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Philippians 1:21

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

KJV

Ἐμοὶ γὰρ τὸ ζῆν Χριστὸς καὶ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν κέρδος.

Greek NT

Mihi enim vivere Christus est, et mori lucrum.

Vulgate

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

ASV

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

Douay-Rheims

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In the original Greek

8 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

Χριστός
christos
noun · 530×
γάρ
gar
conjunction · 1036×
ζάω
zao
verb · 140×
κέρδος
kerdos
noun · 3×
καί
kai
conjunction · 8973×
ἀποθνήσκω
apothnesko
verb · 112×
ἐγώ
ego
pronoun · 1720×
o
article · 19778×

Themes

Historic Christian voices

10 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§1010Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."574 "The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him.575 What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's gr…
§1698The first and last point of reference of this catechesis will always be Jesus Christ himself, who is "the way, and the truth, and the life."24 It is by looking to him in faith that Christ's faithful can hope that he himself fulfills his promises in them, and that, by loving him with the same love with which he has loved them, they may perform works in keeping with their dignity…
I write to the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless ye hinder me. I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Allow me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be …
Heidelberg Catechism · 2 passages
Q. Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die? A. Our death does not pay for our sins. Rather, it puts an end to our sinning and is our entrance into eternal life.
Q. How does the resurrection of the body comfort you? A. Not only my soul will be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head, but even my very flesh, raised by the power of Christ, will be reunited with my soul and made like Christ's glorious body.
Lucian describes the Christians as people who worship a man who was crucified in Palestine and who introduced new rites among them. They revere him as a lawgiver and live according to his teachings. They despise death and are willingly devoted to their faith. This passage, though mocking in tone, provides independent pagan testimony to the historical existence of Christ, the fa…

Cross-references

  • 1Cor 1:30 — But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
  • 1Cor 3:22 — Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
  • 1Cor 3:22 — Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
  • 1Cor 9:26 — I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
  • 1Kgs 19:4 — But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my l
  • 1Pet 5:1 — The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
  • 1Thess 3:8 — For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
  • 1Thess 4:13 — But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
  • 1Tim 6:6 — But godliness with contentment is great gain.
  • 2Cor 5:1 — For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
  • 2Cor 5:6 — Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
  • 2Cor 5:8 — We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
  • Col 3:4 — When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
  • Eccl 7:1 — A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
  • Gal 2:20 — I 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 fo
  • Gal 6:14 — But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
  • Isa 57:1 — 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.
  • Jonah 4:3 — Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
  • Luke 12:37 — Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
  • Phil 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
  • Phil 1:23 — For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
  • Phil 2:21 — For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.
  • Ps 73:26 — My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
  • Rev 14:13 — And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do foll
  • Rev 14:13 — And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do foll
  • Rom 8:23 — And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
  • Rom 8:35 — Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?