Philippians 1:21
in Philippians 1For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
KJV
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
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This verse in Philippians 1
Commentary
18 notes on this verseWe see, then, that this death is a gain and life a penalty, so that Paul says: "To me to live is Christ and to die is gain." What is Christ but the death of the body, the breath of life? And so let us die with Him, that we may live with Him.
This site's exposition
to live is Christ
The letter's most compressed sentence states Paul's whole existence, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Dying is gain, kerdos, a merchant's profit word, because it exchanges the partial for the whole.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
What others had contrived for his death proved to be life for him. This is life: if Christ is preached. He is fully prepared to meet death so that this can be accomplished. He knows that a great blessing will be given to him for …
It is not death itself that is gain, but to die in Christ. Life is Christ. The one who has hope in him is always alive, both now and forever.… Therefore they achieve nothing, whether they hand me over to death or to tortures in …
How great is the advantage of going out of the world, Christ Himself, the Teacher of our salvation and of our good works, shows to us, who, when His disciples were saddened that He said that He was soon to depart, spoke to them, and said, "If ye loved me, ye would surely rejoice because I go to the Father; " teaching thereby, and manifesting that when the dear ones whom we love depart from the world, we should rather rejoice than grieve. Remembering which truth, the blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle lays it down, saying, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain; " counting it the greatest gain no longer to be held by the snares of this world, no longer to be liable to the sins and vices of the flesh, but taken away from smarting troubles, and freed from the envenomed fangs of the devil, to go at the call of Christ to the joy of eternal salvation.
And, to pass over everything else, we ought to remember what a glory it is to come immaculate to Christ-to be a sharer in His suffering, and to reign in a perpetual eternity with the Lord-to be free from the threatening destruction of the world, and not to be mixed up with the bloody carnage of wasting diseases in a common lot with others; and, not to speak of the crown itself, if, being situated in the midst of these critical evils of nature, you had the promise of an escape from this life, would you not rejoice with all your heart? If, I say, while tossing amid the tempests of this world, a near repose should invite you, would you not consider death in the light of a remedy? Thus, surrounded as you are with the knives of the executioners, and the instruments of testing tortures, stand sublime and strong, considering how great is the penalty of denying, in a time when you are unable to enjoy, the world for the sake of which you would deny, because indeed the Lord knew that cruel torments and mischievous acts of punishment would be armed against us for our destruction, in order that He might make us strong to endure the all. son, says He, "if thou come to serve God, stand fast in righteousness, and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation." Moreover, also, the blessed Apostle Paul exclaimed, and said, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
"For to me," he says, "to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For even in dying, he means, I shall not have died, for I have my life in myself: then would they truly have slain me, had they had power through this fear to cast faith out of my soul. But as long as Christ is with me, even though death overtake me, still I live, and in this present life, not this, but Christ is my life. Since, then, not even in the present life is it so, "but that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith;" so I say in that state also, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. ii. 20.) Such ought a Christian to be! I live not, he says, the common life. How livest thou then, O blessed Paul? Dost thou not see the sun, dost thou not breathe the common air? art thou not nourished with the same food as others? dost thou not tread the earth as we? needest thou not sleep, nor clothing, nor shoes? what meanest thou by, "I live not"? how dost thou not live? Why boastest thou thyself? No boasting is here. For if indeed the fact did not witness to him, a man might with some show have called it boasting; but if facts do witness, how is boasting here? Let us then learn how he lives not, for he himself says in another place, "I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me." (Gal. vi. 14.) Hear then how he says, "I no longer live." And how he says, "to me to live is Christ." The word "life" is much significant, beloved, as also the word "death." There is this life of the body, there is the life of sin, as he himself elsewhere says, "But if we died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?" (Rom. vi. 2.) It is then possible to live the life of sin. Attend diligently, I entreat you, lest my labor be vain. There is the life everlasting and immortal; with eternal life the heavenly; "for our citizenship" says he "is in heaven" (Phil. […]
11 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
And because now your word is more effectual in prayers, and supplication is more quick to obtain what is sought for in afflictions, seek more eagerly, and ask that the divine condescension would consummate the confession of all of us; that from this darkness and these snares of the world God would set us also free with you, sound and glorious; that we who here are united in the bond of charity and peace, and have stood together against the wrongs of heretics and the oppressions of the heathens, may rejoice together in the heavenly kingdom. I bid you, most blessed and most beloved brethren, ever farewell in the Lord, and always and everywhere remember me.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Then he explains how He will be honored by life and death, saying: for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Now life produces activity, for that seems to be at the root of man's life which is the principle of …
That is, I live a new life, and Christ is everything to me: both spirit, and life, and light. By life is meant, first, natural life: "for in Him we," says the apostle, "live and move" (Acts 17:28); then is meant life in sins; thus, …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
To me to live is Christ - To know, to love, to follow Christ, is my life, my glory, my joy.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:80%@v19-21
For to me to live is Christ,....
