22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
22 As long as I'm alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I'd choose.
22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.
22 But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don't know which is better.
23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
23 Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better
23 For
23 I'm torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me.
(Read Philippians 1:21-26)
Death is a great loss to a carnal, worldly man, for he loses all his earthly comforts and all his hopes; but to a true believer it is gain, for it is the end of all his weakness and misery. It delivers him from all the evils of life, and brings him to possess the chief good. The apostle's difficulty was not between living in this world and living in heaven; between these two there is no comparison; but between serving Christ in this world and enjoying him in another. Not between two evil things, but between two good things; living to Christ and being with him. See the power of faith and of Divine grace; it can make us willing to die. In this world we are compassed with sin; but when with Christ, we shall escape sin and temptation, sorrow and death, for ever. But those who have most reason to desire to depart, should be willing to remain in the world as long as God has any work for them to do. And the more unexpected mercies are before they come, the more of God will be seen in them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Philippians 1:22
Commentary on Philippians 1:21-26
(Read Philippians 1:21-26)
Death is a great loss to a carnal, worldly man, for he loses all his earthly comforts and all his hopes; but to a true believer it is gain, for it is the end of all his weakness and misery. It delivers him from all the evils of life, and brings him to possess the chief good. The apostle's difficulty was not between living in this world and living in heaven; between these two there is no comparison; but between serving Christ in this world and enjoying him in another. Not between two evil things, but between two good things; living to Christ and being with him. See the power of faith and of Divine grace; it can make us willing to die. In this world we are compassed with sin; but when with Christ, we shall escape sin and temptation, sorrow and death, for ever. But those who have most reason to desire to depart, should be willing to remain in the world as long as God has any work for them to do. And the more unexpected mercies are before they come, the more of God will be seen in them.