2:1 Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. |
2:2 I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. |
2:3 Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. |
2:4 And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own. |
2:5 The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: |
2:6 He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. |
2:7 Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. |
2:8 He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death--- his death on the cross. |
2:9 For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. |
2:10 And so, in honor of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, |
2:11 and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. |
2:12 So then, dear friends, as you always obeyed me when I was with you, it is even more important that you obey me now while I am away from you. Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation, |
2:13 because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose. |
2:14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, |
2:15 so that you may be innocent and pure as God's perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky, |
2:16 as you offer them the message of life. If you do so, I shall have reason to be proud of you on the Day of Christ, because it will show that all my effort and work have not been wasted. |
2:17 Perhaps my life's blood is to be poured out like an offering on the sacrifice that your faith offers to God. If that is so, I am glad and share my joy with you all. |
2:18 In the same way, you too must be glad and share your joy with me. |
2:19 If it is the Lord's will, I hope that I will be able to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be encouraged by news about you. |
2:20 He is the only one who shares my feelings and who really cares about you. |
2:21 Everyone else is concerned only with their own affairs, not with the cause of Jesus Christ. |
2:22 And you yourselves know how he has proved his worth, how he and I, like a son and his father, have worked together for the sake of the gospel. |
2:23 So I hope to send him to you as soon as I know how things are going to turn out for me. |
2:24 And I trust in the Lord that I myself will be able to come to you soon. |
2:25 I have thought it necessary to send to you our brother Epaphroditus, who has worked and fought by my side and who has served as your messenger in helping me. |
2:26 He is anxious to see you all and is very upset because you had heard that he was sick. |
2:27 Indeed he was sick and almost died. But God had pity on him, and not only on him but on me, too, and spared me an even greater sorrow. |
2:28 I am all the more eager, then, to send him to you, so that you will be glad again when you see him, and my own sorrow will disappear. |
2:29 Receive him, then, with joy, as a believer in the Lord. Show respect to all such people as he, |
2:30 because he risked his life and nearly died for the sake of the work of Christ, in order to give me the help that you yourselves could not give. |