1 A re you strong because you belong to Christ? Does His love comfort you? Do you have joy by being as one in sharing the Holy Spirit? Do you have loving-kindness and pity for each other?

¶ 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 T hen give me true joy by thinking the same thoughts. Keep having the same love. Be as one in thoughts and actions.

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

3 N othing should be done because of pride or thinking about yourself. Think of other people as more important than yourself.

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

4 D o not always be thinking about your own plans only. Be happy to know what other people are doing. Christ Was Not Proud

with each one not looking to their own things, but also to the things of others.

5 T hink as Christ Jesus thought.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 J esus has always been as God is. But He did not hold to His rights as God.

who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,

7 H e put aside everything that belonged to Him and made Himself the same as a servant who is owned by someone. He became human by being born as a man.

but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men,

8 A fter He became a man, He gave up His important place and obeyed by dying on a cross.

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

9 B ecause of this, God lifted Jesus high above everything else. He gave Him a name that is greater than any other name.

Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name,

10 S o when the name of Jesus is spoken, everyone in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow down before Him.

that 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 every tongue will say Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone will give honor to God the Father.

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

12 M y Christian friends, you have obeyed me when I was with you. You have obeyed even more when I have been away. You must keep on working to show you have been saved from the punishment of sin. Be afraid that you may not please God.

¶ 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 H e is working in you. God is helping you obey Him. God is doing what He wants done in you.

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

14 B e glad you can do the things you should be doing. Do all things without arguing and talking about how you wish you did not have to do them.

¶ Do all things without murmurings and doubts,

15 I n that way, you can prove yourselves to be without blame. You are God’s children and no one can talk against you, even in a sin-loving and sin-sick world. You are to shine as lights among the sinful people of this world.

that 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 T ake a strong hold on the Word of Life. Then when Christ comes again, I will be happy that I did not work with you for nothing.

holding 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 E ven if I give my life as a gift on the altar to God for you, I am glad and share this joy with you.

And 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 Y ou must be happy and share your joy with me also. Timothy Is Being Sent to You

For the same cause ye also have joy and rejoice with me.

19 I hope by the help of the Lord Jesus that I can send Timothy to you soon. It will comfort me when he brings news about you.

But 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 I have no one else who is as interested in you as Timothy.

For I have no one likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.

21 E veryone else thinks of himself instead of Jesus Christ.

For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

22 Y ou know how Timothy proved to be such a true friend to me when we preached the Good News. He was like a son helping his father.

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

23 I hope to send Timothy as soon as I know what they are going to do to me.

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

24 I hope by the help of the Lord that I can come soon also.

But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.

25 I thought it was right that I send Epaphroditus back to you. You helped me by sending him to me. We have worked together like brothers. He was like a soldier fighting beside me.

Yet 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 H e has been wanting to see all of you and was troubled because you heard he was sick.

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

27 I t is true, he was sick. Yes, he almost died, but God showed loving-kindness to him and to me. If he had died, I would have had even more sorrow.

For 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 T his is all the more reason I have sent him to you. When you see him, you will be glad and I will have less sorrow.

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 T ake him into your church with joy. Show respect for men like him.

Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and esteem such

30 H e came close to death while working for Christ. He almost died doing things for me that you could not do.

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