1 If, therefore, ye have consolation in the Messiah, or if a commingling of hearts in love, or if a fellowship of the Spirit, or if compassions and sympathies;
2 complete ye my joy, by having one apprehension, and one love, and one soul, and one mind.
3 And do nothing in strife, or in vain glory; but, with lowliness of mind, let each esteem his neighbor as better than himself.
4 And let not each be solicitous [only] for himself, but every one also for his neighbor.
5 And think ye so in yourselves, as Jesus the Messiah also thought;
6 who, as he was in the likeness of God, deemed it no trespass to be the coequal of God;
7 yet divested himself, and assumed the likeness of a servant, and was in the likeness of men, and was found in fashion as a man;
8 and he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore, also, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is more excellent than all names;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [beings] in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth;
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus the Messiah is the Lord, to the glory of God his Father.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as ye have at all times obeyed, not only when I was near to you, but now when I am far from you, prosecute the work of your life, more abundantly, with fear and with trembling.
13 For God is operating in you, both to purpose, and also to perform that which ye desire.
14 Do all things without murmuring, and without altercation;
15 that ye may be perfect and without blemish, as the sincere children of God, who are resident in a perverse and crooked generation; and that ye may appear among them as luminaries in the world;
16 so that ye may be to them in place of life; for my glory in the day of the Messiah, that I may not have run in vain or toiled for naught.
17 And if I should be made a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and exult with you all.
18 And so also do ye rejoice and exult with me.
19 But I hope in our Lord Jesus, that I shall shortly send Timothy unto you, so that I also may have composure, when informed concerning you.
20 For I have no other one here, who, like my self, will sincerely care for your welfare.
21 For they all seek their own, not the [things] of Jesus the Messiah.
22 But ye know the proof of him, that as a son with his father, so he labored with me in the gospel.
23 Him I hope shortly to send to you, when I shall have seen how [things result] with me.
24 And I trust in my Lord, that I shall shortly come myself to you.
25 But now, a circumstance urged me to send to you Epaphroditus, the brother who is an assistant and laborer with me, but is your legate and minister to my wants.
26 For he longed to see you all, and was anxious, because he knew ye had heard, that he was sick.
27 And indeed he was sick, nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him: nor was it on him only, but also on me, that I might not have trouble upon trouble.
28 Promptly, therefore, have I sent him to you; so that when ye see him, ye may again be joyful, and I may have a little breathing.
29 Receive him then in the Lord, with all joy; and hold in honor those who are such.
30 For, because of the Messiah's work, he came near to death, and little regarded his life, that he might fulfill what you lacked in the ministration to me.
|