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For to me to live is Christ - My sole aim in living is to glorify Christ. He is the supreme End of my life, and I value it only as being devoted to his honor - Doddridge. His aim was not honor, learning, gold, pleasure; it was, to glorify the Lord Jesus. This was the single purpose of his soul - a purpose to which he devoted himself with as much singleness and ardor as ever did a miser to the pursuit of gold, or a devotee of pleasure to amusement, or an aspirant for fame to ambition.
HOW OMINOUSLY these words follow each other in the text—“live,” “die.” There is but a comma between them, and surely as it is in the words so is it in reality. How brief the distance between life and death! In fact there is none. Life is but death’s vestibule, and our pilgrimage on earth is but a journey to the grave. The pulse that preserves our being beats our death march, and the blood which circulates our life is floating it onward to the deeps of death. To-day we see our friends in health, to-morrow we hear of their decease.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
For--in either event (Php 1:20) I must be the gainer, "For to me," &c. to live is Christ--whatever life, time, and strength, I have, is Christ's; Christ is the sole object for which I live (Ga 2:20). to die is gain--not the act of dying, but as the Greek ("to have died") expresses, the state after death.
HOW OMINOUSLY these words follow each other in the text—“live,” “die.” There is but a comma between them, and surely as it is in the words so is it in reality. How brief the distance between life and death! In fact there is none. Life is but death’s vestibule, and our pilgrimage on earth is but a journey to the grave. The pulse that preserves our being beats our death march, and the blood which circulates our life is floating it onward to the deeps of death. To-day we see our friends in health, to-morrow we hear of their decease. We clasped the hand of the strong man but yesterday, and to-day we close his eyes. We rode in the chariot of comfort but an hour ago, and in a few more hours the last black chariot must convey us to the home of all living. Oh, how closely allied is death to life! The lamb teat sporteth in the field must soon feel the knife. The ox that loweth in the pasture is fattening for the slaughter. Trees do but grow that they may be felled. Yea, and greater things than these feel death. Empires rise and flourish, they flourish but to decay, they rise to fall. How often do we take up the volume of history, and read of the rise and fall of empires. We hear of the coronation and the death of kings. Death is the black servant who rides behind the chariot of life. See life! and death is close behind it. Death reacheth far throughout this world, and hath stamped all terrestrial things with the broad arrow of the grave. Stars die mayhap; it is said that conflagrations have been seen far off in the distant ether, and astronomers have marked the funerals of worlds, the decay of those mighty orbs that we had imagined set for ever in sockets of silver to glisten as the lamps of eternity.
For to me to live is Christ - Whether I live or die, Christ is gain to me. While I live I am Christ’s property and servant, and Christ is my portion; if I die - if I be called to witness the truth at the expense of my life, this will be gain; I shall be saved from the remaining troubles and difficulties in life, and be put immediately in possession of my heavenly inheritance. As, therefore, it respects myself, it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether I be taken off by a violent death, or whether I be permitted to continue here longer; in either case I can lose nothing.
Modern Voices1 voice
A commentator
Reinhard Bonnke1940–2019
Faith: The Link with God’s Power (CfaN Bible study series)
proposed
Paul’s fear of God placed him on higher ground, and he said, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). These are the triumphs of faith!
The words behind it
9 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ἐμοὶ | emoi | To me myself | G1473 → | 839 times |
| γὰρ | gar | for | G1063 → | 1039 times |
| τὸ | to | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ζῆν | zen | to live | G2198 → | |
| Χριστὸς | christos | [is] Christ | G5547 → | 523 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| τὸ | to | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἀποθανεῖν | apothanein | to die | G599 → | |
| κέρδος. | kerdos | [is] gain. | G2771 → |
ἘμοὶTo me myself
emoiG1473 →839 times
γὰρfor
garG1063 →1039 times
τὸ<the>
toG3588 →19766 times
ζῆνto live
zenG2198 →
Χριστὸς[is] Christ
christosG5547 →523 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
τὸ<the>
toG3588 →19766 times
ἀποθανεῖνto die
apothaneinG599 →
κέρδος.[is] gain.
kerdosG2771 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Galatians 2:20I 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…
it leads to
- Galatians 5:24
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
- 2 Corinthians 5:15
And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.
- Romans 6:4–6
We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of…
- Colossians 3:3–4
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
- 2 Corinthians 4:10–11
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
- Galatians 5:24
Through
2 Corinthians 5:1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
it leads to
- 1 John 3:2
Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 19:25–26
But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
- 1 John 3:2
Through
Philippians 1:23I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed.
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
- 2 Corinthians 5:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Philippians
This page draws on 17 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2; Ambrosiaster, EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 1.21.1-2; Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 146: “The Good Man's Life and Death” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Cyprian, Treatise VII. On the Mortality; Cyprian, Pseudo-Cyprian On the Glory of Martyrdom; Cyprian, Epistle LXXVI; Gaius Marius Victorinus, EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 1.21; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Philippians 3; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Reinhard Bonnke, Faith: The Link with God’s Power (CfaN Bible study series); Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Philippians and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Philippians.