PHILIPPIANS CHAPTER 1 - CONTEMPORARY ALIGNED VERSION (SPIRITCODE)

1. From Paul and Timothy, who serve Jesus Christ, to the elders and deacons and all the Christians in Philippi.

2. I pray for God’s goodness and peace to be with you through the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Every time I think of you I give thanks to God for you,

4. And joy leaps into my heart every time I bring you all to God in my prayers,

5. Because of how you have always contributed to my work for the gospel from the start right through till now.

6. I am absolutely confident that what God has begun in your lives he will continue to work on until Jesus returns.

7. This is the reality of how I feel towards you in my heart. Because whether I have been in prison or whether I have been free to explain the shared life with Jesus you played a great part in the goodness of God towards me.

8. God is my witness as to how intensely I feel bonded to you with the same bonding that Jesus feels towards you.

9. And I pray that your love for one another will increase more and more with an understanding of how to care more effectively for one another.

10. And that you will value qualities of goodness and virtue and radiate genuine good will until the very end.

11. Let your lifestyles testify to people of the truth you know about walking with Jesus, so that you bring honor to God.

12. But I want you to know that despite everything that has happened to me, it has all worked out for the best in getting the message of Jesus out.

13. Because everyone in the Palace Guard and all the local people, know that I am in prison because of proclaiming Christ.

14. And many fellow Christians have now become more confident because they see what I go through in prison, and they overcome their fear and speak up more courageously.

15. Some of them are even trying to outdo one another, and competing and debating against each other, while others just share simply and with integrity.

16. Those that compete and argue think they are putting me under pressure by making me appear ineffective because I am  locked up in prison;

17. But the genuine ones care about what they are doing and know that God has me in the right place at the right time to win the case for the message of Jesus Christ.

18. So I say ‘so what?’ whether they are just doing a performance or genuinely sharing the right message, Christ is being preached and I just jump for joy and will keep on  jumping.

19. For I know that it is all working out for the best for me; through your prayer and the release of the divine plan choreographed by the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

20. I always hope for and expect, that everything will go just the way it should, so therefore I can have total confidence now, just as always, that my life will put Jesus on display, whether I live or whether I die.

21. For me, life here is sharing what I have with Jesus, but to die would be sharing what he has in heaven.

22.  But if staying alive is what gets the job done, then I’m not sure what I would choose.

23. So I am at an impasse. I would really like to leave this world and be with Jesus, which would be the best for me.

24. But to stay alive down here would be the best for you.     

25. So it makes me think I will be with you for a little longer, to help you to grow and enjoy your life of faith even more.

26. We will know what rejoicing together in Jesus really means when I finally get to visit you again.

27. But let your lives be a real example of what it means to walk with God, and  whether I come to see you again or whether I don’t, I want to hear how well things are going with you; that you are flowing together in the Spirit, working in harmony with one another for the spreading of the faith.

28. Don’t be afraid of those who might oppose you. Their opposition is a sure sign of their wasted life, but to you this opposition is a sign that God is working with you.

29. You have not only been given Jesus’ life to share and to trust in, you have also been given his suffering to share in.

30. And you are also sharing my struggle with me now, even as I write to you.