21 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ , if there is any consolation of love , if there is any fellowship of the Spirit , if any affection and compassion , 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind , maintaining the same love , united in spirit , intent on one purpose . 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit , but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves ; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others . 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus , 6 who , although He existed in the form of God , did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped , 7 but emptied Himself , taking the form of a bond-servant , and being made in the likeness of men . 8 Being found in appearance as a man , He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death , even death on a cross . 9 For this reason also , God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name , 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW , of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth , 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord , to the glory of God the Father .
12 So then , my beloved , just as you have always obeyed , not as in my presence only , but now much more in my absence , work out your salvation with fear and trembling ; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure .
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing ; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent , children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation , among whom you appear as lights in the world , 16 holding fast the word of life , so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain . 17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith , I rejoice and share my joy with you all . 18 You too , I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.
19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly , so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition e . 20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare . 21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus . 22 But you know of his proven worth , that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father . 23 Therefore I hope to send him immediately , as soon as I see how things go with me; 24 and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly . 25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus , my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier , who is also your messenger and minister to my need ; 26 because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick . 27 For indeed he was sick to the point of death , but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so e that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow . 28 Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. 29 Receive him then in the Lord with all joy , and hold men like him in high regard ; 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ , risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.
31 Finally , my brethren , rejoice in the Lord . To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Beware of the dogs , beware of the evil workers , beware of the false circumcision ; 3 for we are the true circumcision , who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh ,
4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh . If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh , I far more : 5 circumcised the eighth day , of the nation of Israel , of the tribe of Benjamin , a Hebrew of Hebrews ; as to the Law , a Pharisee ; 6 as to zeal , a persecutor of the church ; as to the righteousness which is in the Law , found blameless . 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ . 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord , for whom I have suffered the loss of all things , and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law , but that which is through faith in Christ , the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith , 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings , being conformed to His death ; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead . 12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect , but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus . 13 Brethren , I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet ; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead , 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus .
15 Let us therefore , as many as are perfect , have this attitude ; and if in anything you have a different attitude , God will reveal that also to you; 16 however , let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained .
17 Brethren , join e in following my example , and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. 18 For many walk , of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping , that they are enemies of the cross of Christ , 19 whose end is destruction , whose god is their appetite , and whose glory is in their shame , who set their minds on earthly things . 20 For our citizenship is in heaven , from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior , the Lord Jesus Christ ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory , by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself .
