Philippians 2

¹ So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any tenderness and compassion,

² then make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, united in spirit and set on one purpose.

³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests, but each of you also to the interests of others.

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus:

⁶ who, existing in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be seized,

⁷ but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
becoming as human beings are.
And being found in appearance as a man,

⁸ he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death —
even death on a cross.

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,

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

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

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — keep working out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world,

¹⁶ holding fast to the word of life. Then I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

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

¹⁸ In the same way you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.

²⁰ I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care for your interests.

²¹ For they all look out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

²² But you know Timothy's proven worth — how, like a son with his father, he served with me in the work of the gospel.

²³ So I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me,

²⁴ and I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

²⁵ But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus — my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need —

²⁶ for he has been longing for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.

²⁷ Indeed he was ill, and nearly died. But God had mercy on him — and not only on him but also on me, to spare me one sorrow piled on another.

²⁸ So I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less anxious.

²⁹ So welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him,

³⁰ because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.