I should have this opinion of you, being sensible you make the dispensation I am under a common concern, with respect to my confinement, and the defence and confirmation of the gospel.

Under all circumstances let your lives be worthy of the Good News of the Christ: so that, whether I come and see you, or whether I hear of your affairs at a distance, I may know that you are standing firm, animated by one spirit, and joining with one heart in a common struggle for the Faith taught by the Good News,

without being under any the least apprehension from your adversaries: this will be to them a sign of their ruin, and to you of salvation, by the divine appointment.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

for there are many that wander about, of whom I have frequently told you, and now repeat it with tears, that they are enemies to the cross of Christ:

By whom this poor body of ours will be changed into the image of the body of his glory, in the measure of the working by which he is able to put all things under himself.

Do not be anxious about anything; but under all circumstances, by prayer and entreaty joined with thanksgiving, make your needs known to God.

Do not think that I am saying this under the pressure of want. For I, however I am placed, have learned to be independent of circumstances.

I know how to live humbly, and I also know how to bear prosperity. In every place and under all circumstances I have been initiated into the secret of fulness and of hunger, of prosperity and of want.