Now if I am to go on living in the body, ¹  this will mean productive work ²  for me, yet I don’t know which I prefer: ³ 

For it has been granted to you ¹  not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him,

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

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, ¹  any affection or mercy, ² 

but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, ¹  by looking like other men, ²  and by sharing in human nature. ³ 

Indeed, he greatly missed all of you and was distressed because you heard that he had been ill.

– 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,

and most of the brothers and sisters, ¹  having confidence in the Lord ²  because of my imprisonment, now more than ever ³  dare to speak the word ⁴  fearlessly.

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

I feel torn between the two, ¹  because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,

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 

For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things. ¹ 

Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God.

I have great joy in the Lord because now at last you have again expressed your concern for me. (Now I know you were concerned before but had no opportunity to do anything.) ¹ 

For I have received everything, and I have plenty. I have all I need because I received from Epaphroditus what you sent – a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, very pleasing to God.

For ¹  it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, ²  since both in my imprisonment ³  and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners in God’s grace ⁴  together with me.

Only conduct yourselves ¹  in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that – whether I come and see you or whether I remain absent – I should hear that ²  you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, by contending side by side for the faith of the gospel, ³