²⁵ Yet I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants.

²⁶ For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness, because ye had heard that he had been sick.

²⁷ For indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

²⁸ I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful.

²⁹ Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in high honor,

³⁰ because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not having regard for his own life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.