2 ¹⁹ I HOPE (under the Lord Jesus) to send Timothy to you soon; it will cheer me to hear news of you. 2 ²⁰ There is no one else here who sees things as I do, and takes Or: no one else here like him, who takes ... a genuine interest in your concerns; 2 ²¹ they are all bent on their own ends, not on the cause of Christ Jesus. 2 ²² But 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. 2 ²³ Timothy, then, I hope to send as soon as ever I can see how things are going with me; 2 ²⁴ and I am confident, under the Lord, that I shall myself be coming before long.

2 ²⁵ I feel also I must send our brother Epaphroditus, my fellow-worker and comrade, whom you commissioned to minister to my needs. 2 ²⁶ He has been missing all of you sadly, and has been distressed that you heard he was ill. 2 ²⁷ (He was indeed dangerously ill, but God was merciful to him, and merciful no less to me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.) 2 ²⁸ For 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. 2 ²⁹ Welcome him then in the fellowship of the Lord with wholehearted delight. You should honour men like him; 2 ³⁰ in Christ's cause he came near to death, risking his life to render me the service you could not give.