We must seek to know something of heart-felt, experimental communion with Him. Never, never let us forget, that 'union' is one thing, and 'communion' another. Thousands, I fear, who know what 'union' with Christ is, know nothing of 'communion.'
J.C. Ryle

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians

{1:1} Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saintsin Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:{1:2} Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord JesusChrist. {1:3} I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, {1:4}always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making mysupplication with joy, {1:5} for your fellowship in furtherance of thegospel from the first day until now; {1:6} being confident of this verything, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until theday of Jesus Christ: {1:7} even as it is right for me to be thus mindedon behalf of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as, bothin my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye allare partakers with me of grace. {1:8} For God is my witness, how I longafter you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. {1:9} And this Ipray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and alldiscernment; {1:10} so that ye may approve the things that areexcellent; that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day ofChrist; {1:11} being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which arethrough Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. {1:12} Now Iwould have you know, brethren, that the things [which happened] unto mehave fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel; {1:13} so thatmy bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole praetorianguard, and to all the rest; {1:14} and that most of the brethren in theLord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold tospeak the word of God without fear. {1:15} Some indeed preach Christeven of envy and strife; and some also of good will: {1:16} the one [doit] of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel;{1:17} but the other proclaim Christ of faction, not sincerely,thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. {1:18} What then?only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ isproclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. {1:19} For Iknow that this shall turn out to my salvation, through yoursupplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, {1:20}according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall Ibe put to shame, but [that] with all boldness, as always, [so] now alsoChrist shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death.{1:21} For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. {1:22} But ifto live in the flesh, –[if] this shall bring fruit from my work, thenwhat I shall choose I know not. {1:23} But I am in a strait betwixt thetwo, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very farbetter: {1:24} yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake.{1:25} And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide, yea, andabide with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith; {1:26} thatyour glorying may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence withyou again. {1:27} Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospelof Christ: that, whether I come and see you and be absent, I may hearof your state, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul strivingfor the faith of the gospel; {1:28} and in nothing affrighted by theadversaries: which is for them an evident token of perdition, but ofyour salvation, and that from God; {1:29} because to you it hath beengranted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but alsoto suffer in his behalf: {1:30} having the same conflict which ye sawin me, and now hear to be in me.

{2:1} If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if anyconsolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tendermercies and compassions, {2:2} make full my joy, that ye be of the samemind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; {2:3}[doing] nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowlinessof mind each counting other better than himself; {2:4} not looking eachof you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.{2:5} Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: {2:6} who,existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality withGod a thing to be grasped, {2:7} but emptied himself, taking the formof a servant, being made in the likeness of men; {2:8} and being foundin fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient [even] untodeath, yea, the death of the cross. {2:9} Wherefore also God highlyexalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name;{2:10} that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] inheaven and [things] on earth and [things] under the earth, {2:11} andthat every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to theglory of God the Father. {2:12} So then, my beloved, even as ye havealways obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in myabsence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; {2:13}for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his goodpleasure. {2:14} Do all things without murmurings and questionings:{2:15} that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of Godwithout blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, {2:16} holding forth theword of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ,that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain. {2:17} Yea, and if Iam offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, andrejoice with you all: {2:18} and in the same manner do ye also joy, andrejoice with me. {2:19} But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothyshortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know yourstate. {2:20} For I have no man likeminded, who will care truly foryour state. {2:21} For they all seek their own, not the things of JesusChrist. {2:22} But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child [serveth]a father, [so] he served with me in furtherance of the gospel. {2:23}Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, so soon as I shall see how itwill go with me: {2:24} but I trust in the Lord that I myself alsoshall come shortly. {2:25} But I counted it necessary to send to youEpaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and yourmessenger and minister to my need; {2:26} since he longed after youall, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was sick:{2:27} for indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy onhim; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrowupon sorrow. {2:28} I have sent him therefore the more diligently,that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the lesssorrowful. {2:29} Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy; andhold such in honor: {2:30} because for the work of Christ he came nighunto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in yourservice toward me.

{3:1} Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the samethings to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe.{3:2} Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of theconcision: {3:3} for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spiritof God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh:{3:4} though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if anyother man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more: {3:5}circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe ofBenjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; {3:6}as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousnesswhich is in the law, found blameless. {3:7} Howbeit what things weregain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. {3:8} Yea verily, andI count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge ofChrist Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, anddo count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, {3:9} and be found inhim, not having a righteousness of mine own, [even] that which is ofthe law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousnesswhich is from God by faith: {3:10} that I may know him, and the powerof his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becomingconformed unto his death; {3:11} if by any means I may attain unto theresurrection from the dead. {3:12} Not that I have already obtained, oram already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay holdon that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. {3:13}Brethren, I could not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing [Ido], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward tothe things which are before, {3:14} I press on toward the goal unto theprize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. {3:15} Let ustherefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anythingye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you: {3:16}only, whereunto we have attained, by that same [rule] let us walk.{3:17} Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that sowalk even as ye have us for an ensample. {3:18} For many walk, of whomI told you often, and now tell you even weeping, [that they are] theenemies of the cross of Christ: {3:19} whose end is perdition, whosegod is the belly, and [whose] glory is in their shame, who mind earthlythings. {3:20} For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we waitfor a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: {3:21} who shall fashion anew thebody of our humiliation, [that it may be] conformed to the body of hisglory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject allthings unto himself.

{4:1} Wherefore, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy andcrown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved. {4:2} I exhort Euodia,and I exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. {4:3} Yea, Ibeseech thee also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they laboredwith me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of myfellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life. {4:4} Rejoice inthe Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice. {4:5} Let your forbearancebe known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. {4:6} In nothing beanxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgivinglet your requests be made known unto God. {4:7} And the peace of God,which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and yourthoughts in Christ Jesus. {4:8} Finally, brethren, whatsoever thingsare true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just,whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoeverthings are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be anypraise, think on these things. {4:9} The things which ye both learnedand received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God ofpeace shall be with you. {4:10} But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, thatnow at length ye have revived your thought for me; wherein ye didindeed take thought, but ye lacked opportunity. {4:11} Not that I speakin respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,therein to be content. {4:12} I know how to be abased, and I know alsohow to abound: in everything and in all things have I learned thesecret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be inwant. {4:13} I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me. {4:14}Howbeit ye did well that ye had fellowship with my affliction. {4:15}And ye yourselves also know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning ofthe gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellowshipwith me in the matter of giving and receiving but ye only; {4:16} foreven in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my need. {4:17} Notthat I seek for the gift; but I seek for the fruit that increaseth toyour account. {4:18} But I have all things, and abound: I am filled,having received from Epaphroditus the things [that came] from you, andodor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.{4:19} And my God shall supply every need of yours according to hisriches in glory in Christ Jesus. {4:20} Now unto our God and Father[be] the glory for ever and ever. Amen. {4:21} Salute every saint inChrist Jesus. The brethren that are with me salute you. {4:22} All thesaints salute you, especially they that are of Caesar’s household.{4:23} The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

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