1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender affection and compassion,
2 make my joy full by being of the same mind, having the same love, being of one soul, minding one thing,
3 doing nothing through rivalry or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
4 Let each of you look out not only for his own concerns, but each for the concerns of others as well.
5 Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a thing to be seized,
7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
8 and being found in outward form as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, even the death of a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 So, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and arguments,
15 so that you may become blameless and harmless, unblemished children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may boast in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
17 Yes, and if I am even being poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and priestly service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with you all.
18 And in the same way you also rejoice, and rejoice together with me.
19 Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I too may be encouraged when I know your state.
20 For I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state.
21 For they all seek their own things, not the things of Christ Jesus.
22 But you know his tested worth, that as a child serves a father, he served with me for the gospel.
23 So I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how things go with me;
24 but I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.
25 Yet I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need,
26 since he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.
27 For indeed he was sick almost to death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.
28 I have sent him, therefore, the more eagerly, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful.
29 Receive him, then, in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem,
30 since it was for the work of Christ that he came near to death, disregarding his own life to supply what was lacking in your service to me.