2Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit,^b and you have kindness and compassion for one another. ²I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. ³Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble towards one another, always considering others better than yourselves. ⁴And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. ⁵The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had:

⁶He always had the nature of God,

but he did not think that by force he should try to remain^c equal with God.

⁷Instead 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.

⁸He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death—his death on the cross.

⁹For this reason God raised him to the highest place above

and gave him the name that is greater than any other name.

¹⁰^*And so, in honour of the name of Jesus

all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below^d

will fall on their knees,

¹¹^*and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Shining as Lights in the World

¹²So 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, ¹³because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose.

¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, 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, ¹⁶as 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.

¹⁷Perhaps 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. ¹⁸In the same way, you too must be glad and share your joy with me.

Read in Logos

Philippians 2:12: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling …

Footnotes

bYou have fellowship with the Spirit; or The Spirit has brought you into fellowship with one another.
cremain; or become.
dworld below: It was thought that the dead continued to exist in a dark world under the ground.

Cross references

*2.10, 11: Is 45:23 (LXX)
*2.10, 11: Is 45:23 (LXX)
*2.15: Dt 32:5