For there is no one here like him who will readily demonstrate his deep concern for you.

So welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him,

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

– though mine too are significant. If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more:

Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example.

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

complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose.

In fact he became so ill that he nearly died. But God showed mercy to him – and not to him only, but also to me – so that I would not have grief on top of grief.

and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.

For it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners in God’s grace together with me.