Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard ¹  that we have already attained. ² 

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice!

Nevertheless, you did well to share with me in my trouble.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, ¹  that my situation has actually turned out to advance the gospel: ² 

so that what you can be proud of may increase ¹  because of me in Christ Jesus, when I come back to you. ² 

since you are encountering ¹  the same conflict that you saw me face and now hear that I am facing. ² 

– though mine too are significant. ¹  If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, ²  I have more:

Be imitators of me, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example.

But our citizenship is in heaven – and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

So then, my brothers and sisters, ¹  dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!

I do not say this because I am seeking a gift. ¹  Rather, I seek the credit that abounds to your account.

My confident hope ¹  is that I will in no way be ashamed ²  but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die. ³ 

So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, ¹ 

Yes, I say also to you, true companion, ¹  help them. They have struggled together in the gospel ministry ²  along with me and Clement and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.

What is the result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, ¹  and I will continue to rejoice,

for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance ¹  through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

In fact he became so ill that he nearly died. ¹  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.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, ¹  rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

For we are the circumcision, ¹  the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, ²  exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials ³ 

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 ¹  – a righteousness from God that is in fact ²  based on Christ’s ³  faithfulness. ⁴