for what you have contributed to the gospel from the very first day down to this moment;

And it is my prayer that your love may be more and more rich in knowledge and all manner of insight, enabling you to have a sense of what is vital,

I would have you understand, my brothers, that my affairs have really tended to advance the gospel;

Thus you will have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus over me ??over my return to you.

For on behalf of Christ you have the favour of suffering no less than of believing in him,

Therefore, my beloved, as you have been obedient always and not simply when I was present, so, now that I am absent, work all the more strenuously at your salvation with reverence and trembling,

hold fast the word of life, so that I can be proud of you on the Day of Christ, because I have not run or worked for nothing.

I have no one like him, for genuine interest in your welfare.

But for Christ's sake I have learned to count my former gains a loss;

indeed I count anything a loss, compared to the supreme value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have lost everything (I count it all the veriest refuse) in order to gain Christ

Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect, but I press forward to appropriate it, because I have been appropriated myself by Christ Jesus.

Brothers, I for one do not consider myself to have appropriated this; my one thought is, by forgetting what lies behind me and straining to what lies before me,

Only, we must let our steps be guided by such truth as we have attained.

For many ??as I have often told you and tell you now with tears ??many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

And you, my true comrade, lend a hand to these women, I beg of you; they have fought at my side in the active service of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Practise also what you have learned and received from me, what you heard me say and what you saw me do; then the God of peace will be with you.

Not that I complain of want, for I have learned how to be content wherever I am.

I know how to live humbly; I also know how to live in prosperity. I have been initiated into the secret for all sorts and conditions of life, for plenty and for hunger, for prosperity and for privations.

Your debt to me is fully paid and more than paid! I am amply supplied with what you have sent by Epaphroditus, a fragrant perfume, the sort of sacrifice that God approves and welcomes.