¹So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,²complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.³Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,¹³for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.¹⁴Do all things without grumbling or questioning,¹⁵that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,¹⁶holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.¹⁷Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.¹⁸Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

¹⁹I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.²⁰For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.²¹They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.²²But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.²³I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me,²⁴and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.²⁵I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need,²⁶for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.²⁷Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.²⁸I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.²⁹So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men,³⁰for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.