¹ If, then, any exhortation is in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

² fulfil ye my joy, that ye may mind the same thing--having the same love--of one soul--minding the one thing,

³ nothing in rivalry or vain-glory, but in humility of mind one another counting more excellent than yourselves--

⁴ each not to your own look ye, but each also to the things of others.

⁵ For, let this mind be in you that is also in Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God,

⁷ but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,

⁸ and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death--death even of a cross,

⁹ wherefore, also, God did highly exalt him, and gave to him a name that is above every name,

¹⁰ that in the name of Jesus every knee may bow--of heavenlies, and earthlies, and what are under the earth--

¹¹ and every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹² So that, my beloved, as ye always obey, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling your own salvation work out,

¹³ for God it is who is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

¹⁴ All things do without murmurings and reasonings,

¹⁵ that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God, unblemished in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse, among whom ye do appear as luminaries in the world,

¹⁶ the word of life holding forth, for rejoicing to me in regard to a day of Christ, that not in vain did I run, nor in vain did I labour;

¹⁷ but if also I am poured forth upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and joy with you all,

¹⁸ because of this do ye also rejoice and joy with me.

¹⁹ And I hope, in the Lord Jesus, Timotheus to send quickly to you, that I also may be of good spirit, having known the things concerning you,

²⁰ for I have no one like-minded, who sincerely for the things concerning you will care,

²¹ for the whole seek their own things, not the things of the Christ Jesus,

²² and the proof of him ye know, that as a child serveth a father, with me he did serve in regard to the good news;

²³ him, indeed, therefore, I hope to send, when I may see through the things concerning me--immediately;

²⁴ and I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall quickly come.

²⁵ And I thought it necessary Epaphroditus--my brother, and fellow-workman, and fellow-soldier, and your apostle and servant to my need--to send unto you,

²⁶ seeing he was longing after you all, and in heaviness, because ye heard that he ailed,

²⁷ for he also ailed nigh to death, but God did deal kindly with him, and not with him only, but also with me, that sorrow upon sorrow I might not have.

²⁸ The more eagerly, therefore, I did send him, that having seen him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful;

²⁹ receive him, therefore, in the Lord, with all joy, and hold such in honour,

³⁰ because on account of the work of the Christ he drew near to death, having hazarded the life that he might fill up your deficiency of service unto me.