2:1   Therefore if we have any encouragement in Christ, if we have any consolation of love, if we have any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,

2:2   make my joy complete by having the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

2:3   Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

2:4   do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

2:5   Have this attitude in yourselves which existed also in Christ Jesus,

2:6   who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing at which to grasp,

2:7   but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and made in the likeness of men.

2:8   Finding himself in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

2:9   For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which exalts above every name,

2:10   so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who dwell in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

2:11   and that every tongue will confess that we acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2:12   So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

2:13   for God works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

2:14   Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

2:15  so that you will prove yourselves blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

2:16   holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

2:17   But even if I feel myself poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

2:18   You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

2:19   But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also have encouragement when I learn of your condition.

2:20   For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will have genuine concern for your welfare.

2:21   For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.

2:22   But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.

2:23   Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me;

2:24   and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

2:25  But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who has also served as your messenger and minister to my need;

2:26   because he longed for you all and felt distressed because you had heard that he had fallen sick.

2:27   For indeed he become sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

2:28   Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may feel less concerned about you.

2:29   Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard;

2:30   because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what had lacked in your service to me.