Though he was divine by nature, he did not set store upon equality with God

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,

for he has been yearning for you all. He has been greatly concerned because you heard he was ill.

And he was ill, nearly dead with illness. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me, to save me from having one sorrow upon another.

I was circumcised on the eighth day after birth; I belonged to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin; I was the Hebrew son of Hebrew parents, a Pharisee as regards the Law,

It was a great joy to me in the Lord that your care for me could revive again; for what you lacked was never the care but the chance of showing it.

even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent money more than once for my needs.