1 ¶ Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of charity, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

2 f ulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same charity, unanimous, minding the one thing.

3 L et nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in humility let each esteem others better than themselves,

4 w ith each one not looking to their own things, but also to the things of others.

5 L et this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 w ho, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,

7 b ut emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men,

8 a nd being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9 T herefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name,

10 t hat at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth,

11 a nd that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the Father.

12 ¶ Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always hearkened, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own saving health with fear and trembling.

13 F or it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

14 ¶ Do all things without murmurings and doubts,

15 t hat ye may be blameless and innocent, children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,

16 h olding fast the word of life, that I may glory in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

17 A nd even if I am poured out as an offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.

18 F or the same cause ye also have joy and rejoice with me.

19 B ut I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state.

20 F or I have no one likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.

21 F or all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

22 B ut ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel.

23 T herefore, I hope to send him presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

24 B ut I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.

25 Y et I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labour and fellowsoldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my needs.

26 F or he longed after you all and was full of heaviness, because ye had heard that he had been sick

27 F or indeed he was sick near unto death, but God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

28 I sent him, therefore, the more carefully, that when ye see him again, ye may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful.

29 R eceive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and esteem such

30 b ecause for the work of the Christ he was near unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.