It is only natural for me to be thinking of you all in this way, for alike in my prison and as I defend and vindicate the gospel, I bear in mind how you all share with me in the grace divine.

God is my witness how I yearn for you all in the tenderness of Christ Jesus.

And I pray that your love may grow stronger and stronger, [along] with how much you know, and [that you may grow] in your ability to comprehend things.

But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus to you shortly, that I also may be refreshed, knowing how ye get on.

For I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on.

And you know Timothy's worth, how he has shared my servitude in furtherance of the gospel, like a son helping his father.

So I hope to send him, as soon as ever I see how it will go with me;

Therefore, those of us who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will show you how to think.

Therefore, my dear brothers whom I long for, my joy and my victor's crown, this is how you must stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

Not that I speak as if I were in want, for at least have learned how to be content, whatever happens.

I know how to live humbly, and I also know how to bear prosperity. In every place and under all circumstances I have been initiated into the secret of fulness and of hunger, of prosperity and of want.