Shining Like Stars: Obedience that Radiates

¹If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

²make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;

³doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;

⁴each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

⁵Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without complaining and arguing,

¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,

¹⁶holding up the word of life, that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.

¹⁷Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸In the same way, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

¹⁹But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing.

²⁰For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.

²¹For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

²²But you know that he has proved himself. As a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.

²³Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me.

²⁴But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

²⁵But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need,

²⁶since he longed for you all, and was very troubled because you had heard that he was sick.

²⁷For indeed he was sick nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.

²⁸I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such people in honor,

³⁰because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.