Philippians 4
1 Therefore my brothers agape-beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord, agape-beloved. 2 I call upon Euodia and Syntyche to be being the same minded in the Lord. 3 Yes I ask1 you also, true yoke-fellow, be helping those [women] who co-struggled with me in the good-news with Clement also, and the rest of my coworkers, whose names [are] in [the] scroll of zoe-life2 . 4 Be rejoicing in [the] Lord always, again I say be rejoicing. 5 Let3 your fairness be known to all men. 6 Be being anxious for nothing, but in everything in prayer and in entreaty with thanksgiving be making your requests known to God. 7 And the peace of God [which] surpasses all understanding will protect your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever [is] true, whatever [is] honorable, whatever just, whatever pure, whatever agreeable, whatever praiseworthy, if there [is] any excellence and if there [is] any praise, be reckoning these [things]. 9 And what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, be practicing these [things], and the God of peace will be with you. 10 But I was rejoicing in the Lord greatly that at last your being mindful of me has revived; of which you were mindful, but you were busy. 11 Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever [situation] I am to be self-sufficient4. 12 I know both how to be being humbled, and I know how to be abounding, everywhere and in everything I have learned the secret both [of how] to be being filled and to be hungering, both to be abounding and to be lacking. 13 I can do everything in the [one] enabling me. 14 Nevertheless you have done well, having shared in my distress. 15 Now you Philippians also know that in the beginning of the good-news, when I departed from Macedonia, no assembly5 shared with me for the purpose of giving and receiving, except you only, 16 for even in Thessalonika you sent again and again to my need. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit increasing to your account. 18 But I have everything and I abound, I am full, having received by Epaphroditus [the things sent] from you, [an] odor of fragrance, [an] acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 Now my God will fulfill all your needs according to his wealth in glory in Christ Jesus.20 Now to our God and father [be] glory to the eons of eons, Amen. 21 Be greeting every saint in Christ Jesus. 22 The brothers with me greet you. All the holy [ones] greet you, especially those of Caesar's house. 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit.
1EROTAO (ερωταω) "Ask", but more polite, not demanding/begging as is AITEO. Both AITEO and EROTAO occur in John.16:26.
2from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.
3imperative
4or "content"
5EKKLESIA (εκκλησια) from "called out". Appears 114 times in the N.T., but only in two places in the Gospels ( Matt.16:18 (twice) and Matt.18:17 (twice)). It's worth noting that when Jesus uses the term EKKLESIA, Christian community as we know it didn't yet exist—there were only the disciples. EKKLESIA is apparently different from 'synagogue' (SYNAGOGE (συναγωγη) which occurs 56 times in the N.T.) EKKLESIA is used in secular Greek literature of a popular assembly 'called to assemble', and also of those 'called' to a cult. EKKLESIA is used frequently in the N.T. outside of the Gospels to refer to Christian communities, but in Acts.7:38 it is used of the people of Israel led through the desert by Moses, and in Acts.19:32 ff. of a secular assembly. Thus, all told, the common translation of EKKLESIA as 'church' doesn't really reflect 1st century usage—it seems to mean more like 'a group of people assembled for some specific purpose'.