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The letter that Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi
(The book in the Holy Bible called Philippians)
About this letter
Paul wrote this letter about 2,000 years ago, about 30 years after Jesus went back to heaven, and it is now in the Holy Bible.
God sent Paul to lots of towns to tell people about Jesus, and one of them was Philippi (see Acts 16:11-40). It was in the country that we now call Greece, but at that time they called it Macedonia. About 1,400 years ago an earthquake broke Philippi down, and today there are just stones and rubbish at that place in Greece.
At the time when Paul wrote this letter, the people called the Romans were the bosses over lots of nations. The Roman bosses didn’t like Paul telling people about Jesus, so they grabbed him and put him in jail. Paul wrote this letter while he was in that jail, in Rome. His friend Timothy helped him write it.
In this letter, Paul said some very important things to help those Christians get really close to God. And we can learn a lot today from what Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi, a long time ago.
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1 I am Paul, and this letter is from me, and it is from Timothy too, because he is helping me write it. We work all the time for Jesus Christ. We are sending this letter to all God’s special people at Philippi, you people that belong to Jesus Christ. We are writing to you Christian leaders, and to you church helpers, and to all you Christians.* Acts 16:12
2 We are asking God our father, and Jesus Christ our leader, to be good to you, and to make you feel happy and quiet inside yourselves.
The Christians at Philippi helped Paul tell people about Jesus
3 Every time I think about you mob, I thank God for you. 4 And every time I pray for you, I’m really happy. 5 You believed the message about Jesus right from the first day that you heard it, and you helped me tell it to other people. Yes, you helped me with my work. And you are still doing it. 6 I know that God is working inside you. He has already started doing a good thing in you, and he will keep on working in you until he has properly finished it. That will be when Jesus Christ comes back again. I’m really sure that God will finish doing this good thing inside you. 7 You see, I love you mob very much, so it is all right for me to think about you like that. You are my friends and God is good to you, just like he is good to me. So you help me every time God lets me tell people the good news about Jesus. Right now I’m tied up in jail, and sometimes they take me to court, and I tell them the message about Jesus, and I show them that it is true. And you help me do that. 8 Yes, I love you, just like Jesus Christ loves you, and I want to be with you again. God himself knows that is true.
Paul asked God to help the Christians at Philippi
9 So I pray like this for you. I ask God to help you to love each other more and more, and to know God better. I ask God to help you to understand spiritual things better. 10-11 Then you will know the right way to live, and you will do a lot of good things. And I ask Jesus Christ to help you so that you will always do good things, and never do bad things. Jesus is going to come back again, and I want you to be living in that good way. You will show people that God is good, and they will say that he is really great.
Paul was in jail, but he told more people about Jesus
12 My Christian friends, I want to tell you about myself. You know that bad things happened to me, and now I’m in jail. But don’t worry, it is good that I am in jail. Now I can tell more people about Jesus. 13 So now everybody here knows that I belong to Jesus Christ, and that is the reason why I’m in jail. All the guards, and soldiers, and everyone else that works in the big boss’s house here, they all know that is the reason why I’m in jail.* Acts 28:30 14 And the Christians here heard that I’m in jail. Then most of them trusted in our leader Jesus more strongly and got brave, and they are not frightened to tell other people God’s message.
15-17 There are Christians here that think in a good way and they want to help me, so they tell people about Jesus. They love me, and they know that God let people put me in jail so that I can tell a lot more people the message about Jesus and show them that this message is true.
But there are other Christians that are a bit jealous of me, and they think they can give me trouble while I’m in jail. They want other Christians to think that they are more important than me. So they tell people about Jesus Christ, and they hope they will get a lot of people to say they are great. They are thinking the wrong way. They only think about themselves.
18 But it doesn’t matter. Both mobs are telling people about Jesus Christ. That is the most important thing. Maybe some of them are thinking the wrong way. But the others are thinking the right way. And all of them are telling people about Jesus Christ, so I’m very happy about it.
Which is better, to be with Jesus or to stay alive in this world?
Yes, and I will stay very happy. 19 You mob are praying for me and the spirit of Jesus Christ is helping me, so I’m sure that God will get me out of this jail. 20 I want to be brave and stay strong for Jesus Christ, just like I always am. Then I will not feel shame. Maybe they will kill me, or maybe they will let me stay alive. It doesn’t matter. I want to stay strong for Jesus Christ and show everyone how great he is, no matter what.
21 You see, while I’m alive, I want to let people know that Jesus Christ is really great. That is what I live for. But if they kill me, that is even better for me. 22 Maybe they will not kill me, and I will keep on living in this body. Then I will keep on working for Jesus, and I will help more people know him properly. I don’t really know what will be best, for me to live, or for me to die. 23 I want to do both. I want to leave this body and go to be with Jesus Christ. That will be a lot better for me. 24 But at the same time, you mob need me, so I want to keep on living in this body so I can help you. 25 When I think about it, I’m sure that God will let me stay alive here, so I can keep on helping all of you. Then you will trust God more, and you will be more happy. 26 Yes, I reckon I will come and visit you again and you will be happy to see me. You will tell everyone, “This is awesome. Jesus Christ is really good and really powerful. He got Paul out of jail and brought him here to help us.” You will talk like that to everyone.
Stay strong for Jesus
27 Listen, you heard the good news about Jesus Christ, and you trusted him, so keep on living the way he wants you to live, no matter what happens. Maybe I will come and visit you again, but maybe not. Maybe I will only hear what people tell me about you. Anyway, I want to find out that you are staying strong for Jesus, and that God’s spirit is joining you all together, so that you are all agreeing with each other and working together to tell people about Jesus. 28 Some people will try to stop you living for Jesus. Don’t be frightened of those people. Stay strong for Jesus. Then you will show those people that, in the end, God will finish them, but he will save you. Yes, God will make that happen. 29 You see, God lets you believe in Jesus Christ. But not only that, sometimes people make trouble for you because you believe in Jesus. God lets that happen too. 30 Those bad people are making trouble for you, just like they made trouble for me when I was there in your town. And bad people are still making trouble for me.* Acts 16:19-40

- Philippians
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*1:1 Acts 16:12

*1:13 Acts 28:30

*1:30 Acts 16:19-40

© 2019 The Plain English Project