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,

You should think about things the way Christ Jesus did.

who, although He existed in the form and unchanging essence of God [as One with Him, possessing the fullness of all the divine attributes—the entire nature of deity], did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted [as if He did not already possess it, or was afraid of losing it];

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

wherefore, also, God did highly exalt him, and gave to him a name that is above every name,

holding out and offering to everyone the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to rejoice greatly because I did not run [my race] in vain nor labor without result.

and the proof of him ye know, that as a child serveth a father, with me he did serve in regard to the good news;

for he also ailed nigh to death, but God did deal kindly with him, and not with him only, but also with me, that sorrow upon sorrow I might not have.

The more eagerly, therefore, I did send him, that having seen him again ye may rejoice, and I may be the less sorrowful;

because it was for the sake of Christ's work that he came so near death, hazarding, as he did, his very life in endeavouring to make good any deficiency that there might be in your gifts to me.

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;

and I ask also thee, genuine yoke-fellow, be assisting those women who in the good news did strive along with me, with Clement also, and the others, my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

the things that also ye did learn, and receive, and hear, and saw in me, those do, and the God of the peace shall be with you.

But I am very glad in the Lord that your care for me has come to life again; though you did in fact take thought for me, but you were not able to give effect to it.

not that in respect of want I say it, for I did learn in the things in which I am -- to be content;

Nevertheless ye did well having shared with my affliction.

and ye have known, even ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the good news when I went forth from Macedonia, no assembly did communicate with me in regard to giving and receiving except ye only;