that I am in chains for Christ. ¹⁴And what is more, my condition as a prisoner has encouraged most brothers to proclaim the word of God fearlessly.

¹⁵Some, it is true, are moved by envy and rivalry, but others preach Christ with good intention. ¹⁶These latter are moved by love and realize I am here to defend the gospel. ¹⁷The former proclaims Christ to challenge me. They do not act with pure intention but think they are making my imprisonment more unbearable. ¹⁸But, in any case, whether they are sincere or showing off, Christ is proclaimed, and because of this, I rejoice and have no regrets.

¹⁹I know all this will be a grace for me because of your prayers and the help from the Spirit of Christ. ²⁰I am hopeful, even certain, that I shall not be ashamed. I feel as assured now as before that Christ will be exalted through my person, whether I live or die.

²¹For to me, life is Christ, and dying is even better. ²²But if I am to go on living, I shall be able to enjoy fruitful labor. Which shall I choose? ²³So I feel torn between the two. I greatly desire to leave this life and be with Christ, which will be better by far, ²⁴but it is necessary for you that I remain in this life. ²⁵And because I am convinced of this, I know that I will stay and remain with you for your progress and happiness in the faith. ²⁶I will surely come to you again and give you more reason for being proud of belonging to Christ Jesus.

Stand Firm in Faith

•  ²⁷Try, then, to adjust your lives according to the gospel of Christ. May I see it when I come to you, and if I cannot come, may I at least hear that you stand firm in the same spirit, striving to uphold the faith of the gospel with one heart. ²⁸Do not be afraid of your opponents. This will be a sign that they are defeated and you are saved, that is, saved by God. ²⁹For, through Christ, you have been granted, not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him. ³⁰And you now share the same struggle that you saw I had, and that I continue to have, as you know.

Imitate the Humility of Jesus

2 | •  ¹If I may advise you, in the name of Christ, and if you can hear it as the voice of love; if we share the same Spirit and are capable of mercy and compassion, then I beg of you, ²make me very happy: have one love, one spirit, one feeling, ³do nothing through rivalry or vain conceit. On the contrary, let each of you gently consider others more important than yourselves. ⁴Do not seek your own interest, but rather, that of others. ⁵Your attitude should be the same as Jesus Christ had:

⁶Though he was in the form of God,

he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,

⁷but emptied himself,

taking on the nature of a servant, made in human likeness,

and, in his appearance, found as a man,

⁸He humbled himself by being obedient to death,

death on the cross.

⁹That is why God exalted him

and gave him the name which outshines all names,

¹⁰so that, at the name of Jesus, all knees should bend

in heaven, on earth and among the dead,

¹¹and all tongues proclaim that Christ Jesus is the Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

•  ¹²Therefore, my dearest friends, as you always obeyed me while I was with you, even more now that I am far from you, continue working out your salvation “with fear and trembling.” ¹³It is God who makes you not only wish but also carry out what pleases him. ¹⁴Do everything without grumbling, ¹⁵so that without fault or blame, you will be children of God without reproach, among a crooked and perverse generation. You are a light among them, like stars in the universe ¹⁶holding to the word of life. I shall feel proud of you on the day of Christ, on seeing that my effort and labor have not been in vain. ¹⁷And if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice, and the offering of your faith, I rejoice and continue to share your joy; ¹⁸and you, likewise, should rejoice and share my joy.

Paul’s Messengers

•  ¹⁹The Lord Jesus lets me hope that I may soon send you Timothy and have news of you. With this, I will feel encouraged. ²⁰For I have no one so concerned for you as he is. ²¹Most follow their own interest, not those of Christ Jesus. ²²But Timothy has proved himself, as you know. Like a son at his father's side, he has been with me at the service of the gospel. ²³Because of that, I hope to send him to you as soon as I see how things work out for me. ²⁴Nevertheless, the Lord lets me think that I, myself, shall be coming soon.

