CHAP. I.

PAUL and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: ²grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³I give thanks to my God on every remembrance of you, ⁴always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy, ⁵for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day even until now; ⁶being confident of this very thing, that he who hath wrought in you the good work will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ: ⁷as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I bear you on my heart, both in my bonds and in my defence and the confirmation of the gospel, as being all of you sharers in my grace. ⁸For God is my witness, how earnestly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. ⁹And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all understanding; ¹⁰that ye may prove the things that are excellent, in order that ye may be sincere and without offence unto the day of Christ; ¹¹filled with fruits of righteousness, which by Jesus Christ are to the glory and praise of God.

¹²Now I wish you, brethren, to know, that the things which have befallen me have rather conduced to the progress of the gospel; ¹³so that my bonds are manifest in Christ through the whole palace, and all other places; ¹⁴and very many of our brethren in the Lord, assuming confidence from my chains, are more abundantly bold, fearlessly to preach the word. ¹⁵Some indeed do it in a spirit of envy and strife; but some also preach Christ with cordial good-will: ¹⁶the one indeed preach Christ out of contention, not with purity of intention, thinking to add affliction to my bonds: ¹⁷but the others of love, knowing that I am exposed for the defence of the gospel. ¹⁸What then? if Christ is preached in whatever manner it be, whether in pretext or reality, even in this do I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. ¹⁹For I know that this shall issue in my salvation through your prayers, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, ²⁰according to my firm expectation and hope, that I shall be confounded by no event, but that with all boldness, as always hitherto, Christ shall now also be magnified in my body, whether by my life or death. ²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²²But if it be his will, that I should live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my travail: and what to chuse I know not. ²³For I am in a strait between the two, having an earnest longing to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, for this is far, far better: ²⁴but to abide in the flesh may be more necessary for you. ²⁵And being so persuaded, I know that I shall stay and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith; ²⁶that your glorying may abound in Christ Jesus for me by my coming again unto you.

²⁷Only conduct yourselves worthily as becometh the gospel of Christ; that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul wrestling together in the faith of the gospel; ²⁸and not dismayed on any occasion by your adversaries; which is indeed the proof of perdition to them, but of salvation to you, and that from God. ²⁹For this favour on the part of Christ is granted you, not only that ye should believe on him, but also that ye should suffer for his sake; ³⁰experiencing the same conflict which ye have seen in me, and now hear to be in me.

[CHAP. II.]

IF there be then any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any communion of spirit, if any bowels and compassions, ²fulfil ye my joy, that ye may be united in sentiment, having the same love, of one soul, of one mind. ³Let nothing be done contentiously or vain-gloriously; but in humility reckoning others superior to yourselves. ⁴Let not each aim at their own particular interests, but every man at those of others.

⁵Let the same sentiment of mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶who being in the form of God counted it no usurpation to claim equality with God: ⁷but emptied himself, assuming the form of a servant, made after the similitude of mortal men; ⁸and found in fashion as man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to the death of the cross. ⁹Wherefore God also hath transcendently exalted him, and bestowed on him a name which is above every name: ¹⁰that to the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings celestial and terrestrial, and infernal; ¹¹and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is Messiah, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always been obedient, not only during my presence with you, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your own salvation. ¹³For it is God who worketh effectually in you both to will and to perform of his good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without murmurings or disputes: ¹⁵that ye may be blameless and harmless, the children of God, inoffensive, in the midst of an untoward and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as luminaries in the world; ¹⁶holding up the word of life, that I may glory in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, nor laboured in vain. ¹⁷Yea, and should I become the victim, in the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸In like manner do ye also joy and rejoice with me.

¹⁹But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be refreshed in spirit, when I know your affairs. ²⁰For I have no one like minded with him, who will genuinely care for your affairs. ²¹For all seek their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. ²²But ye have known the trial of him, that, as a son with a father, he hath served with me in the gospel. ²³Him therefore I hope to send immediately as soon as I see clearly what will become of me. ²⁴But I have confidence in the Lord that I myself shall come shortly. ²⁵But I have thought it necessary to send unto you Epaphroditus, my brother, and fellow-labourer, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and the minister who supplied my want. ²⁶For indeed he greatly longed after you all, and was very sorry that ye had heard that he had been sick. ²⁷For sick indeed he was, nigh 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 seeing him once more ye may rejoice, and I be less sorrowful. ²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and honourably treat those that are such: ³⁰for in the work of Christ he was nigh unto death indifferent about life, that he might afford me that service which it was not in your power to render me.

