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The Letter of Paul to the Philippians 1

1 I, Paul, am writing this letter to all of God’s people who are joined to the Messiah Jesus in the city of Philippi. Timothy is with me. We are servants of the Messiah Jesus. We especially write this letter for the leaders of the believers and for those who assist them. 2 May God our Father and our Lord Jesus the Messiah continue to be kind to you and make you peaceful.

3 Every time I think about you, I thank my God whom I worship because of you. 4 I always pray joyfully each time I pray for all of you. 5 The reason I pray joyfully is because you have partnered with me in telling people the good news from the time you first believed it and you continue to partner with me now. 6 God started his good work within you when you first believed in him, and I am confident that he will continue that work until Jesus the Messiah returns. 7 I love you all greatly, so it is right for me to think about you in this way. God has kindly blessed us to share together in this work, both as I endure being a prisoner and also as I explain to people why the good news about Jesus is true. 8 I desire very much to be with you all, and I love you all in the same way as Jesus the Messiah loves you. God knows that this is true.

9 I pray that God will enable you to love God and others in a way that continues to increase. As you increasingly love others, I pray that God will also help you to know him better and to understand how to love others in all situations. 10 The reason I pray this is so that you will test and choose what is most pleasing to God so that then you will be completely free of doing anything wrong when the Messiah returns. 11 Instead of doing wrong things, you will be busy doing the truly good things that Jesus the Messiah enables us to do. These things will cause people to honor and praise God.

12 My fellow believers, I want you to know that the things that have happened to me have not hindered people from hearing the good news. Instead, even more people have been able to hear the good news because I am in prison. 13 In fact, all the military guards here and many other people now know that I am in prison because I proclaim the good news about the Messiah. 14 Also, because the believers here have seen what the Lord has done through me in prison, most of them now proclaim the good news about Jesus more courageously and fearlessly than they did before.

15-17 15-17Some people are proclaiming the good news about the Messiah because they want to obey God and because they love me and others. They understand that God has appointed me to explain to people why the good news about Jesus is true. But some are not honest about why they are proclaiming the good news about the Messiah. They do it only because they want to promote themselves. They are envious of me and want to cause trouble for me. They think that I will suffer even more in prison as they become famous for proclaiming the good news. 18 But what they want to do to me is not important! The important thing is that people are proclaiming the good news about the Messiah, either for good reasons or for bad reasons. So I am rejoicing that people are spreading the message about the Messiah! And I will continue to rejoice in that!

19 I will rejoice because I know how this situation will turn out: that God will deliver me from prison. He will do this because you are praying for me and because the Spirit of Jesus the Messiah is helping me. 20 I know that this will happen, because I very confidently expect that I will continue to faithfully honor the Messiah. I expect and desire that I will boldly honor the Messiah by my actions now and always, whether by the way I live or by the way I die.

21 As for me, I live to honor the Messiah, and if I die, it will be even better for me. 22 But if I continue to live here in my body, I will be able to productively serve the Messiah. So I do not know which I prefer, to live or to die. 23 It is difficult for me to choose which I prefer, living or dying. I long to leave this world and go to be with the Messiah, because to be with the Messiah is very much better than being here, 24 but I need to remain alive here on earth in order to continue to help you. 25 Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain alive with you all in order to help you to be even more joyful as you continue to trust in Jesus. 26 I will do this so that you will praise Jesus the Messiah even more because of me, because I will come and visit you again.

27 The important thing is that you act in a way that honors the good news about the Messiah. Do this so that people will tell me that you are working hard together in a unified way as you resist those who oppose the message about the Messiah and as you help people to live according to the good news. You must act in this way whether or not I visit you again. 28 Do not let the people who are against you make you afraid by anything that they do or say. When they see that you are not afraid of them, they will know that God will destroy them, but he will save you. All of this is from God. 29 God does this for you because he has given you the gift of suffering for the Messiah, along with the gift of believing in him. 30 You saw how I had to resist the people who opposed me when I was there in Philippi. Now you have to resist the people who are opposing you in the same way. As people tell you even now, I am still struggling to resist such people.

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