| 1 If I may advise you in the name of Christ and if you can hear it as the voice of love; if we share the same spirit and are capable of mercy and compassion, then I beg of you | |
| 2 make me very happy: have one love, one spirit, one feeling, | |
| 3 do nothing through rivalry or vain conceit. On the contrary let each of you gently consider the others as more important than yourselves. | |
| 4 Do not seek your own interest, but rather that of others. | |
| 5 Your attitude should be the same as Jesus Christ had: | |
| 6 Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, | |
| 7 but emptied himself, taking on the nature of a servant, made in human likeness, and in his appearance found as a man. | |
| 8 He humbled himself by being obedient to death, death on the cross. | |
| 9 That is why God exalted him and gave him the Name which outshines all names, | |
| 10 so that at the Name of Jesus all knees should bend in heaven, on earth and among the dead, | |
| 11 and all tongues proclaim that Christ Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father. | |
| 12 Therefore, my dearest friends, as you always obeyed me while I was with you, even more now that I am far from you, continue working out your salvation “with fear and trembling.” | |
| 13 It is God who makes you not only wish but also carry out what pleases him. | |
| 14 Do everything without grumbling, | |
| 15 so that without fault or blame, you will be children of God without reproach among a crooked and perverse generation. You are a light among them, like stars in the universe, | |
| 16 holding to the Word of life. I shall feel proud of you on the day of Christ on seeing that my effort and labor have not been in vain. | |
| 17 And if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I rejoice and continue to share your joy; | |
| 18 and you likewise should rejoice and share my joy. | |
| 19 The Lord Jesus lets me hope that I may soon send you Timothy, and have news of you. With this I will feel encouraged. | |
| 20 For I have no one so concerned for you as he is. | |
| 21 Most follow their own interest, not those of Christ Jesus. | |
| 22 But Timothy has proved himself, as you know. Like a son at the side of his father, he has been with me at the service of the Gospel. | |
| 23 Because of that I hope to send him to you as soon as I see how things work out for me. | |
| 24 Nevertheless the Lord lets me think that I myself shall be coming soon. | |
| 25 I judged it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, who worked and fought at my side and whom you sent to help me in my great need. | |
| 26 In fact, he missed you very much and was still more worried because you had heard of his sickness. | |
| 27 He was indeed sick and almost died, but God took pity on him and on me, sparing me greater sorrow. | |
| 28 And so I am eager to send him to you, so that on seeing him you will be glad and I will be at peace. | |
| 29 Receive him then with joy, as is fitting in the Lord. Consider highly persons like him, | |
| 30 who almost died for the work of Christ; he risked his life to serve me on your behalf when you could not help me. | |
