1 | If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, |
2 | make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; |
3 | [doing] nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; |
4 | not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. |
5 | Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: |
6 | who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, |
7 | but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; |
8 | and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient [even] unto death, yea, the death of the cross. |
9 | Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; |
10 | that in 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 | So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, 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 work, for his good pleasure. |
14 | Do all things without murmurings and questionings: |
15 | that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, |
16 | holding forth the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain. |
17 | Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all: |
18 | and in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me. |
19 | But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. |
20 | For I have no man likeminded, who will care truly for your state. |
21 | For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. |
22 | But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child [serveth] a father, [so] he served with me in furtherance of the gospel. |
23 | Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me: |
24 | but I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall come shortly. |
25 | But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need; |
26 | since he longed after you all, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was 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, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow. |
28 | I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. |
29 | Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy; and hold such in honor: |
30 | because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me. |