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Philippians 1:21
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Philippians 1:21, King James Version (KJV)
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
World English Bible (WEB)
Philippians 1 (KJV)
- 1Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
- 2Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 3I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
- 4Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
- 5For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;
- 6Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
- 7Even 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.
- 8For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
- 9And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
- 10That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;
- 11Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
- 12But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
- 13So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;
- 14And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
- 15Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
- 16The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
- 17But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
- 18What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
- 19For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
- 20According 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.
- 21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
- 22But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
- 23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
- 24Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
- 25And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;
- 26That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
- 27Only 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;
- 28And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.
- 29For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
- 30Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
Related verses
Passages that readers often connect with Philippians 1:21, in the King James Version.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:1
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Philippians 1:23
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
Colossians 3:4
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Philippians 1:20
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.
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1769 standardized text (eBible.org eng-kjv). Public domain outside the United Kingdom. Text courtesy of the Crosswire Bible Society and eBible.org. World English Bible Protestant Edition (eBible engwebp, 2026-09-15 snapshot). Public domain. World English Bible is a trademark of eBible.org. Text unmodified; footnotes and formatting omitted. Related verses: OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0), from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.