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Philippians 1

¹From Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus--- To all God's people in Philippi who are in union with Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and helpers:

²May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

³I thank my God for you every time I think of you;

⁴and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy

⁵because of the way in which you have helped me in the work of the gospel from the very first day until now.

⁶And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.

⁷You are always in my heart! And so it is only right for me to feel as I do about you. For you have all shared with me in this privilege that God has given me, both now that I am in prison and also while I was free to defend the gospel and establish it firmly.

⁸God is my witness that I tell the truth when I say that my deep feeling for you all comes from the heart of Christ Jesus himself.

⁹I pray that your love will keep on growing more and more, together with true knowledge and perfect judgment,

¹⁰so that you will be able to choose what is best. Then you will be free from all impurity and blame on the Day of Christ.

¹¹Your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus Christ can produce, for the glory and praise of God.

¹²I want you to know, my friends, that the things that have happened to me have really helped the progress of the gospel.

¹³As a result, the whole palace guard and all the others here know that I am in prison because I am a servant of Christ.

¹⁴And my being in prison has given most of the believers more confidence in the Lord, so that they grow bolder all the time to preach the message fearlessly.

¹⁵Of course some of them preach Christ because they are jealous and quarrelsome, but others from genuine good will.

¹⁶These do so from love, because they know that God has given me the work of defending the gospel.

¹⁷The others do not proclaim Christ sincerely, but from a spirit of selfish ambition; they think that they will make more trouble for me while I am in prison.

¹⁸It does not matter! I am happy about it---just so Christ is preached in every way possible, whether from wrong or right motives. And I will continue to be happy,

¹⁹because I know that by means of your prayers and the help which comes from the Spirit of Jesus Christ I shall be set free.

²⁰My deep desire and hope is that I shall never fail in my duty, but that at all times, and especially right now, I shall be full of courage, so that with my whole being I shall bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die.

²¹For what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more.

²²But if by continuing to live I can do more worthwhile work, then I am not sure which I should choose.

²³I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing;

²⁴but for your sake it is much more important that I remain alive.

²⁵I am sure of this, and so I know that I will stay. I will stay on with you all, to add to your progress and joy in the faith,

²⁶so that when I am with you again, you will have even more reason to be proud of me in your life in union with Christ Jesus.

²⁷Now, the important thing is that your way of life should be as the gospel of Christ requires, so that, whether or not I am able to go and see you, I will hear that you are standing firm with one common purpose and that with only one desire you are fighting together for the faith of the gospel.

²⁸Don't be afraid of your enemies; always be courageous, and this will prove to them that they will lose and that you will win, because it is God who gives you the victory.

²⁹For you have been given the privilege of serving Christ, not only by believing in him, but also by suffering for him.

³⁰Now you can take part with me in the battle. It is the same battle you saw me fighting in the past, and as you hear, the one I am fighting still.