King James Version follows the Received Text in reversing the order of verses 16 and 17. This change seems to have been made to conform the text to the order of the two classes of preachers mentioned in verse 15; but the change is not supported by the best textual witness, and it is not followed in most translations. The authentic text has a chiastic (crisscross) order; that is, verse 16 discusses what is mentioned in verse 15b, and verse 17 refers to the content of 15a.
These do so from love is literally “the ones on the one hand out of love.” Paul does not say for whom. One possibility is “out of love for him,” meaning Christ (so German common language translation [Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch]). The context indicates, however, that love is directed to the apostle, for he is dealing with the influence of his imprisonment on the preaching of the gospel. Moffatt translates explicitly “the latter do it from love to me” (New English Bible “moved by love for me”; Phillips “out of their love for me”).
In rendering these do so from love, it is important to make certain that these points to the last mentioned group, namely, the others who preached Christ from genuine good will. It may be necessary to say “these latter do so from love.”
Good News Translation renders a Greek causative participle by a finite verb: because they know (Goodspeed Phillips “for they know”; Knox “because they recognize”).
God has given me the work translates a single Greek verb which literally means “I recline” or “I am set” (Barclay [Barclay] “I am lying in prison”). It is a military term describing a soldier posted as a sentinel (Bruce “I am posed here”), but the term can also be used figuratively with the meaning of “to be appointed” or “to be chosen” (cf. Luke 2.34). The appointment to defend the gospel comes from God, and Good News Translation makes this fact explicit: God has given me the work. If this interpretation is adopted, the word defending may have the sense of “vindicating.”
God has given me the work implies that God had assigned the particular work to Paul by way of a direct command. It may be appropriate to indicate this in some languages in the form of direct discourse, for example, “God has said to me, This is your work,” or “God said to me, Your work is to defend the good news.”
As in Pp. 1.7, of defending the gospel may be rendered as “to show that the good news is true,” or “to prove that the good news is right.”
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 .