2:1 If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy,
2:2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.
2:3 Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
2:4 each looking out not for his own interests, but (also) everyone for those of others.
2:5 Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
2:6 Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
2:7 Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance,
2:8 he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
2:9 Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
2:12 So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
2:13 For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.
2:14 Do everything without grumbling or questioning,
2:15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world,
2:16 as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
2:17 But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.
2:18 In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.
2:19 I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be heartened by hearing news of you.
2:20 For I have no one comparable to him for genuine interest in whatever concerns you.
2:21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
2:22 But you know his worth, how as a child with a father he served along with me in the cause of the gospel.
2:23 He it is, then, whom I hope to send as soon as I see how things go with me,
2:24 but I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.
2:25 With regard to Epaphroditus, my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, your messenger and minister in my need, I consider it necessary to send him to you.
2:26 For he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was ill.
2:27 He was indeed ill, close to death; but God had mercy on him, not just on him but also on me, so that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.
2:28 I send him therefore with the greater eagerness, so that, on seeing him, you may rejoice again, and I may have less anxiety.
2:29 Welcome him then in the Lord with all joy and hold such people in esteem,
2:30 because for the sake of the work of Christ he came close to death, risking his life to make up for those services to me that you could not perform.