1If then there is any exhortation in Christ, if any encouragement from love, if any partaking of the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
2make my joy full, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, with union of soul cherishing one mind;
3doing nothing in the spirit of faction, or in the spirit of vain-glory, but in humility esteeming others as better than yourselves;
4looking each of you not to his own interest, but each to the interest of others also.
5Yea, let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus,
6who, being in the form of God, did not regard it as a thing to be grasped at to be on an equality with God,
7but made himself of no consideration, taking the form of a servant, and becoming like men;
8and in what appertained to him appearing as a man, he humbled himself, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9Wherefore God also highly exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name;
10that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth,
11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.
12So then, my beloved, as ye always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14Do all things without murmurings and doubts;
15that ye may be blameless and pure, children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom ye shine as luminaries in the world,
16holding forth the word of life, that I may have whereof to boast against the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain, or labor in vain.
17But if I am even poured out on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.
18For the same reason, do ye also rejoice, and rejoice with me.
19But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I know your state.
20For I have no one like-minded, who will have a true concern for your state;
21for all of them are seeking their own things, not those of Christ Jesus.
22But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son serves a father, he served with me for the gospel.
23Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, as soon as I see how it will go with me;
24but I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come soon.
25Yet I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and minister to my wants;
26for he was longing after you all, and was much troubled, because ye heard that he was sick.
27For indeed he was sick near to death; but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
28I send him therefore the more speedily, that when ye see him ye may again rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
29Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in honor;
30because he was near to death on account of the work, hazarding his life to supply what was wanting on your part in the ministration to me.