1If, 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; 2complete ye my joy, by having one apprehension, and one love, and one soul, and one mind. 3And do nothing in strife, or in vain glory; but, with lowliness of mind, let each esteem his neighbor as better than himself. 4And let not each be solicitous only for himself, but every one also for his neighbor. 5And think ye so in yourselves, as Jesus the Messiah also thought; 6who, as he was in the likeness of God, deemed it no trespass to be the coequal of God; 7yet divested himself, and assumed the likeness of a servant, and was in the likeness of men, and was found in fashion as a man; 8and he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore, also, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is more excellent than all names; 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth; 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus the Messiah is the Lord, to the glory of God his Father. 12Therefore, 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. 13For God is operating in you, both to purpose, and also to perform that which ye desire. 14Do all things without murmuring, and without altercation; 15that 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; 16so 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. 17And if I should be made a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and exult with you all. 18And so also do ye rejoice and exult with me. 19But 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. 20For I have no other one here, who, like my self, will sincerely care for your welfare. 21For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus the Messiah. 22But ye know the proof of him, that as a son with his father, so he labored with me in the gospel. 23Him I hope shortly to send to you, when I shall have seen how things result with me. 24And I trust in my Lord, that I shall shortly come myself to you. 25But 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. 26For he longed to see you all, and was anxious, because he knew ye had heard, that he was sick. 27And 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. 28Promptly, 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. 29Receive him then in the Lord, with all joy; and hold in honor those who are such. 30For, 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.