| 1 | If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, |
| 2 | make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. |
| 3 | Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. |
| 4 | Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. |
| 5 | Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, |
| 6 | who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, |
| 7 | but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, |
| 8 | he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross. |
| 9 | Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, |
| 10 | so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, |
| 11 | and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. |
| 12 | Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; |
| 13 | for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. |
| 14 | Do all things without murmuring and arguing, |
| 15 | so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. |
| 16 | It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. |
| 17 | But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you — |
| 18 | and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me. |
| 19 | I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. |
| 20 | I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. |
| 21 | All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. |
| 22 | But Timothy’s worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. |
| 23 | I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me; |
| 24 | and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon. |
| 25 | Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus — my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, your messenger and minister to my need; |
| 26 | for he has been longing for all of you, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. |
| 27 | He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. |
| 28 | I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. |
| 29 | Welcome him then in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people, |
| 30 | because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me. |