Chapter 2

¹If, then, any exhortation [is] in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of spirit, if any bowels and mercies, ²fulfil ye my joy, that ye may mind the same thing -- having the same love -- of one soul -- minding the one thing, ³nothing in rivalry or vain-glory, but in humility of mind one another counting more excellent than yourselves -- ⁴each not to your own look ye, but each also to the things of others. ⁵For, let this mind be in you that [is] also in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, being in the form of God, thought [it] not robbery to be equal to God, ⁷but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made, ⁸and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death -- death even of a cross, ⁹wherefore, also, God did highly exalt him, and gave to him a name that [is] above every name, ¹⁰that in the name of Jesus every knee may bow -- of heavenlies, and earthlies, and what are under the earth -- ¹¹and every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ¹²So that, my beloved, as ye always obey, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling your own salvation work out, ¹³for God it is who is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. ¹⁴All things do without murmurings and reasonings, ¹⁵that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God, unblemished in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse, among whom ye do appear as luminaries in the world, ¹⁶the word of life holding forth, for rejoicing to me in regard to a day of Christ, that not in vain did I run, nor in vain did I labour; ¹⁷but if also I am poured forth upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and joy with you all, ¹⁸because of this do ye also rejoice and joy with me. ¹⁹And I hope, in the Lord Jesus, Timotheus to send quickly to you, that I also may be of good spirit, having known the things concerning you, ²⁰for I have no one like-minded, who sincerely for the things concerning you will care, ²¹for the whole seek their own things, not the things of the Christ Jesus, ²²and the proof of him ye know, that as a child [serveth] a father, with me he did serve in regard to the good news; ²³him, indeed, therefore, I hope to send, when I may see through the things concerning me -- immediately; ²⁴and I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall quickly come. ²⁵And I thought [it] necessary Epaphroditus -- my brother, and fellow-workman, and fellow-soldier, and your apostle and servant to my need -- to send unto you, ²⁶seeing he was longing after you all, and in heaviness, because ye heard that he ailed, ²⁷for he also ailed nigh to death, but God did deal kindly with him, and not with him only, but also with me, that sorrow upon sorrow I might not have. ²⁸The more eagerly, therefore, I did send him, that having seen him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful; ²⁹receive him, therefore, in the Lord, with all joy, and hold such in honour, ³⁰because on account of the work of the Christ he drew near to death, having hazarded the life that he might fill up your deficiency of service unto me.