¹ So if in Christ there is anything that will move you, any incentive in love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any warmth or sympathy -- I appeal to you,

² make my joy complete by being of a single mind, one in love, one in heart and one in mind.

³ Nothing is to be done out of jealousy or vanity; instead, out of humility of mind everyone should give preference to others,

⁴ everyone pursuing not selfish interests but those of others.

⁵ Make your own the mind of Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped.

⁷ But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being,

⁸ he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.

⁹ And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names;

¹⁰ so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus

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

¹² So, my dear friends, you have always been obedient; your obedience must not be limited to times when I am present. Now that I am absent it must be more in evidence, so work out your salvation in fear and trembling.

¹³ It is God who, for his own generous purpose, gives you the intention and the powers to act.

¹⁴ Let your behaviour be free of murmuring and complaining

¹⁵ so that you remain faultless and pure, unspoilt children of God surrounded by a deceitful and underhand brood, shining out among them like bright stars in the world,

¹⁶ proffering to it the Word of life. Then I shall have reason to be proud on the Day of Christ, for it will not be for nothing that I have run the race and toiled so hard.

¹⁷ Indeed, even if my blood has to be poured as a libation over your sacrifice and the offering of your faith, then I shall be glad and join in your rejoicing-

¹⁸ and in the same way, you must be glad and join in my rejoicing.

¹⁹ I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that my mind may be set at rest when I hear how you are.

²⁰ There is nobody else that I can send who is like him and cares as sincerely for your well-being;

²¹ they all want to work for themselves, not for Jesus Christ.

²² But you know what sort of person he has proved himself, working with me for the sake of the gospel like a son with his father.

²³ That is the man, then, that I am hoping to send to you immediately I can make out what is going to happen to me;

²⁴ but I am confident in the Lord that I shall come myself, too, before long.

²⁵ Nevertheless I thought it essential to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and companion-in-arms since he came as your representative to look after my needs;

²⁶ because he was missing you all and was worrying because you had heard that he was ill.

²⁷ Indeed he was seriously ill and nearly died; but God took pity on him -- and not only on him but also on me, to spare me one grief on top of another.

²⁸ So I am sending him back as promptly as I can so that you will have the joy of seeing him again, and that will be some comfort to me in my distress.

²⁹ Welcome him in the Lord, then, with all joy; hold people like him in honour,

³⁰ because it was for Christ's work that he came so near to dying, risking his life to do the duty to me which you could not do yourselves.