For you have been granted the privilege not only of trusting in Christ but of suffering for him.

That is why God has so greatly exalted him, and given him the name above all others,

For I have no one like him who would take such a real interest in you.

So I hope to send him to you just as soon as I can see how my case is going to turn out.

For he was sick, and nearly died, but God took pity on him, and not only on him, but on me, to save me from having one sorrow after another.

So I am all the more eager to send him, so that you may have the pleasure of seeing him again, and I may feel more relieved.

So give him a hearty Christian welcome, and value men like him very highly,

and be known to be united to him, with any uprightness I may have not based on law but coming through faith in Christ??he uprightness that comes from God through faith.

I want to know him in the power of resurrection, and to share his sufferings and even his death,

I can do anything through him who gives me strength.