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