Montgomery - Philippians

Chapter 1

1:1  Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, and to the elders and deacons.

1:2  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1:3  Upon every remembrance of you I am ever thanking my God for you all;

1:4  in every petition of mine in your behalf I am offering my prayer with joy for your fellowship in forwarding the gospel,

1:5  from the first day you heard it until now.

1:6  Of this I am fully persuaded, that He who has begun a good work in you will go on completing it until the day of Jesus Christ.

1:7  It is but just that I should be thus mindful of you all, because I have you in my heart, and because in these fetters of mine and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel you are all my fellow partners in the privilege.

1:8  God is my witness how I yearn for you all in the tenderness of Christ Jesus.

1:9  And it is my prayer that your love may abound yet more and more in intelligence and insight

1:10  for testing things that differ, so that you may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

1:11  being filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

1:12  I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has turned out rather to help than to the hindrance of the gospel.

1:13  Throughout the whole Praetorian guard and among all the others it has become plain that these chains of mine are for the sake of Christ;

1:14  and most of the brothers in the Lord, made confident in the Lord through my imprisonment, are much emboldened to speak God’s message with free and fearless confidence.

1:15  Some indeed are preaching Christ out of envy and contentiousness, but others from good-will.

1:16  but the former preach Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, because they think they are adding bitterness to my bonds.

1:17  These latter out of their love, because they know that I am set here for the defense of the gospel;

1:18  What of it? In any case, whether in pretence or in honest truth, Christ is still preached, and in that I am rejoicing, yes, and will rejoice.

1:19  For I know that these things will turn out to my salvation through your prayers and a rich supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

1:20  So it is my keen expectation and hope that I shall never feel ashamed, but that with fearless courage, now as hither to, Christ may be magnified in my body, whether by my life or by my death.

1:21  For, with me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

1:22  But now, if life in the flesh, if this be the fruit of my toil - what to choose I do not know,

1:23  but am in a quandary between the two. I am perplexed. I have a strong desire to break camp and to be with Christ, which is far better;

1:24  but for your sakes it is more necessary that I should still live on in the body.

1:25  And because I am convinced of this, I know that I shall live, and go on working side by side with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,

1:26  so that you may find me fresh cause of exultation in Christ Jesus, because of my presence among you once more.

1:27  Only do lead lives worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come to see you or hear reports concerning you in my absence, I may know that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one soul, enlisted in a common struggle for the faith of the gospel,

1:28  and in no way terrorized by its enemies. For you fearlessness is a clear indication of coming ruin for them, but of salvation for you at the hands of God.

1:29  For it has been granted you in Christ’s behalf, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake,

1:30  while you wage the same conflict which you once saw in me, and now hear that I maintain.

Chapter 2

2:1  If then there is any comfort in Christ, if there is any persuasive power in love, if there is any companionship of the Spirit, if there is any tenderness or pity,

2:2  I entreat you to make my joy overflow by living in harmony; possessing the same love, and with one soul united in one purpose.

2:3  Do nothing out of strife, nothing out of vanity, but let each one in true humility consider the others to be of more account than himself.

2:4  Let each have an eye not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

2:5  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

2:6  who, though from the beginning he had the nature of God, did not reckon equality with God something to be forcibly retained,

2:7  but emptied himself of his glory by taking the form of a slave, when he was born in the likeness of men.

2:8  More than this, after he had shone himself in human form, he humbled himself in his obedience even to death; yes, and to death on a cross.

2:9  And for this God highly exalted him, and graciously bestowed upon him the name which is above every name;

2:10  that in the name of Jesus every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth should bend,

2:11  and every tongue confess that "Jesus Christ is Lord," to the glory of God the Father.

2:12  And so, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, with reverence and self- distrust work out your own salvation;

2:13  for it is God who, in his good-will is ever working in you both will and deed.

2:14  Do everything without grumbling and disputes,

2:15  that you may become blameless and innocent, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like stars in a dark world,

2:16  holding out a message of life. Thus it will be my boast at the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, or toiled for nothing.

2:17  Nay, even if my life is to be poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and service of you faith,

2:18  I will rejoice and congratulate you all; and in the same way you must rejoice and congratulate me.

2:19  Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you before long, so that I may be of good comfort when I learn the news concerning you.

2:20  For I have no other like him with a genuine concern for your welfare,

2:21  for they are all seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

2:22  And you know Timothy’s worth, how he has shared my servitude in furtherance of the gospel, like a son helping his father.

