But so what? Just this that in every way, whether by false or true motives, the Messiah is being proclaimed. Because of this, I rejoice and will continue to rejoice.

But for your sake it is better that I remain alive.

For you have been given the privilege for the Messiah's sake not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him.

Do not act out of selfish ambition or conceit, but with humility think of others as being better than yourselves.

Do not be concerned about your own interests, but also be concerned about the interests of others.

And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

But you know his proven worth how like a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.

Meanwhile, I thought it best to send Epaphroditus my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and minister to my need back to you.

Indeed, he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow on top of another.

But whatever things were assets to me, these I now consider a loss for the sake of the Messiah.

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but one that comes through the faithfulness of the Messiah, the righteousness that comes from God and that depends on faith.

It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah Jesus.

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have embraced it yet. But this one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Now I rejoice in the Lord greatly, because once again you have shown your concern for me. Of course, you were concerned for me but you did not have an opportunity to show it.

Even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs not once, but twice.