Passage

Philippians 1.6

Book: Philippians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

4. always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, 5. for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now;

6. being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ:

even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf 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 with me of grace. 8. For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:4-8, ASV)

WEB

4. always in every request of mine on behalf of you all making my requests with joy, 5. for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;

6. being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8. For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:4-8, WEB)

KJV

4. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;

6. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: ^{perform: or, finish}

Even 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. ^{I have: or, ye have me in your heart} ^{of my: or, with me of grace} 8. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:4-8, KJV)

YLT

4. always, in every supplication of mine for you all, with joy making the supplication, 5. for your contribution to the good news from the first day till now,

6. having been confident of this very thing, that He who did begin in you a good work, will perform [it] till a day of Jesus Christ,

according as it is righteous for me to think this in behalf of you all, because of my having you in the heart, both in my bonds, and [in] the defence and confirmation of the good news, all of you being fellow-partakers with me of grace. 8. For God is my witness, how I long for you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, (Philippians 1:4-8, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing with Timothy named as co-sender (Phil 1:1).
Audience: The church at Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia and the first congregation Paul planted in Europe (Acts 16:11-40). The letter names overseers and deacons at 1:1 and thanks the church for repeated financial support.
Location: Written from imprisonment. Paul refers to his bonds and to "Caesar's household" (Phil 1:13, 4:22); the traditional identification is Roman custody, with Ephesus and Caesarea proposed as alternatives.
Time period: c. AD 60-62 on the traditional Roman-imprisonment dating.

Theological reading

Pepoithōs auto touto, hoti ho enarxamenos en hymin ergon agathon epitelesei achri hēmeras Iēsou Christou.

The subject is God, and it stays God. Ho enarxamenos, "he who began," and epitelesei, "will complete," share one subject that is not the Philippians. Whatever confidence Paul has is not confidence in them, which the participle pepoithōs, "being persuaded," makes explicit. This is the verse's load-bearing feature and the reason it functions in discussions of perseverance.

The verb pair is liturgical and Pauline. Enarchomai and epiteleō appear together at Galatians 3:3, where Paul asks whether, having begun in the Spirit, they are now being completed in the flesh. The same pairing there is an argument that the one who starts the work must finish it by the same means.

The terminus is dated. Achri hēmeras Iēsou Christou, until the day of Jesus Christ, appears again at 1:10 and 2:16. The completion in view is eschatological rather than biographical, so the verse is not a promise that any given project will succeed but that God's work in the community will be finished at the last day.

The immediate ground. Verse 5 supplies the reason for the confidence: their koinōnia in the gospel from the first day until now. The evidence Paul points to is their sustained partnership, so the assurance is not offered in a vacuum but drawn from observable fruit.

Where the traditions divide. Reformed readers take the verse as a straightforward statement of perseverance grounded in divine monergism. Arminian readers grant that God completes what He begins while holding that the human party can withdraw from the partnership the verse presupposes. Both must reckon with the fact that the grammar gives God both verbs.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547
G2424 - Iesous, Iesous, Strong's G2424

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Christians Behaving Badly Defeater

Concepts:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.