Philippians 1:22

‘But if to live in the flesh, if this will bring fruit from my work, then what I will choose I do not know (or ‘am unable to declare').'

The broken syntax in the Greek here emphasises the excitement and perturbation of Paul's mind at this point. He is in a sense wrestling with himself. He longs to be with Christ and thus to glorify Him the more, but he is then faced with the fact that for him to continue living in the flesh on earth will, in spite of all its disadvantages, enable him to make what God has already accomplished through him more fruitbearing in the lives of his converts, and will result in even more new converts (compare Philippians 1:13). It will enable him to go on founding, and building on what he has founded, producing gold and silver and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:10) as he carries through ‘the work of God through him' (in Philippians ‘ergon' regularly refers to the work of God - Philippians 1:6; Philippians 2:30). It will be for the continuing good of the churches. And by this also Christ will be glorified. Thus as far as he is concerned, he is ready to be martyred, but if he can produce yet more fruit by it, he is also content to go on living. And that is why he does not know which, if given the opportunity, he would choose (or which to declare as probable). Of course the choice did not finally lie with him. Humanly speaking it lay with the Roman authorities. From the divine viewpoint it lay with God. But Paul was ready for whichever choice was made.

‘I do not know' or ‘I am unable to declare'. The Greek can be translated either way, and basically they indicate the same thing, that he was in no position to be dogmatic about what his future held because it was in God's hands alone.