2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tenderness and mercies,
2 fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself.
4 Look not every man to his own things, but every man also to the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death—even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven and things on earth and things under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmuring and disputing,
15 that ye may be blameless and unoffending, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,
16 holding forth the Word of Life, that I may rejoice in the Day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.
17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am joyful and rejoice with you all.
18 For the same cause also be ye joyful, and rejoice with me.
19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be comforted when I know of your state;
20 for I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.
21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.
22 But ye know the proof of him, how as a son with a father he hath served with me in the Gospel.
23 Him therefore I hope to send presently, as soon as I shall see how it will go with me.
24 But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.
25 Yet I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants.
26 For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness, because ye had heard that he had been sick.
27 For indeed he was sick nigh 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 I may be the less sorrowful.
29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in high honor,
30 because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not having regard for his own life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.
