1IF THEN our common life in Christ yields anything to stir the heart, any loving consolation, any sharing of the Spirit, any warmth of affection or compassion, 2fill up my cup of happiness by thinking and feeling alike, with the same love for one another, the same turn of mind, and a common care for unity. 3There must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you, but you must humbly reckon others better than yourselves. 4Look to each other's interest and not merely to your own.
5Let your bearing towards one another arise out of your life in Christ Jesus.
6For the divine nature was his from the first;
yet he did not think to snatch at equality with God,
7but made himself nothing, assuming the nature of a slave.
Bearing the human likeness,
8revealed in human shape,
he humbled himself,
and in obedience accepted even death—
death on a cross.
9Therefore God raised him to the heights
and bestowed on him the name above all names,
10 [ Is.45.23. ] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—
in heaven, on earth, and in the depths—
11and every tongue confess, 'Jesus Christ is Lord',
to the glory of God the Father.
12So you too, my friends, must be obedient, as always; even more, now that I am away, than when I was with you. You must work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; 13for it is God who works in you, inspiring both the will and the deed, for his own chosen purpose.
14Do all you have to do without complaint or wrangling. 15Show yourselves guileless and above reproach, faultless children of God in a warped and crooked generation, in which you shine like stars in a dark world and proffer the word of life. 16Thus you will be my pride on the Day of Christ, proof that I did not run my race in vain, or work in vain. 17But if my life-blood is to crown that sacrifice which is the offering up of your faith, I am glad of it, and I share my gladness with you all. 18Rejoice, you no less than I, and let us share our joy.
19I HOPE (under the Lord Jesus) to send Timothy to you soon; it will cheer me to hear news of you. 20There is no one else here who sees things as I do, and takes a genuine interest in your concerns; 21they are all bent on their own ends, not on the cause of Christ Jesus. 22But Timothy's record is known to you: you know that he has been at my side in the service of the Gospel like a son working under his father. 23Timothy, then, I hope to send as soon as ever I can see how things are going with me; 24and I am confident, under the Lord, that I shall myself be coming before long.
25I feel also I must send our brother Epaphroditus, my fellow-worker and comrade, whom you commissioned to minister to my needs. 26He has been missing all of you sadly, and has been distressed that you heard he was ill. 27(He was indeed dangerously ill, but God was merciful to him, and merciful no less to me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.) 28For this reason I am all the more eager to send him, to give you the happiness of seeing him again, and to relieve my sorrow. 29Welcome him then in the fellowship of the Lord with wholehearted delight. You should honour men like him; 30in Christ's cause he came near to death, risking his life to render me the service you could not give.
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