Chapter 2

1 If there is therefore any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of spirit, if any tenderheartedness and compassions,  2 make my joy full, that you think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking the one thing,  3 doing nothing by way of selfish ambition nor by way of vainglory, but in lowliness of mind considering one another more excellent than yourselves;  4 not regarding each his own virtues, but each the virtues of others also.  5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 

6 who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider being equal with God

a treasure to be grasped,

7 but emptied Himself,

taking the form of a slave,

becoming in the likeness of men;

8 and being found in fashion as a man,

He humbled Himself,

becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of a cross.

9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him

and bestowed on Him the name

which is above every name,

10 that in the name of Jesus

every knee should bow,

of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue should openly confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

  12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;  13 for it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.  14 Do all things without murmurings and reasonings  15 that you may be blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as luminaries in the world,  16 holding forth the word of life, so that I may have a boast in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

  17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with you all.  18 And in like manner you also rejoice, and you rejoice together with me.

  19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged by knowing the things concerning you.  20 For I have no one like-souled who will genuinely care for what concerns you;  21 for all seek their own things, not the things of Christ Jesus.  22 But you know his approvedness, that as a child with a father he has served with me unto the gospel.  23 Him therefore I hope to send immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me.  24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

  25 But I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your apostle and minister to my need,  26 since he longed after you all and was greatly distressed because you heard that he had become sick;  27 for indeed he had become sick, near to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.  28 I have sent him therefore the more eagerly, so that when you see him again, you may rejoice and I may be less sorrowful.  29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such in honor,  30 because for the work of Christ he drew near unto death, risking his life, that he might fill up your lack of service toward me.