Philippians 1 King James Version (KJV)

1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which 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 every prayer of mine 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 which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

⁷ Even as 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 defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

⁸ For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels 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; that ye may be sincere and without offence till 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 happened unto me have fallen out rather 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 more bold to speak the word without fear.

¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:

¹⁶ The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:

¹⁷ But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.

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

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

²⁰ According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall 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 labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.

²³ For I am in a strait betwixt 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 of faith;

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

²⁷ Only let your conversation be as it 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 mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

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

²⁹ For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on 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.

Commentary

At the time of writing this letter, Paul was being held prisoner (Phil 1:13), but the letter does not specify the location of his imprisonment. Over the course of his Christian service Paul was imprisoned many times (2 Cor 11:23), though the only places of imprisonment mentioned in the biblical record are Philippi (Acts 16:23), Jerusalem (Acts 22:23-30), Caesarea (Acts 24:23-27) and Rome (Acts 28:16,30). Paul could have written his letter to the Philippians from one of several places, but if that place was one of the cities mentioned above, the most likely is Rome. (See map located in the commentary on Acts.)

Paul and the Philippian church

Philippi was an important city in the province of Macedonia in the north of Greece. It was one of the select cities that the Romans established as colonies, which were centres of Roman life in a non-Roman world (Acts 16:12). Paul first visited the region during his second missionary journey, and the church in Philippi was the first church that he established in Europe (Acts 16:11-40). He visited it twice during his third missionary journey (Acts 20:1-6), and seems to have retained a special affection for it (Phil 1:8; 4:1,18).

After his third missionary journey and subsequent arrest in Jerusalem, Paul was sent to Rome to present his case to Caesar. He was imprisoned in Rome for two years (Acts 28:16,30), and possibly wrote his letter to the Philippian church towards the end of that time.

Paul was visited in his imprisonment by a Christian from Philippi called Epaphroditus, whom the church had sent as its representative to give Paul whatever help he needed. Epaphroditus brought news of the church in Philippi, together with a gift of money and goods from the Philippian believers (Phil 4:18). While with Paul, Epaphroditus became seriously ill. News of his illness travelled back to the Philippians, and news of their concern travelled back to Paul (Phil 2:25-27). With travel being slow in those days, this would have taken some time, indicating that Epaphroditus must have stayed with Paul several months.

The letter to the Philippians in our Bible is the letter that Paul sent back to Philippi, probably with Epaphroditus (Phil 2:28). Paul uses the letter to thank the Philippians for their gift, to put right some minor disorders that had arisen in the church, and to encourage the Christians to live the truly Christian life. A spirit of warmth and optimism runs through the letter.

Paul told the Philippians not to be discouraged because of his imprisonment, for he had plenty of opportunity to spread the gospel and teach believers (Phil 1:12-14). He enjoyed good fellowship with the Christians in Rome, and some Christians in the government service were able to visit him and help care for him (Phil 4:21-22). Timothy also was with him (Phil 1:1). Although execution was always a possibility (Phil 2:17), he was optimistic that he would be set free and so be able to visit the Philippians again (Phil 1:27; 2:24).