2:23  So I hope to send him, as soon as ever I see how it will go with me;

2:24  but I trust in the Lord that I also shall come shortly.

2:25  Epaphroditus, my brother and coworker and fellow soldier, who is your messenger and minister to my needs, I have thought it necessary to send to you;

2:26  for he has been homesick for you all, and distressed at your having heard of his illness.

2:27  And indeed he was sick nigh unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also so that I should not have sorrow upon sorrow.

2:28  Therefore I have been the more eager to send him, in order that you may rejoice in seeing him again, and that I may have one sorrow less.

2:29  Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold in honor men like him;

2:30  for it was through the work of the Lord that he came near to death; for he hazarded his very life to supply what was lacking in the help you sent me.

Chapter 3

3:1  Finally, my brothers, continue to rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing is not indeed wearisome to me, and it is safe for you.

3:2  Beware of "these dogs," these mischievous workers, beware of the concision!

3:3  For we are the true circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and make our boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in outward rites,

3:4  although I myself might have confidence in outward rites. If any one else claims a right to trust in them, far more may I;

3:5  circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew sprung from the Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;

3:6  as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which comes through law, blameless.

3:7  But what was once gain to me, that I have counted loss for Christ.

3:8  In very truth I count all things but loss compared to the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and esteem them but refuse that I may gain Christ,

3:9  and be found in him; not having my own righteousness of the Law, but that alone which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which comes from God, founded upon faith.

3:10  I long to know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, by sharing the likeness of his death;

3:11  if by any means I might attain to the resurrection from the dead!

3:12  I do not say that I have already won, or am already perfect, but I am passing on to lay hold on the prize for which also Christ has laid hold of me.

3:13  Brothers, I do not regard myself to have yet laid hold of it; but this one thing I do, forgetting what is behind me, but straining every nerve toward that which lies ahead,

3:14  I am ever pressing on toward the goal, for the prize of God’s heavenward call in Christ Jesus.

3:15  Let us all then, who are mature Christians, strive for this! God will make this clear to any of you who are striving for other goals;

3:16  if only we guide our steps by the standards we have already attained.

3:17  Brothers, be comrades in imitating me, and study those whose life and walk is according to the pattern I have set you.

3:18  For there are many - as I used often to tell you, and am now telling you even with tears - who live and walk as the enemies of the cross of Christ.

3:19  Their end is destruction, their belly is their god, their glory is in their shame, and their minds are set on earthly things.

3:20  But commonwealth is in heaven; and it is from heaven also that we are anxiously awaiting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,

3:21  who will change the fashion of the body of our abasement into the likeness of his glorious body by the energy with which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

Chapter 4

4:1  Stand fast then, brothers, dearly loved and longed for, my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved!

4:2  Euodia I entreat, and I entreat Syntyche, to be of the same mind of the Lord;

4:3  yes, and I beg you also, my true yokefellow, to help them; for these women shared my toil in the furtherance of the gospel, together with Clement, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again will I say, rejoice!

4:5  Let your reasonableness be recognized by every one. The Lord is near you.

4:6  Do not worry about anything; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

4:7  and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will stand guard over your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

4:8  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if virtue is anything, if honor is anything, be always thinking about these.

4:9  Put in practise also what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me; and the God of peace shall be with you.

4:10  Moreover, I greatly rejoiced in the Lord that now once more your care for me blossomed afresh; though indeed you did take thought in this matter, but you lacked the opportunity of expression.

4:11  Not that I speak as if I were in want, for at least have learned how to be content, whatever happens.

4:12  I know how to live humbly, and I also know how to bear prosperity. In every place and under all circumstances I have been initiated into the secret of fulness and of hunger, of prosperity and of want.

4:13  I am strong for everything in Him who gives me strength.

4:14  Notwithstanding, you have acted nobly in making yourselves comrades in my trouble.

4:15  And you very well know, Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I had left Macedonia, no church but yourselves had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving.

4:16  For even while I was still in Thessalonica, you sent once and again for my needs.

4:17  It is not your gifts I am eager for, but I am eager for the abundant profit that accrues to your divine account.

4:18  But I give you a receipt in full for all things abound. I am amply supplied with what you sent by Epaphroditus - an odor of sweet fragrance, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

4:19  All your own needs my God will fully supply, according to his riches in glory, in Christ Jesus.

4:20  Now unto our God and Father be the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

4:21  Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me salute you.

4:22  All the saints salute you, and especially the slaves of the Emperor’s household.

4:23  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.