For of this I am confident, that He who has begun a good work within you will go on to perfect it in preparation for the day of Jesus Christ.

And it is my prayer that your love may be more and more accompanied by clear knowledge and keen perception, for testing things that differ,

so that you may be men of transparent character, and may be blameless, in preparation for the day of Christ,

Now I would have you know, brethren, that what I have gone through has turned out to the furtherance of the Good News rather than otherwise.

And thus it has become notorious among all the Imperial Guards, and everywhere, that it is for the sake of Christ that I am a prisoner;

These latter preach Him from love to me, knowing that I am here for the defence of the Good News;

while the others proclaim Him from motives of rivalry, and insincerely, supposing that by this they are embittering my imprisonment.

What does it matter, however? In any case Christ is preached--either perversely or in honest truth; and in that I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

For I know that it will result in my salvation through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

in fulfilment of my eager expectation and hope that I shall never have reason to feel ashamed, but that by my perfect freedom of speech Christ will be glorified in me, now as always, either by my life or by my death.

But since to live means a longer stay on earth, that implies more labour for me--and not unsuccessful labour; and which I am to choose I cannot tell.

I am in a dilemma, my earnest desire being to depart and be with Christ, for that is far, far better.

But for your sakes it is more important that I should still remain in the body.

I am convinced of this, and I know that I shall remain, and shall go on working side by side with you all, to promote your progress and joy in the faith;

so that, as Christians, you may have additional reason for glorying about me as the result of my being with you again.

Only let the lives you live be worthy of the Good News of the Christ, in order that, whether I come and see you or, being absent, only hear of you, I may know that you are standing fast in one spirit and with one mind, fighting shoulder to shoulder for the faith of the Good News.

maintaining, as you do, the same kind of conflict that you once saw in me and which you still hear that I am engaged in.

It is in consequence of this that God has also so highly exalted Him, and has conferred on Him the Name which is supreme above every other,

in order that in the Name of JESUS every knee should bow, of beings in Heaven, of those on the earth, and of those in the underworld,

and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.

so that you may always prove yourselves to be blameless and spotless--irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as heavenly lights in the world,

holding out to them a Message of Life. It will then be my glory on the day of Christ that I did not run my race in vain nor toil in vain.

But, if the Lord permits it, I hope before long to send Timothy to you, that I, in turn, may be cheered by getting news of you.

So it is he that I hope to send as soon as ever I see how things go with me;

but trusting, as I do, in the Lord, I believe that I shall myself also come to you before long.

For it is true that he has been ill, and was apparently at the point of death; but God had pity on him, and not only on him, but also on me, to save me from having sorrow upon sorrow.

I am therefore all the more eager to send him, in the hope that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have the less sorrow.

because it was for the sake of Christ's work that he came so near death, hazarding, as he did, his very life in endeavouring to make good any deficiency that there might be in your gifts to me.

Yet all that was gain to me--for Christ's sake I have reckoned it loss.

Nay, I even reckon all things as pure loss because of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And for His sake I have suffered the loss of everything, and reckon it all as mere refuse, in order that I may win Christ and be found in union with Him,

not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the Law, but that which arises from faith in Christ--the righteousness which comes from God through faith.

in the hope that I may attain to the resurrection from among the dead.

I do not say that I have already won the race or have already reached perfection. But I am pressing on, striving to lay hold of the prize for which also Christ has laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not imagine that I have yet laid hold of it. But this one thing I do--forgetting everything which is past and stretching forward to what lies in front of me,

Therefore let all of us who are mature believers cherish these thoughts; and if in any respect you think differently, that also God will make clear to you.

But whatever be the point that we have already reached, let us persevere in the same course.

But I rejoice with a deep and holy joy that now at length you have revived your thoughtfulness for my welfare. Indeed you have always been thoughtful for me, although opportunity failed you.

And you men and women of Philippi also know that at the first preaching of the Good News, when I had left Macedonia, no other Church except yourselves held communication with me about giving and receiving;

Not that I crave for gifts from you, but I do want to see abundant fruit bring you honour.

I have enough of everything--and more than enough. My wants are fully satisfied now that I have received from the hands of Epaphroditus the generous gifts which you sent me--they are a fragrant odor, an acceptable sacrifice, truly pleasing to God.