Though He was existing in the nature of God, He did not think His being on an equality with God a thing to be selfishly grasped,

Because He was recognized as a man, in reality as well as in outward form, He finally humiliated Himself in obedience so as to die, even to die on a cross.

for he has been longing to see you and has been homesick because you have heard that he was sick.

For he was so sick that he was on the point of dying, but God took pity on him, and not only on him but on me too, to keep me from having one sorrow after another.

circumcised when I was a week old; a descendant of Israel; a member of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew, a son of Hebrews. Measured by the law, I was a Pharisee;

by the standard set by zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and measured by the uprightness reached by keeping the law, I was faultless.

But for Christ's sake I have counted all that was gain to me as loss.

It is not a fact that I have already secured it or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, the ideal for which I was captured by Christ Jesus.

I was made very happy as a Christian to have your interest in my welfare revived again after so long; because you have always had the interest but not the opportunity to show it.

And you Philippians yourselves know that immediately after the good news was first preached to you, when I left Macedonia, no church but yours went into partnership with me to open an account of credits and debits.

Even while I was at Thessalonica you sent money more than once for my needs.