Philippians 2

¹Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any inner affections and compassions,

²fulfill my joy so that you may be of the same mind, having the same love, united in soul, minding the one thing,

³nothing according to self-interest or according to vain conceit, but in humility esteeming one another surpassing yourselves,

⁴each looking at not the things of yourselves, but each also the things of others.

⁵Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider to be equal with God something to be grasped,

⁷but emptied Himself, having taken the form of a servant, having been made in the likeness of men.

⁸And having been found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself, having become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted Him and granted to Him the name above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in the heavens and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as always you obeyed, not only as in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³For God is the One working in you both to will and to work on behalf of His good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without grumblings and disputings,

¹⁵so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God unblemished in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

¹⁶holding forth the word of life for a boast to me in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain, nor did I toil in vain.

¹⁷But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸And likewise you also be glad and rejoice with me.

¹⁹But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be of good spirit, having known the things concerning you.

²⁰For I have no one like-minded, who genuinely will care for the things concerning you.

²¹For those all seek the things of themselves, not the things of Jesus Christ.

²²But you know his proven worth, that as a child with a father he served with me in the gospel.

²³Therefore indeed I hope to send him immediately, when I shall have seen the things concerning me.

²⁴And I am persuaded in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.

²⁵Now I deemed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister of my need,

²⁶since he was longing for you all and being deeply distressed because you heard that he was sick.

²⁷And indeed he was sick, nearly unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.

²⁸Therefore I sent him all the more eagerly, so that having seen him again you may rejoice, and I may be less anxious.

²⁹Therefore receive him in the Lord with all joy, and hold such in honor,

³⁰because on account of the work of Christ he drew near unto death, having disregarded his life so that he might fill up your deficiency of service toward me.