having been confident of this very thing, that He who did begin in you a good work, will perform it till a day of Jesus Christ,

but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,

and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death -- death even of a cross,

Not that I did already obtain, or have been already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by the Christ Jesus;

I have known both to be abased, and I have known to abound; in everything and in all things I have been initiated, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want.