[CHAP. III.]

MOREOVER, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but is safe for you. ²Beware of dogs, beware of the malicious labourers, beware of the concision. ³For we are the circumcision, who serve God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. ⁴Though I too might have confidence in the flesh; if any other man thinks that he may have confidence in the flesh, I may claim more: ⁵circumcised the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; ⁶respecting the law, a Pharisee; with regard to zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is by the law, blameless. ⁷But what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. ⁸Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the transcendently excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as offals of ordure, that I may gain Christ, ⁹and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is by the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: ¹⁰that I may know him, and the virtue of his resurrection, and communion with his sufferings, being conformed to his death; ¹¹if haply I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead. ¹²Not that I have already attained, or am now perfect: but I pursue, that I may overtake that for which also by his apprehension of me I am destined by Christ Jesus.

¹³Brethren, I count not myself to have overtaken it; but this one object I pursue, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching out to those which are before, ¹⁴I press towards the mark for the prize of the divine calling from on high in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Let as many of us therefore as are perfect, be thus minded: and if ye entertain any other sentiment, God also will unveil this unto you. ¹⁶Nevertheless, so far as we have advanced, be it our care to walk by the same rule, to mind the same thing.

¹⁷Be ye imitators, brethren, of me, and eye attentively those who walk so as ye have us for an example. ¹⁸For many walk, whom I have often mentioned to you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: ¹⁹whose end is perdition, whose God is their belly, and their glory in their shame, whose minds are occupied with earthly things. ²⁰But our conversation is in heaven as its citizens, from whence also we are expecting the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who shall transform our body of humiliation, that it may be conformed to his body of glory, according to the effectual working of him who is able to subdue even all things to himself.

[CHAP. IV.]

WHEREFORE, my brethren, beloved, and very dear to me, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, O beloved.

²I beseech Euodias, and I beseech Syntiche to be of one mind in the Lord. ³And I beseech thee also, my genuine associate, assist those women who laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and my other fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice.

⁵Let your moderation be known unto all men.

The Lord is at hand. ⁶Be not anxious about any thing, but in every case by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known unto God. ⁷And the peace of God which surpasseth all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are serious, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are amiable, whatsoever things are laudable, if there be any virtue, or any thing praise-worthy, pay attention to these things. ⁹Whatsoever things also ye have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, these practise, and the God of peace shall be with you.

¹⁰Now I rejoiced greatly in the Lord, that now once more your thoughtful attention about me hath again sprung up, to which also your mind had been disposed, but ye had not found the opportunity. ¹¹Not that I mention this with a view to my indigence: for I have learned in whatever circumstances I am, to be content. ¹²I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in every state and in all situations I am instructed either to be full or famishing, either to enjoy abundance, or to suffer want: ¹³I am enabled for all things by Christ who strengtheneth me. ¹⁴Nevertheless ye have done nobly in your communications to me during my affliction.

¹⁵But know also, Philippians, that at my first preaching the gospel, when I went from Macedonia, no church communicated to me in the way of giving and receiving but ye alone. ¹⁶For in Thessalonica also ye sent me once, yea twice, a supply for my want. ¹⁷Not that I am anxious for a gift; but I am anxious to see fruit abounding on your account. ¹⁸But I have now all things, and abound: I am full, having received from Epaphroditus your bounty, an odour of sweet smell, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. ¹⁹But my God will fully supply all your want, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus. ²⁰Now to God, even our Father, be 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, specially those who are of Cæsar’s household.

²³The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Unto the Philippians, written from Rome by Epaphroditus.

[THE]

EPISTLE of PAUL the APOSTLE,

TO THE

COLOSSIANS.