For I am certain that he who has begun the good work in you will finish it for the Day of Jesus Christ.

And I have a right to feel in this way about you all, because both when I am in prison and when I am defending and vindicating our right to preach the good news, I have you in my heart as all sharing that privilege with me.

And it is my prayer that your love may grow richer and richer in knowledge and perfect insight,

so that you may have a sense of what is vital, and may be men of transparent character and blameless life, in preparation for the Day of Christ,

Now I want to assure you, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually resulted in furthering the preaching of the good news.

Thus it is generally known throughout the Imperial Guard and elsewhere that it is for the sake of Christ that I am in prison,

These latter do it from love for me, for they know that God has put me where I am to defend our right to preach the good news.

But the others are preaching the Christ not sincerely but for their own ends, imagining that they are making my imprisonment harder to bear.

But what difference does it make? All that matters is that, in one way or another, from false motives or honest ones, Christ is being made known; I am glad of that. Yes, and I expect to be glad,

for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, all this will turn out for my highest welfare,

for I eagerly and confidently hope that I shall never disgrace myself but that this time as always hitherto, living or dying, I shall do Christ credit by my unfailing courage.

I am undecided between the two, for I long to depart and be with Christ, for that is far, far better,

I am convinced of this, and so I know that I shall stay on and serve you all, to help you to develop and to be glad in your faith.

Whatever happens, show yourselves citizens worthy of the good news of the Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am kept away and only hear news of you, I may know that you are standing firm with one spirit, one purpose, fighting side by side for faith in the good news.

Take your part in the same struggle that you have seen me engage in and that you hear I am still keeping up.

Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

That is why God has so greatly exalted him, and given him the name above all others,

so that in the name of Jesus everyone should kneel, in heaven and on earth and in the underworld,

so that you will be blameless and honest, faultless children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted age, in which you appear like stars in a dark world,

I hope, with the help of the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I, too, may be cheered by having news about you.

But I feel that I must send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-laborer, and fellow-soldier, whom you sent to look after my needs.

For he has been longing to see you all, and has been greatly distressed because you heard that he was sick.

So I am all the more eager to send him, so that you may have the pleasure of seeing him again, and I may feel more relieved.

and be known to be united to him, with any uprightness I may have not based on law but coming through faith in Christ??he uprightness that comes from God through faith.

Not that I have secured it yet, or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have captured it yet, only, forgetting what is behind me, and straining toward what lies ahead,

Now, brothers, let your minds dwell on what is true, what is worthy, what is right, what is pure, what is amiable, what is kindly??n everything that is excellent or praiseworthy.

Do the things that you learned, received, and heard from me, and that you saw me do. Then God who gives peace will be with you.

Not that I have anything to complain of, for I have learned how to be contented with the condition I am in.

And you at Philippi know as well as I do, that in the early days of the good news, after I left Macedonia, no church but yours went into partnership and opened an account with me.

Not that I want your gifts, but I want you to have the profits that will accumulate to your credit.