I am confident of this very thing, that God, who began something good among you, will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ's [return].

Throughout the whole Praetorian guard and among all the others it has become plain that these chains of mine are for the sake of Christ;

And of this I feel assured, that I shall remain and continue among you all for your advancement and joy in the faith,

so that you may find me fresh cause of exultation in Christ Jesus, because of my presence among you once more.

If there be among you any consolation in Christ, if there be any comfortable love, if there be any fellowship of the spirit, if there be any compassion of mercy:

Think the same thing among yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus:

He appeared among us as a man, and still further humbled himself by submitting even to death--to death on a cross!

Do everything without murmuring or questioning [the providence of God],

so that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish in the midst of a [morally] crooked and [spiritually] perverted generation, among whom you are seen as bright lights [beacons shining out clearly] in the world [of darkness],

so that I may attain to the resurrection [that will raise me] from the dead.

Not that I speak concerning want; for I have learned, among whom I am, to be satisfied with my condition.