1:4 always in my every prayer for you all making request with joy,
1:5 for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now,
1:6 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.
1:7 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.
1:8 For God is my record how greatly I long for you all in the compassion of Jesus Christ.
1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,
1:10 that ye may approve things that are excellent, and that ye may be sincere and without offense until the Day of Christ,
1:11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
1:12 But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which have happened unto me have turned out unto the furtherance of the Gospel,
1:13 so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places;
1:14 and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much bolder to speak the Word without fear.
1:15 Some indeed preach Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will.
1:16 The one preaches Christ out of contention and not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds;
1:17 but the other out of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel.
1:18 What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
1:19 For I know that this shall turn out to my salvation through your prayer and the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
1:20 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.
1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
1:22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose, I know not.
1:23 For I am in a strait between the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better;
1:24 nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
1:25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy in faith,
1:26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
1:27 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,
1:28 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.
1:29 For unto you it is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,
1:30 having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
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