| Chapter 2 1
If, then, there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any communion of
spirit, if any compassion and pity,
2 fill my joy full, that you may be mutually disposed,
having mutual love, joined in soul, being disposed to one thing --
3 nothing according with faction, nor yet according with
vainglory -- but with humility, deeming one another superior to one's self,
4 not each noting that which is his own, but each that of
others also.
5 For let this disposition be in you, which is in Christ
Jesus also,
6 Who, being inherently in the form of God, deems it not
pillaging to be equal with God,
7 nevertheless empties Himself, taking the form of a
slave, coming to be in the likeness of humanity,
8 and, being found in fashion as a human, He humbles
Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore, also, God highly exalts Him, and graces Him
with the name that is above every name,
10 that in the name of Jesus every knee should be bowing,
celestial and terrestrial and subterranean,
11 and every tongue should be acclaiming that Jesus
Christ is Lord, for the glory of God, the Father.
12 So that, my beloved, according as you always obey, not
as in my presence only, but now much rather in my absence, with fear and trembling, be
carrying your own salvation into effect,
13 for it is God Who is operating in you to will as well
as to work for the sake of His delight.
14 All be doing without murmurings and reasonings,
15 that you may become blameless and artless, children of
God, flawless, in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse among whom you are
appearing as luminaries in the world,
16 having on the word of life, for my glorying in the day
of Christ, that I did not run for naught, neither that I toil for naught.
17 But even if I am a libation on the sacrifice and
ministration of your faith, I am rejoicing myself and rejoicing together with you all.
18 Now, to be mutual, you also be rejoicing, and be
rejoicing together with me.
19 Now I am expecting, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy
to you quickly, that I also may be of good cheer when I know of your concerns.
20 For I have no one equally sensitive, who will be so
genuinely solicitous of your concerns,
21 for all are seeking that which is their own, not that
which is Christ Jesus'.
22 Now you know his testedness, that, as a child with a
father, he slaves with me for the evangel.
23 This one, indeed, then, I am expecting to send -- as
ever I may be perceiving my course from the things about me -- forthwith.
24 Yet I have confidence in the Lord that I myself shall
also be coming quickly.
25 Now I deem it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus,
my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, yet your apostle and minister for my
need,
26 since, in fact, he was longing for you all and
depressed, because you hear that he is infirm.
27 For he is infirm, also, very nigh death, but God is
merciful to him, yet not to him only, but to me also, lest I should be having sorrow on
sorrow.
28 The more diligently, then, I send him, that seeing him
again, you may be rejoicing and I may be more sorrow-free.
29 Receive him, then in the Lord with all joy, and have
such in honor,
30 seeing that because of the work of the Lord he draws
near unto death, risking his soul that he should fill up your want of ministration toward
me. |