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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 [fn] 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 [fn] 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 [fn] 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 [fn] 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.