Philippians · Chapter 1
Philippians 1 KJV Explained Verse by Verse
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About Philippians 1
Paul is writing this letter in chains, most likely in Rome, and he doesn’t know yet whether he’ll walk out alive or be put to death. You’d expect a letter like that to be heavy. Instead it’s full of joy, because Paul has settled one thing most of us never settle. His life belongs to Christ.
Verse 21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
For Paul, life wasn’t his ministry. It was Christ Himself. And because life was Christ, death couldn’t take anything from him. It could only bring him more of the One he already lived for. Now finish that sentence yourself, and be honest about it. For to me to live is what? If the answer is your career or your money, then to die is loss, because all of that stays behind.
His friends could easily have thought those chains meant his work was over. So what did Paul’s chains actually do for the gospel?
Teaching Notes
Servants and partners (verses 1–8)
Paul opens with his name and Timothy’s, and he calls them both servants of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t lead with his title as an apostle. He wishes the saints grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ (verse 2), putting the Father and the Son side by side as the one source of that grace. From the first lines, the Lord Jesus stands where only God can stand. Paul thanks God for their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now (verse 5). They were partners in the work, from Lydia by the riverside and the jailer in Acts 16 to the gifts they sent to Paul’s needs more than once. Verse 6 rests the whole thing on God: He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God began it, and God will finish it. The child of God is kept, and he cannot lose what God Himself has promised to complete.
Love that grows wiser (verses 9–11)
Paul prays that their love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment (verse 9). Love that isn’t guided by the truth turns soft and foolish. He wants them to approve things that are excellent (verse 10). Most of what fills our days isn’t wicked. It just isn’t excellent. Even the fruits of righteousness in their lives come by Jesus Christ and point back to the glory of God (verse 11).
Chains that carried the gospel (verses 12–18)
What looked like a setback had fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel (verse 12). His bonds in Christ were manifest in all the palace (verse 13). It became plain to everyone around him that he was chained for Christ, not for a crime. Many of the brethren grew much more bold to speak the word without fear (verse 14). His chains didn’t silence the church. They loosened its tongue. Some preached Christ out of envy and strife, hoping to add affliction to his bonds, and Paul rejoiced anyway, because Christ was preached (verses 15–18). These men preached the real Christ with the wrong heart. Later in this letter Paul warns sharply against those who twisted the gospel itself. The trouble here wasn’t the message. It was the motive.
To live is Christ (verses 19–26)
The salvation of verse 19 isn’t rescue from hell. Paul means deliverance, God bringing him through this trial. His hope is that Christ will be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death (verse 20). A magnifying glass doesn’t make a thing bigger than it is. It makes a great thing look as great as it really is. Then comes verse 21, the center of the chapter. Paul is in a strait betwixt two (verse 23), with a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. He doesn’t expect to sleep for ages or drift somewhere in between. When a believer dies, he goes to be with the Lord. But staying is more needful for the Philippians (verse 24), and he puts their good ahead of his own desire to go home.
Standing together (verses 27–30)
Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ (verse 27). In the King James, conversation means your whole way of life. Paul wants them standing fast in one spirit, with one mind, and not terrified by their adversaries (verse 28). Verse 29 calls suffering for Christ something given, a gift the same as faith. They had seen that conflict in him with their own eyes (verse 30), in their own city, when he was beaten, put in the stocks and sang praises at midnight.
Philippians 1 (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.