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But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
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So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
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Timothy and Epaphroditus
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.
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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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And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
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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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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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For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
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though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
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But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
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What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
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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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and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
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Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
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Following Paul’s Example
All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
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Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
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Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
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But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
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who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
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Closing Appeal for Steadfastness and Unity
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
