Philippians 1:21
New International Version
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

New Living Translation
For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.

English Standard Version
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Berean Standard Bible
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Berean Literal Bible
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

King James Bible
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

New King James Version
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

New American Standard Bible
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

NASB 1995
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

NASB 1977
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Legacy Standard Bible
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Amplified Bible
For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity].

Christian Standard Bible
For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

American Standard Version
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For my life is The Messiah, and if I shall die, it is gain for me.

Contemporary English Version
If I live, it will be for Christ, and if I die, I will gain even more.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain.

English Revised Version
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Christ means everything to me in this life, and when I die I'll have even more.

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

International Standard Version
For to me, to go on living is the Messiah, and to die is gain.

Literal Standard Version
for to me to live [is] Christ, and to die [is] gain.

Majority Standard Bible
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

New American Bible
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.

NET Bible
For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

New Revised Standard Version
For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

New Heart English Bible
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Webster's Bible Translation
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Weymouth New Testament
For, with me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

World English Bible
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Young's Literal Translation
for to me to live is Christ, and to die gain.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
To Live is Christ
20I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know.…

Cross References
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Philippians 1:22
But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know.


Treasury of Scripture

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

to live.

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.

Philippians 2:21
For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

1 Corinthians 1:30
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

to die.

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:

Isaiah 57:1,2
The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …

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Philippians 1
1. Paul testifies his thankfulness to God, and his love toward the Philippians,
9. daily praying for their increase in grace;
12. he shows what good the faith of Christ had received by his troubles at Rome;
21. and how ready he is to glorify Christ either by his life or death;
27. exhorting them to unity;
28. and to fortitude in persecution.














(21) To live is Christ.--This, of course, means "Christ is my life," yet not in the sense that He is the source and principle of life in us, but that the whole concrete state of life is so lived in Him that it becomes a simple manifestation of His presence. The opposition in the passage is between the states of living and dying (or being dead), not between the principles of life and death. It is, therefore, in some sense distinct from the cognate passages--Colossians 3:3-4, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. . . . Christ is our life;" and Galatians 2:20, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Those passages set forth the cause; this the result. If Christ be the principle of life in us, then whatever we think and say and do, exhibiting visibly that inner life, must be the manifestation of Christ.

To die is gain.--This follows from the other. Death is a new stage in the progress of union with Christ. So we read in 2Corinthians 5:6-7, "Knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord . . . we are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." "To depart" (see Philippians 1:23) is, in a higher sense than can be realised here, "to be with Christ."

Verse 21. - For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Others, as Calvin, render (not so well), "For to me Christ is gain both in life and in death." The alternative suggested in Ver. 20 leads St. Paul to a short digression on the comparative advantages of life and death; he is content with either. Life is blessed, for it is Christ; comp. Colossians 2:4, "Christ, who is our Life," and Galatians it. 20, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me;" "Quit-quid rive, Christum vivo" (Bengel). The life of Christ lives, breathes, energizes, in the life of his saints. His flesh, his incarnate life is their meat; his blood, the mystery of his atonement, is the drink of their souls. He abideth in them, and they in him. And yet death is gain; the slate of death, not the act of dying, is meant (the infinitive is aorist, τὸ ἀποθανεῖν), for the dead in Christ are at home with the Lord (ἐνδημοῦντες πρὸς τὸν Κύριον) in a far more blessed sense than the saints on earth.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
For
γὰρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

to me,
Ἐμοὶ (Emoi)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

to live
ζῆν (zēn)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 2198: To live, be alive. A primary verb; to live.

[is] Christ,
Χριστὸς (Christos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547: Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

to die
ἀποθανεῖν (apothanein)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 599: To be dying, be about to die, wither, decay. From apo and thnesko; to die off.

[is] gain.
κέρδος (kerdos)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 2771: Gain, advantage, profit. Of uncertain affinity; gain.


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NT Letters: Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ (Philipp. Phil. Php.)
Philippians 1:20
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