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It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.
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Paul’s Chains Advance the Gospel
Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.
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The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
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for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
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For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
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If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!
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so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
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For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,
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rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
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And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
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Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
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So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
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I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.
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But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.
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I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.
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But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.
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Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.
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Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety.
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So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him,
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because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.
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No Confidence in the Flesh
Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
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But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
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and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
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I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
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Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
