Imitating Christ’s Humility

2 If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy,* 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.* 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.* 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.* 5 Let the same mind be in you that wasi in Christ Jesus,*

6 who, though he existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be grasped,*

7 but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

assuming human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a human,*

8 he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.*

9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly

and gave him the name

that is above every other name,*

10 so that at the name given to Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,*

11 and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.*

Shining as Lights in the World

12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling,* 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing,* 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world,* 16 holding forth the word of life so that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.*

17 But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with all of you;* 18 in the same way also you should rejoice and rejoice together with me.

Timothy and Epaphroditus

19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I, too, may be consoled by news of you. 20 I have no one so like myself who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.* 22 But Timothy’sj worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.* 23 I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.

25 Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and coworker and fellow soldier, your messengerk and minister to my need,* 26 for he has been longing forl all of you and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious. 29 Welcome him, then, in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people,* 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ,m risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.