Now if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean productive work for me, yet I don’t know which I prefer:

I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing.

So I hope to send him as soon as I know more about my situation,

but it is more vital for your sake that I remain in the body.

Others are busy with their own concerns, not those of Jesus Christ.

I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,

And since I am sure of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for the sake of your progress and joy in the faith,

and by not being intimidated in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of their destruction, but of your salvation – a sign which is from God.

since you are encountering the same conflict that you saw me face and now hear that I am facing.

with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead,