Day 279 of 365

¹If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

²make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;

³doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;

⁴each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

⁵Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and disputes,

¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,

¹⁶holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

¹⁷Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸In the same way, you also rejoice, and rejoice with me.

¹⁹But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing.

²⁰For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.

²¹For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

²²But you know the proof of him, that, as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.

²³Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me.

²⁴But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

²⁵But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need;

²⁶since he longed for you all, and was very troubled, because you had heard that he was sick.

²⁷For indeed he was sick, nearly to death, but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.

²⁸I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such in honor,

³⁰because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

¹Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.

²Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

³For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

⁴though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

⁵circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

⁶concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

⁷However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.

⁸More than that, I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

¹⁰that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;

¹¹if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

¹³Brothers, I do not regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forward to the things which are ahead,

¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

¹⁶Nevertheless, to what we have attained, to the same continue on.

¹⁷Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

¹⁸For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

²⁰For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

²¹who will change our lowly bodies into the likeness of his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

¹Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

²I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord.

³Yes, I beg you also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, Rejoice!

⁵Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is near.

⁶In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things.

⁹The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

¹⁰But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your thought for me; in which you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity.

¹¹Not that I speak in respect to lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it.

¹²I know how to be humbled, and I know also how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

¹³I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

¹⁴However you did well that you shared in my affliction.

¹⁵You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Good News, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only.

¹⁶For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need.

¹⁷Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account.

¹⁸But I have all things, and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.

¹⁹My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

²⁰Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

²¹Greet every holy one in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.

²²All the saints greet you, especially those who are of Caesar's household.

²³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

²to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

³We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

⁴having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,

⁵because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,

⁶which has come to you; even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

⁷even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

⁸who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, do not cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹⁰that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

¹¹strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy;

¹²giving thanks to the Father, who made you fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

¹³who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;

¹⁴in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins;

¹⁵who is the image of the invisible God, existing before all creation.

¹⁶For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.

¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

¹⁹For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;

²⁰and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

²¹You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,

²²yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and blameless before him,

²³if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church;

²⁵of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you, to fulfill the word of God,

²⁶the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints,

²⁷to them God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;

²⁸whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;

²⁹for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.