Philippians 2:12-30

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Shining as Lights in the World

¹² Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling,^{(A) 13} for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do all things without murmuring and arguing,^{(B) 15} so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world,^{(C) 16} holding forth the word of life so that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.^(D)

¹⁷ But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with all of you;^{(E) 18} in the same way also you should rejoice and rejoice together with me.

Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I, too, may be consoled by news of you. ²⁰ I have no one so like myself who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. ²¹ All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.^{(F) 22} But Timothy’s^[a] worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.^{(G) 23} I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, ²⁴ and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.

²⁵ Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and coworker and fellow soldier, your messenger^[b] and minister to my need,^{(H) 26} for he has been longing for^[c] all of you and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. ²⁷ He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. ²⁸ I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious. ²⁹ Welcome him, then, in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people,^{(I) 30} because he came close to death for the work of Christ,^[d] risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.