²⁵I judged it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, who worked and fought at my side and whom you sent to help me in my great need. ²⁶In fact, he missed you very much and was still more worried because you had heard of his sickness. ²⁷He was, indeed, sick and almost died, but God took pity on him and on me, sparing me greater sorrow. ²⁸And so, I am eager to send him to you so that, on seeing him, you will be glad, and I will be at peace. ²⁹Receive him with joy as is fitting in the Lord. Consider highly persons like him ³⁰who almost died for the work of Christ; he risked his life to serve me, on your behalf, when you could not help me.

Do Not Turn Back to the Jewish Law

3 | ¹Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

•  It is not a burden for me to write the same things again, and for you, it is safer. ²Beware of the dogs, beware of the bad workers; beware of the circumcised. ³We are the true circumcised people since we serve according to the Spirit of God, and our confidence is in Christ Jesus rather than on our merits.

⁴I, myself, do not lack those human qualities in which people have confidence. If some of them seem to be accredited with such qualities, how much more am I! ⁵I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I was born of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; I am a Hebrew, born of Hebrews. With regard to the law, I am a Pharisee, ⁶and such was my zeal for the law that I persecuted the Church. As for being righteous according to the law, I was blameless.

⁷But once I found Christ, all those things that I might have considered as profit, I reckoned as a loss. ⁸Still more, everything seems to me as nothing compared with the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have let everything fall away, and I now consider all as garbage if, instead, I may gain Christ. ⁹May I be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but with the righteousness God gives to those who believe.

¹⁰May I know him and experience the power of his resurrection, share in his sufferings, become like him in his death^,and attain, through this, God willing, the resurrection from the dead!

¹²I do not believe I have already reached the goal, nor do I consider myself perfect, but I press on till I conquer Christ Jesus, as I have already been conquered by him. ¹³No, brothers and sisters, I do not claim to have claimed the prize yet. I say only this: forgetting what is behind me, I race forward and run toward the goal, ¹⁴my eyes on the prize to which God has called us from above in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Let all of us who claim to be perfect have the same way of thinking, but if there is something on which you differ, God will make it clear to you. ¹⁶Meanwhile, let us go forward from the point we have each attained.

¹⁷Unite in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and look at those who walk in our way of life. ¹⁸For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. I have said it to you many times, and now I repeat it with tears: ¹⁹They are heading for ruin; their belly is their god, and they feel proud of what should be their shame. They only think of earthly things.

²⁰For us, our citizenship is in heaven, from where we await the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord. ²¹He will transfigure our lowly body, making it like his own body radiant in glory, through the power, which is his to submit everything to himself.

Agree with One Another and Be Happy

4 | •  ¹Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, you, my glory and crown, be steadfast in the Lord. ²I beg Evodia and Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. ³And you, Sycygus, my true companion, I beg you to help them. Do not forget that they have labored with me in the service of the gospel, together with Clement and my other fellow workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again: rejoice, ⁵and may everyone experience your gentle and understanding heart. The Lord is near, ⁶do not be anxious about anything. In everything, resort to prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, and bring your requests before God. ⁷Then, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with whatever is truthful, holy, just, pure, lovely and noble. Be mindful of whatever deserves praise and admiration. ⁹Put into practice what you have learned from me, what I passed on to you, what you heard from me or saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul’s Thankfulness

•  ¹⁰I rejoice in the Lord because of your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me before but had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹I do not say this because of being in want; I have learned to manage with what I have. ¹²I know what it is to be in want and what it is to have plenty. I am trained for both: to be hungry or satisfied, to have much or little. ¹³I can do everything in him who strengthens me.

¹⁴However, you did right in sharing my trials. ¹⁵You Philippians, remember that in the beginning, when we first preached the gospel after I left Macedonia, you alone opened for me a debit and credit account, ¹⁶and when I was in Thessalonica, twice you sent me what I needed.

¹⁷It is not your gift that I value, but rather the interest increasing in your own account. ¹⁸Now I have enough and more than enough, with everything Epaphroditus brought me on your behalf and I received as “fragrant offerings pleasing to God.” ¹⁹God himself will provide you with everything you need according to his riches and show you his generosity in Christ Jesus. ²⁰Glory to God, our Father, forever and ever: Amen.

²¹Greet all who believe in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters with me greet you. ²²All the believers here greet you, especially those from Caesar’s household. ²³The grace of Christ Jesus the Lord, be with your spirit.