A number of translations render the conjunction used here as “only” (Goodspeed Moffatt Revised Standard Version New English Bible etc.). Such a rendering suggests that there must be a condition which needs to be satisfied, but it is not likely that Paul is introducing a parenthetical thought. Rather, he is making a kind of concluding statement, and one can best bring out the meaning by rendering the conjunction as “this one thing I say” (Barclay), “it is important that” (Phillips New American Bible), or however that may be (Good News Translation).

What the apostle says next is somewhat elliptical, literally “whereunto we have reached, by the same to walk.” Reflecting what appears to be the effort of some ancient copyist to remedy this obscurity, some inferior Greek texts (those which underlie the Textus Receptus on which King James Version is based) include the word “rule” after “the same” and an appended clause “think the same thing.” These interpolations seem to have been made on the basis of Phil 2.2 and Gal 6.16.

The infinitive “to walk” is used in an imperative sense. It seems basically “to stand in a row” or “to walk in line.” Even without inserting the word “rule,” some kind of “rule” or “standard” may be understood as implied in the verb, and is demanded by the context. For this reason Good News Translation renders the clause explicitly as let us go forward according to the same rules. One can also translate “we must live up to the standard” (Barclay “Let us never fall below the standard of conduct”). Or one may keep the metaphor of the race by rendering “we must continue the course in accordance with the same rules.” Let us go forward may be rendered in some instances as “let us continue to live,” or “let us continue to act.” It may, however, be important to restructure the relation of activity to rules by saying “let the same rules tell us what we should do,” or “let us continue to do what the same rules say.”

The verb rendered we have followed originally meant “to come before” or “to anticipate,” but in the New Testament it is generally used in the sense of “to come,” “to arrive at,” or “to reach.” The clause can be translated as we have followed until now or “we have obeyed thus far.”

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 .