For God is my witness how much I long for all of you with the compassion that the Messiah Jesus provides.

In God's own form existed he, and shared with God equality, deemed nothing needed grasping.

Instead, poured out in emptiness, a servant's form did he possess, a mortal man becoming. In human form he chose to be,

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

Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things are going to turn out for me.

For he has been longing for all of you and is troubled because you heard that he was sick.

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.

because he came close to death for the work of the Messiah by risking his life to complete what remained unfinished in your service to me.

although I could have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he can place confidence in the flesh, I have more reason to think so.

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.

He will change our unassuming bodies and make them like his glorious body through the power that enables him to bring everything under his authority.

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.

I know how to be humble, and I know how to prosper. In each and every situation I have learned the secret of being full and of going hungry, of having too much and of having too little.