Biblion Bible Commentary
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To Live Is Christ
Philippians 1:21-24
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. · WEB
Caught between two goods, Paul cannot choose — and settles it by asking which is better for other people.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Six words in the Greek, and they only work together. If living is Christ, then dying cannot be loss, because it removes nothing that living consisted of.
Verse 22 states the dilemma honestly: if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work — yet I don't know what I will choose. An apostle admits he cannot decide.
Then verse 23: I am hard pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. The verb is analuō, used of loosing a ship's cable or striking a tent, and its noun form describes his death in his last letter 2 Timothy 4:6. The image is of leaving rather than ending.
Two prospects are weighed here, not three. Paul describes no interval and names no location — and since the dead sleep and rise at the coming 1 Thessalonians 4:15–16, the next moment after departure is that morning. His own hope in this letter is stated twice: the resurrection Philippians 3:11, and the body transformed when the Savior comes Philippians 3:21.
Verse 24 breaks the tie, and not in his own favor: to remain in the flesh is more needful for your sake.
held with reason What this mark means