Philippians 1:5–18

⁵because of the way in which you have helped me in the work of the gospel from the very first day until now. ⁶And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus. ⁷You are always in my heart! And so it is only right for me to feel as I do about you. For you have all shared with me in this privilege that God has given me, both now that I am in prison and also while I was free to defend the gospel and establish it firmly. ⁸God is my witness that I am telling the truth when I say that my deep feeling for you all comes from the heart of Christ Jesus himself.

⁹I pray that your love will keep on growing more and more, together with true knowledge and perfect judgement, ¹⁰so that you will be able to choose what is best. Then you will be free from all impurity and blame on the Day of Christ. ¹¹Your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus Christ can produce, for the glory and praise of God.

To Live Is Christ

¹²I want you to know, my friends, that the things that have happened to me have really helped the progress of the gospel. ^13*As a result, the whole palace guard and all the others here know that I am in prison because I am a servant of Christ. ¹⁴And my being in prison has given most of the brothers and sisters more confidence in the Lord, so that they grow bolder all the time to preach the message^a fearlessly.

¹⁵Of course some of them preach Christ because they are jealous and quarrelsome, but others from genuine goodwill. ¹⁶These do so from love, because they know that God has given me the work of defending the gospel. ¹⁷The others do not proclaim Christ sincerely, but from a spirit of selfish ambition; they think that they will make more trouble for me while I am in prison.

¹⁸It does not matter! I am happy about it—so long as Christ is preached in every way possible, whether from wrong or right motives. And I will continue to be happy,