I am convinced of this, that the one who began a good action among you will bring it to completion by the Day of the Messiah Jesus.

For God is my witness how much I long for all of you with the compassion that the Messiah Jesus provides.

And this is my prayer, that your love will keep on growing more and more with full knowledge and insight,

so that you may be able to choose what is best and be pure and blameless until the day when the Messiah returns,

having been filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus the Messiah so that God will be glorified and praised.

Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually caused the gospel to advance.

As a result, it has become clear to the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that I am in prison for preaching about the Messiah.

The latter are motivated by love, because they know that I have been appointed to defend the gospel.

The former proclaim the Messiah because they are selfishly ambitious and insincere, thinking that they will stir up trouble for me during my imprisonment.

But so what? Just this that in every way, whether by false or true motives, the Messiah is being proclaimed. Because of this, I rejoice and will continue to rejoice.

I know that this will result in my deliverance through your prayers and the help that comes from the Spirit of Jesus the Messiah.

I rejoice because I eagerly expect and hope that I will have nothing to be ashamed of, because through my boldness the Messiah will be exalted through me, now as always, whether I live or die.

Indeed, I cannot decide between the two. I have the desire to leave this life and be with the Messiah, for that is far better.

But for your sake it is better that I remain alive.

Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will continue to live and be with all of you, so you will mature in the faith and know joy in it.

The only thing that matters is that you continue to live as good citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel of the Messiah. Then, whether I come to see you or whether I stay away, I may hear all about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, struggling with one mind for the faith of the gospel,

and that you are not intimidated by your opponents in any way. This is evidence that they will be destroyed and that you will be saved and all because of God.

You have the same struggle that you saw in me and now hear that I am still having.

Have the same attitude among yourselves that was also in the Messiah Jesus:

Then every tongue in one accord, will say that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, while God the Father praising.

And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

so that you may be blameless and innocent, God's children without any faults among a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world

as you hold firmly to the word of life. Then I will be proud when the Messiah returns that I did not run in vain or work hard in vain.

Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I can be encouraged when I learn of your condition.

Indeed, I am confident in the Lord that I will come to visit you soon.

For he has been longing for all of you and is troubled because you heard that he was sick.

Indeed, he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow on top of another.

Therefore, I am especially eager to send him so that you may have the joy of seeing him again, and so that I may feel relieved.

What is more, I continue to consider all these things to be a loss for the sake of what is far more valuable, knowing the Messiah Jesus, my Lord. It is because of him that I have experienced the loss of all those things. Indeed, I consider them rubbish in order to gain the Messiah

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but one that comes through the faithfulness of the Messiah, the righteousness that comes from God and that depends on faith.

It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah Jesus.

For I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of the Messiah.

Our citizenship, however, is in heaven, and it is from there that we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

He will change our unassuming bodies and make them like his glorious body through the power that enables him to bring everything under his authority.

You Philippians also know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church participated with me in the matter of giving and receiving except for you.

It is not that I am looking for a gift. No, I want to see that you receive the fruit that increases to your benefit.

I have been paid in full and have more than enough. I am fully supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus what you sent a fragrant aroma, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.