Study Desk

and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy

You are always in my heart! And so it is only right for me to feel as I do about you. For you have all shared with me in this privilege that God has given me, both now that I am in prison and also while I was free to defend the gospel and establish it firmly.

God is my witness that I tell the truth when I say that my deep feeling for you all comes from the heart of Christ Jesus himself.

Your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus Christ can produce, for the glory and praise of God.

The others do not proclaim Christ sincerely, but from a spirit of selfish ambition; they think that they will make more trouble for me while I am in prison.

For what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more.

but for your sake it is much more important that I remain alive.

Now, the important thing is that your way of life should be as the gospel of Christ requires, so that, whether or not I am able to go and see you, I will hear that you are standing firm with one common purpose and that with only one desire you are fighting together for the faith of the gospel.

For you have been given the privilege of serving Christ, not only by believing in him, but also by suffering for him.

Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another.

And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own.

For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name.

And you yourselves know how he has proved his worth, how he and I, like a son and his father, have worked together for the sake of the gospel.

So I hope to send him to you as soon as I know how things are going to turn out for me.

because he risked his life and nearly died for the sake of the work of Christ, in order to give me the help that you yourselves could not give.

Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, those who insist on cutting the body.

It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.

But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake.

Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ

I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.