The Aaron Papers  www.the-aaron-papers.net 

  Philippians

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, ⁴always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, ⁵for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now; ⁶being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ:

⁷even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. ⁸For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.

⁹And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; ¹⁰so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ; ¹¹being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

¹²Now I would have you know, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel; ¹³so that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole praetorian guard, and to all the rest; ¹⁴and that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear. ¹⁵Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: ¹⁶the one does it of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel; ¹⁷but the other proclaim Christ of faction, not sincerely, thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. ¹⁸What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. ¹⁹For I know that this shall turn out to my salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, ²⁰according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death.

²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²²But if to live in the flesh, --if this shall bring fruit from my work, then what I shall choose I know not. ²³But I am in a strait between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better: ²⁴yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake. ²⁵And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide, yes, and abide with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith; ²⁶that your glorying may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence with you again.

²⁷Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ: that, whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel; ²⁸and in nothing frightened by the adversaries: which is for them an evident token of perdition, but of your salvation, and that from God; ²⁹because to you it has been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf: ³⁰having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

2 If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, ²make full my joy, that you be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; ³doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting others better than himself; ⁴not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. ⁵Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; ⁸and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yes, the death of the cross. ⁹Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; ¹⁰that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, ¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who works in you both to will and to do, for his good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and questionings: ¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, ¹⁶holding 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. ¹⁷Yes, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all: ¹⁸and in the same manner do you also joy, and rejoice with me. ¹⁹But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. ²⁰For I have no man likeminded, who will care truly for your state. ²¹For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. ²²But you know the proof of him, that, as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the gospel. ²³Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me: ²⁴but I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall come shortly. ²⁵But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need; ²⁶since he longed after you all, and was sore troubled, because you had heard that he was sick: ²⁷for indeed he was sick near unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow. ²⁸I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. ²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy; and hold such in honor: ³⁰because for the work of Christ he came near unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

3 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe. ²Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision: ³for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh:

⁴though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more: ⁵circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. ⁷Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. ⁸Yes truly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith: ¹⁰that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; ¹¹if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. ¹³Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you: ¹⁶only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk.

¹⁷Brethren, be you imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as you have us for an example. ¹⁸For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: ¹⁹whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. ²⁰For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: ²¹who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.

4 Wherefore, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved. ²I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³Yes, I beg you also, true yokefellows, help these women, for they labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life. ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. ⁶In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. ⁷And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. ⁹The things which you both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

¹⁰But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your thought for me; wherein you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity. ¹¹Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content. ¹²I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound: in everything and in all things have I learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want. ¹³I can do all things in him that strengthens me. ¹⁴Howbeit you did well that you had fellowship with my affliction. ¹⁵And you yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only; ¹⁶for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my need. ¹⁷Not that I seek for the gift; but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account. ¹⁸But I have all things, and abound: I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. ¹⁹And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

²⁰Now unto our God and Father be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. ²¹Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren that are with me salute you. ²²All the saints salute you, especially they that are of Caesar’s household. ²³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. (Amen)