Every recollection that I have of you is a cause of thankfulness to God,

Always, in every prayer that I offer for you all--my prayers are full of joy--

Because of the share that you have had in spreading the Good News, from the first day that you received it until now.

For of this I am confident, that he who began a good work in you will complete it in readiness for the Day of Jesus Christ.

And what I pray for is this--that your love may grow yet stronger and stronger, with increasing knowledge and all discernment,

Until you are able to appreciate all moral distinctions. And I pray, too, that you may be kept pure and blameless against the Day of Christ,

Bearing a rich harvest of that righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Brothers, I want you to realize that what has happened to me has actually served to forward the Good News.

It has even become evident, not only to all the Imperial Guard, but to every one else, that it is for Christ's sake that I am in chains.

It is true that some do proclaim the Christ out of Jealousy and opposition; but there are others who proclaim him from good- will.

The latter do it from love for me, knowing that I have been appointed to plead the cause of the Good News.

But what of that? Only that in some way or other, either with assumed or with real earnestness, Christ is being made known; and at that I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that, through your prayers and through a rich supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 'all this will make for my Salvation.'

And this will fulfil my earnest expectation and hope that I shall have no cause for shame, but that, with unfailing courage, now as hitherto, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by my life or by my death,

But, for your sakes, it may be more needful that I should still remain here in the body.

Yes, I am confident that this is so, and therefore I am sure that I shall stay, and stay near you all, to promote your progress and joy in the Faith;

So that, when you once more have me among you, you, in your union with Christ Jesus, may find in me fresh cause for exultation.

Under all circumstances let your lives be worthy of the Good News of the Christ: so that, whether I come and see you, or whether I hear of your affairs at a distance, I may know that you are standing firm, animated by one spirit, and joining with one heart in a common struggle for the Faith taught by the Good News,

You will be engaged in the same hard struggle as that which you once saw me waging, and which you hear that I am waging still.

And that is why God raised him to the very highest place, and gave him the Name which stands above all other names,

So that in adoration of the Name of Jesus every knee should bend, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth,

And that every tongue should acknowledge JESUS CHRIST as LORD- -to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient in the past, so now work out your own Salvation with anxious care, not only when I am with you, but all the more now that I am absent.

In all that you do, avoid murmuring and dissension,

Offering to men the Message of Life; and then I shall be able at the Day of Christ to boast that I did not run my course for nothing, or toil for nothing.

I hope, however, as one who trusts in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you before long, so that I may myself be cheered by receiving news of you.

And I am confident, as one who trusts in the Lord Jesus, that before long I myself shall follow.

And I can assure you that his illness very nearly proved fatal. But God had pity on him, and not on him only but also on me, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.

I am all the more ready, therefore, to send him, so that the sight of him may revive your spirits and my own sorrow be lightened.

For it was owing to his devotion to the Master's work that he was at the point of death, having risked his own life in the effort to supply what was wanting in the help that you sent me.

More than that, I count everything as loss, for the sake of the exceeding value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And for his sake I have lost everything, and count it as refuse, if I may but gain Christ and be found in union with him;

Any righteousness that I have being, not the righteousness that results from Law, but the righteousness which comes through faith in Christ--the righteousness which is derived from God and is founded on faith.

Then indeed I shall know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and all that it means to share his sufferings,

In the hope that, if I become like him in death, I may possibly attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already laid hold of it, or that I am already made perfect. But I press on, in the hope of actually laying hold of that for which indeed I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

For I, Brothers, do not regard myself as having yet laid hold of it. But this one thing I do--forgetting what lies behind, and straining every nerve for that which lies in front,

I press on to the goal, to gain the prize of that heavenward Call which God gave me through Christ Jesus.

Let all of us, then, whose faith is mature, think thus. Then, if on any matter you think otherwise, God will make that also plain to you.

But the State of which we are citizens is in Heaven; and it is from Heaven that we are eagerly looking for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Who, by the exercise of his power to bring everything into subjection to himself, will make this body that we have in our humiliation like to that body which he has in his Glory.

Yes, and I ask you, my true comrade, to help them, remembering that they toiled by my side in spreading the Good News; and so, too, did Clement and my other fellow-workers, whose names are 'in the Book of Life.'

All that you learned and received and heard and saw in me put into practice continually; and then God, the giver of peace, will be with you.

It was a matter of great joy to me, as one in union with the Lord, that at length your interest in me had revived. The interest indeed you had, but not the opportunity.

Do not think that I am saying this under the pressure of want. For I, however I am placed, have learned to be independent of circumstances.

And you at Philippi know, as well as I, that in the early days of the Good News--at the time when I had just left Macedonia--no Church, with the one exception of yourselves, had anything to do with me as far as giving and receiving are concerned.

It is not that I am anxious for your gifts, but I am anxious to see the abundant return that will be placed to your account. I have enough of everything, and to spare.

My wants are fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts which you sent me--the sweet fragrance of a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.