¹ Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with their presiding elders and the deacons.

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

³ I thank my God whenever I think of you,

⁴ and every time I pray for you all, I always pray with joy

⁵ for your partnership in the gospel from the very first day up to the present.

⁶ I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes.

⁷ It is only right that I should feel like this towards you all, because you have a place in my heart, since you have all shared together in the grace that has been mine, both my chains and my work defending and establishing the gospel.

⁸ For God will testify for me how much I long for you all with the warm longing of Christ Jesus;

⁹ it is my prayer that your love for one another may grow more and more with the knowledge and complete understanding

¹⁰ that will help you to come to true discernment, so that you will be innocent and free of any trace of guilt when the Day of Christ comes,

¹¹ entirely filled with the fruits of uprightness through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.

¹² Now I want you to realise, brothers, that the circumstances of my present life are helping rather than hindering the advance of the gospel.

¹³ My chains in Christ have become well known not only to all the Praetorium, but to everybody else,

¹⁴ and so most of the brothers in the Lord have gained confidence from my chains and are getting more and more daring in announcing the Message without any fear.

¹⁵ It is true that some of them are preaching Christ out of malice and rivalry; but there are many as well whose intentions are good;

¹⁶ some are doing it out of love, knowing that I remain firm in my defence of the gospel.

¹⁷ There are others who are proclaiming Christ out of jealousy, not in sincerity but meaning to add to the weight of my chains.

¹⁸ But what does it matter? Only that in both ways, whether with false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and for that I am happy;

¹⁹ and I shall go on being happy, too, because I know that this is what will save me, with your prayers and with the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ;

²⁰ all in accordance with my most confident hope and trust that I shall never have to admit defeat, but with complete fearlessness I shall go on, so that now, as always, Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or my death.

²¹ Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would be a positive gain.

²² On the other hand again, if to be alive in the body gives me an opportunity for fruitful work, I do not know which I should choose.

²³ I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and to be with Christ, and this is by far the stronger desire-

²⁴ and yet for your sake to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need.

²⁵ This much I know for certain, that I shall stay and stand by you all, to encourage your advance and your joy in the faith,

²⁶ so that my return to be among you may increase to overflowing your pride in Jesus Christ on my account.

²⁷ But you must always behave in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come to you and see for myself or whether I only hear all about you from a distance, I shall find that you are standing firm and united in spirit, battling, as a team with a single aim, for the faith of the gospel.

²⁸ undismayed by any of your opponents. This will be a clear sign, for them that they are to be lost, and for you that you are to be saved.

²⁹ This comes from God, for you have been granted the privilege for Christ's sake not only of believing in him but of suffering for him as well;

³⁰ you are fighting the same battle which you saw me fighting for him and which you hear I am fighting still.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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