Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. This is the pivot point in this section of Paul’s letter. He is making a sharp turn, moving from warning about the false confidence his opponents are offering to encouraging the Philippians to lay hold of the...

For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth...

To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! A fair bit of controversy has attended this part of Paul’s letter for years. The major question is whether or not...

Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. Earlier I referred to Paul’s correspondence with the Philippians as a love letter, not in the romantic sense but rather as an example of the Christian love displayed between a community and its leader. Others have called this “Paul’s...

Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and co-worker and fellow-soldier, your messenger and minister to my need; for he has been longing for all of you, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God...

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But Timothy’s worth you know, how like a son with a...