Although he has included Timothy’s name in the opening greeting, Paul begins his thanksgiving with the first person singular “I,” and the first person singular is maintained throughout the letter. The thanksgiving is offered to my God, reflecting Paul’s profound personal relationship to God (cf. Acts 27.23). In Greek the occasion for this thanksgiving is stated rather ambiguously, literally “upon all remembrance of you.” It is possible to take “you” in a subjective sense, meaning “on the basis of your remembering,” with the resultant rendering “for all your remembrance of me” (Moffatt). On the basis of this view, Paul is expressing appreciation for his Philippian friends’ gift of money. But this interpretation does not seem to represent his real meaning. For one thing, the words “of me” are not found in the Greek text. Furthermore, the word translated “remembrance” occurs frequently in the opening verses of Paul’s letters (Rom 1.9; Eph 1.16; Philemon 4). In every instance it is closely associated with “thanksgiving” and is used in the sense of “mentioning in prayer” or “remembering in prayer.” Consequently, most translations render this clause as every time I think of you (Good News Translation New American Bible cf. New English Bible Jerusalem Bible “whenever I think of you”), correctly suggesting that, whenever Paul thinks of his Christian friends at Philippi, he gives thanks to God.

In many languages an expression such as my God cannot be used, for one cannot really possess God. Accordingly, this expression must be rendered as “the God whom I worship” or “the one who is God to me.”

The phrase for you must be understood in the sense of “because of you” or “because of what you have done.”

In some languages it may be necessary to place every time I think of you at the beginning of verse 3, so as to read “Every time I think of you I thank my God for you.” Every time may be rendered in many languages as “whenever”; every time I think of you must be expressed in some languages as “whenever you come into my thoughts,” “whenever I think about what you have done,” or “whenever what you did speaks to my mind.”

Quoted with permission from Luo, I-Jin. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .