2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tenderness and mercies,

² fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.

³ Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself.

⁴ Look not every man to his own things, but every man also to the things of others.

⁵ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,

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

⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

⁸ And being found in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death—even the death of the cross.

⁹ Therefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name,

¹⁰ that at 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 Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not only in my presence, 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 do of His good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do all things without murmuring and disputing,

¹⁵ that ye may be blameless and unoffending, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,

¹⁶ holding forth the Word of Life, that I may rejoice in the Day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

¹⁷ Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am joyful and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸ For the same cause also be ye joyful, and rejoice with me.

¹⁹ But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be comforted when I know of your state;

²⁰ for I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.

²¹ For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

²² But ye know the proof of him, how as a son with a father he hath served with me in the Gospel.

²³ Him therefore I hope to send presently, as soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

²⁴ But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.

²⁵ Yet I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants.

²⁶ For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness, because ye had heard that he had been 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, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

²⁸ I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful.

²⁹ Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in high honor,

³⁰ because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not having regard for his own life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.