Philippians 1-4

21st Century King James Version

1 Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

² Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,

⁴ always in my every prayer for you all making request with joy,

⁵ for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now,

⁶ being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ.

⁷ It is meet for me to think this 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, ye are all partakers of my grace.

⁸ For God is my record how greatly I long for you all in the compassion of Jesus Christ.

⁹ And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,

¹⁰ that ye may approve things that are excellent, and that ye may be sincere and without offense until the Day of Christ,

¹¹ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

¹² But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which have happened unto me have turned out unto the furtherance of the Gospel,

¹³ so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places;

¹⁴ and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much bolder to speak the Word without fear.

¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will.

¹⁶ The one preaches Christ out of contention and not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds;

¹⁷ but the other out of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel.

¹⁸ What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

¹⁹ For I know that this shall turn out to my salvation through your prayer and the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

²⁰ according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing shall I be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.

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

²² But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose, I know not.

²³ For I am in a strait between the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better;

²⁴ nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

²⁵ And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy in faith,

²⁶ that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

²⁷ Only let your manner of living be as becometh the Gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else am absent, I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel,

²⁸ and terrified in nothing by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.

²⁹ For unto you it is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,

³⁰ having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tenderness and mercies,

² fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.

³ Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself.

⁴ Look not every man to his own things, but every man also to the things of others.

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

⁶ who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,

⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

⁸ And being found in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death—even the death of the cross.

⁹ Therefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name,

¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven and things on earth and things under the earth,

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

¹² Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³ For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do all things without murmuring and disputing,

¹⁵ that ye may be blameless and unoffending, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,

¹⁶ holding forth the Word of Life, that I may rejoice in the Day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

¹⁷ Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am joyful and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸ For the same cause also be ye joyful, and rejoice with me.

¹⁹ But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be comforted when I know of your state;

²⁰ for I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.

²¹ For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

²² But ye know the proof of him, how as a son with a father he hath served with me in the Gospel.

²³ Him therefore I hope to send presently, as soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

²⁴ But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.

²⁵ Yet I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants.

²⁶ For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness, because ye had heard that he had been sick.

²⁷ For indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

²⁸ I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful.

²⁹ Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in high honor,

³⁰ because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not having regard for his own life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.

3 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you indeed is not grievous to me, but it is a safeguard for you.

² Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the Concision.

³ For we are the Circumcision who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh—

⁴ though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath grounds to trust in the flesh, I have more:

⁵ circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; according to the law, a Pharisee;

⁶ concerning zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness before the law, blameless.

⁷ But what things were gain to me, those I counted as loss for Christ.

⁸ Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but dung, that I may win Christ

⁹ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,

¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death,

¹¹ that if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

¹² It is not as though I had already attained it, nor were already perfect; but I follow after, that I may apprehend that for which Christ Jesus also apprehended me.

¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended it, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Let us therefore, as many as would be perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, however much we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

¹⁷ Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark those who so walk, as ye have us for an example.

¹⁸ (For many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even with weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ.

¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

²⁰ For our abiding is in Heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

²¹ who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.

4 Therefore, my dearly beloved and longedfor brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

² I beseech Euodias and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

³ And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women who labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement also and with my other fellow laborers, whose names are in the Book of Life.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, “Rejoice!”

⁵ Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

⁶ Fret not about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.

⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 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.

⁹ Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you.

¹⁰ But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me hath flourished again; though ye always cared, ye lacked opportunity.

¹¹ Not that I speak in respect to want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

¹² I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

¹³ I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.

¹⁴ Notwithstanding, ye have done well that ye participated in my affliction.

¹⁵ Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

¹⁶ For even in Thessalonica, ye sent time and again unto my needs.

¹⁷ Not that I desire a gift, but I desire the fruit that may abound to your account.

¹⁸ But I have all, and abound; I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, a sweet fragrance, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

¹⁹ But my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

²⁰ Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

²¹ Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you.

²² All the saints salute you, chiefly those who are of Caesar’s household.

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