having been confident of this very thing, that He who did begin in you a good work, will perform it till a day of Jesus Christ,

You should think about things the way Christ Jesus did.

who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God;

but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,

wherefore, also, God did highly exalt him, and gave to him a name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus both angels and men, the living and the dead, should pay their adorations,

For it is God which worketh in you both the will and also the deed, even of good will.

holding forth the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain.

and the proof of him ye know, that as a child serveth a father, with me he did serve in regard to the good news;

for he also ailed nigh to death, but God did deal kindly with him, and not with him only, but also with me, that sorrow upon sorrow I might not have.

The more eagerly, therefore, I did send him, that having seen him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful;

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.

Watch out for the "dogs!" [Note: "Dogs" were viewed with disgust by the ancient Jews (Deut. 23:18; II Kings 8:13; Rev. 22:15), so the term is used here derogatorily for Jewish Christians who were trying to impose on the church the requirements of the law of Moses]. Watch out for the evil workers! Watch out for those who mutilate the body meaninglessly! [Note: Paul here alludes, in a derogatory wordplay, to the Jewish practice of circumcision].

That I may have knowledge of him, and of the power of his coming back from the dead, and a part with him in his pains, becoming like him in his death;

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Not that I did already obtain, or have been already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by the Christ Jesus;

and I ask also thee, genuine yoke-fellow, be assisting those women who in the good news did strive along with me, with Clement also, and the others, my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

the things that also ye did learn, and receive, and hear, and saw in me, those do, and the God of the peace shall be with you.

But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length ye have revived your thought for me; wherein ye did indeed take thought, but ye lacked opportunity.

not that in respect of want I say it, for I did learn in the things in which I am -- to be content;

Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.

and ye have known, even ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the good news when I went forth from Macedonia, no assembly did communicate with me in regard to giving and receiving except ye only;