BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibtrans/weymouth.exe/PHP.WNT

Text File | 1993-10-04 | 15KB | 291 lines

1:1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus: To all God's
 people in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with /1 the
 ministers of the Church and their assistants.
1:2 /2 May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father
 and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:3 I thank my God at /3 my every remembrance of you--
1:4 always when offering any prayer on behalf of you all,
 finding a joy in offering it.
1:5 I thank my God, I say, for your cooperation in spreading the
 Good News, from the time it first came to you even until now.
1:6 For of this I am confident, that He who has begun a good
 work within you will go on to perfect it in preparation for the
 day of Jesus Christ.
1:7 And I am justified in having this confidence about you all,
 because, both during my imprisonment and when I stand up in /4
 defence of the Good News or to confirm its truth, I have you in
 my heart, sharers as you all are in the same grace as myself.
1:8 For God is my witness how I yearn over all of you with
 tender Christian affection.
1:9 And it is my prayer that your love may be more and more
 accompanied by clear knowledge and keen perception, for /5
 testing things that differ,
1:10 so that you may be men of transparent character, and may be
 blameless, in preparation for the day of Christ,

1:11 being filled with these fruits of righteousness which come
 through Jesus Christ-- /1 to the glory and praise of God.
1:12 Now I would have you know, brethren, that what I have gone
 through has turned out to the furtherance of the Good News
 rather than otherwise.
1:13 And thus it has become notorious among all the Imperial
 Guards, and everywhere, that it is /2 for the sake of Christ
 that I am a prisoner;
1:14 and the greater part of the brethren, made confident in the
 Lord /3 through my imprisonment, now speak of God's Message
 without fear, more boldly than ever.
1:15 Some indeed actually preach Christ out of envy and
 contentiousness but there are also others who do it from good
 will.
1:16 These latter preach Him from love to me, knowing that I am
 here for the defence of the Good News;
1:17 while /4 the others proclaim Him from motives of rivalry,
 and insincerely, supposing that by this they are embittering my
 imprisonment.
1:18 What does it matter, however? In any case Christ is
 preached--either perversely or in honest truth; and in that I
 rejoice, yes, /5 and will rejoice.
1:19 For I know that it will result in my /6 salvation through
 your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus
 Christ,
1:20 in fulfilment of my /7 eager expectation and hope that I
 shall never have reason to feel ashamed, but that by my perfect
 freedom of speech Christ will be glorified in me, now as
 always, either by my life or by my death.
1:21 For, with me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
1:22 /8 But since to live means a longer stay on earth, that
 implies more labour for me--and not unsuccessful labour; and
 which I am to choose I cannot tell.
1:23 I am in a dilemma, my earnest desire being to depart and be
 with Christ, for that is far, far better.

1:24 But for your sakes it is more important that I should still
 remain in the body.
1:25 I am convinced of this, and I know that I shall remain, and
 shall go on working side by side with you all, to promote your
 progress and joy in the faith;
1:26 so that, as Christians, you may have additional reason for
 glorying about me as the result of my being with you again.
1:27 Only let the lives you live be worthy of the Good News of
 the Christ, in order that, whether I come and see you or, being
 absent, only hear of you, I may know that you are standing fast
 in one spirit and with one mind, fighting shoulder to shoulder
 /1 for the faith of the Good News.
1:28 Never for a moment quail before your antagonists. Your
 fearlessness will be to them a sure token of impending
 destruction, but to you it will be a sure token of your
 salvation--a token coming from God.
1:29 For you have had the privilege granted you on behalf of
 Christ--not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer on His
 behalf;
1:30 maintaining, as you do, the same kind of conflict that /2
 you once saw in me and which you still hear /3 that I am
 engaged in.
2:1 /4 If then I can appeal to you as the followers of Christ,
 if there is any persuasive power in love and any common sharing
 of the Spirit, or if you have any tender-heartedness and
 compassion, make my joy complete by being of one mind,
2:2 united by mutual love, with harmony of feeling giving your
 minds to one and the same object.
2:3 Do nothing in a spirit of factiousness or of vainglory, but,
 with true humility, let every one regard the rest as being of
 more account than himself;
2:4 each fixing his attention, not simply on his own /5
 interests, but on those of others also.

2:5 Let the same disposition be in you which was in Christ
 Jesus.
2:6 /1 Although from the beginning He /2 had the nature of God
 He did not reckon His equality with God a treasure to be
 tightly grasped.
2:7 Nay, /3 He stripped Himself of His glory, and took on Him
 the nature of /4 a bondservant by becoming a man like other
 men.
2:8 And /5 being recognized as truly human, He humbled Himself
 and even stooped to die; yes, to die on a cross.
2:9 It is in consequence of this that God has also so highly
 exalted Him, and has conferred on Him the Name which is supreme
 above every other,
2:10 in order that in the Name of JESUS every knee should bow,
 of beings in Heaven, of those on the earth, and of those in the
 underworld,
2:11 and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is
 LORD, to the glory of God the Father.
2:12 Therefore, my dearly-loved friends, as I have always found
 you obedient, labour earnestly with fear and trembling--not
 merely as though I were present with you, but much more now
 since I am absent from you--labour earnestly, I say, to make
 sure of your own salvation.
2:13 For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the
 desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the
 accomplishment of the desire.
2:14 Be ever on your guard against a grudging and contentious
 spirit,
2:15 so that you may always prove yourselves to be blameless and
 spotless--irreproachable children of God in the midst of a
 crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as
 heavenly lights /6 in the world,
2:16 /7 holding out to them a Message of Life. It will then be
 my glory on the day of Christ that I did not run my race in
 vain nor toil in vain.

2:17 Nay, even if my life is to be poured as a libation upon the
 sacrificial offering of your faith, I rejoice, and I
 congratulate you all.
2:18 And I bid you also share my gladness, and congratulate me.
2:19 But, if the Lord permits it, I hope before long to send
 Timothy to you, that I, in turn, may be cheered by getting news
 of you.
2:20 For I have no one likeminded with him, who will cherish a
 genuine care for you.
2:21 Everybody concerns himself about his own interests, not
 about those of Jesus Christ.
2:22 But you know Timothy's approved worth--how, like a child
 working with his father, he has served with me in furtherance
 of the Good News.
2:23 So it is he that I hope to send as soon as ever I see how
 things go with me;
2:24 but trusting, as I do, in the Lord, I believe that I shall
 myself also come to you before long.
2:25 Yet I /1 deem it important to send Epaphroditus to you
 now--he is my brother and comrade both in labour and in arms,
 and is your messenger who has ministered to my needs.
2:26 I send him because he is longing /2 to see you all and is
 distressed at your having heard of his illness.
2:27 For it is true that he has been ill, and was apparently at
 the point of death; but God had pity on him, and not only on
 him, but also on me, to save me from having sorrow upon sorrow.
2:28 I am therefore all the more eager to send him, in the hope
 that when you see him /3 again you may be glad and I may have
 the less sorrow.
2:29 Receive him therefore