But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
Parallel translations
- WEB But if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work; yet I don’t know what I will choose.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.
- NASB But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.
- NLT But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If Paul keeps living, his labor will bear fruit, so he is genuinely torn about what to prefer. Continued life means fruitful service.
Overview
Paul weighs the value of remaining: more ministry and spiritual harvest among the churches. He does not treat earthly life as worthless but as an opportunity for productive work. His uncertainty is not despair but the tension of a man content either way.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Pet 4:2That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
- Gal 2:20I 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.
- Phil 1:24Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
- 2 Cor 10:3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
- Acts 3:17And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
- Ps 71:18Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
- Col 2:1For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
- Rom 11:2God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
- Exod 32:1And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
- Isa 38:18–19For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
- Gen 39:8But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;
- Gen 21:26And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The one who, being in the form of God, emptied himself to the point of death on a cross and was exalted to the name above every name — the joy and prize of the believer.
How Philippians 1:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.