Philippians 1:7

Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”

If you love me, keep my commandments.

But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

“Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.

But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice!”

Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and live together.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly,

where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all.

who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,

Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.

They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.

Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus said, “Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News,

You are witnesses of these things.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.

Coming to us and taking Paul’s belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, “The Holy Spirit says: ‘So the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”

Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

This greeting is by me, Paul, with my own hand.

always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.

that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,

remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

which some profess, and thus have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.

yet for love’s sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

and having a great priest over God’s house,

Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.

For you were going astray like sheep; but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue,

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

“His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light.

Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him.

For this cause therefore I asked to see you and to speak with you. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”

I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,

For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain,

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.

For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles,

for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;

so that it became evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my bonds are in Christ,

The former insincerely preach Christ from selfish ambition, thinking that they add affliction to my chains;

but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Good News.

However you did well that you shared in my affliction.

The salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand: remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.

in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained.

I John, your brother and partner with you in the oppression, Kingdom, and perseverance in Christ Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.

They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people.

Then the commanding officer came near, arrested him, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he was and what he had done.

“Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”

I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.

My defense to those who examine me is this:

Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men,

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

and that most of the brothers in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear.

praying together for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds,

You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,

We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds,

Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,

At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them.

whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News.

If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me.

Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus,

partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so.

For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.

But because you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory you also may rejoice with exceeding joy.

Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.

I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,

that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death.