1Listen. You know that you belong to Jesus Christ, and he helps you to be strong and brave. You know that he loves you, so you are happy. You know that God’s spirit is in you, and you share your lives with him. You know how to be sorry for each other, and how to help each other. You know all this, don’t you?
2All right, now make me properly happy. I want you all to love each other properly, and I want you all to agree with each other and think the same way about what is right. I want you to be like you are all joined together, like you are one person.
3Each of you has to think about what is good for the others. Don’t only think about what is good for yourself. Don’t think that you are better than other people, but think that they are better than you. And don’t do things only to get people to say you are good. Don’t try to be a boss over other people, but let others be boss over you.
5You have to think like this, the same way that Jesus Christ thought.
6He was the same kind of person as God. He was just as important as God. But he didn’t reckon that he had to keep on being important like God.
7Instead, he left all that, and he made himself like a nobody. He was born into this world like a human, and he was happy to be a really poor man. He was a man living here, and then
8he was happy to become even less important. He did everything that God wanted him to do, he was even happy to die. He let people nail him to a cross and kill him.
9So then God made him alive again and lifted him up to the most important place in heaven. And God gave him power, and a name that is greater than every other name.
10The time will come when everyone will hear the name of Jesus, and they will bend down and show him respect. They will all do that, everything in heaven, and everything on the earth, and everything under the earth, they will all show respect to Jesus.
11And everything that has a tongue will say aloud, “Jesus Christ is our boss.” This will happen to show that God our Father is very great and good.
12So, my good friends, you always have to do what God wants. I know you did this when I was with you, and I reckon you still do it now that I’m not with you any more. So, in the same way, you have to keep trying to live the right way. You see, God saved you, and you are in his family now, so give him proper respect and try to live his way. You have to be afraid to do any bad thing that will make him angry.
13God is the one that is working inside you. He helps you think the right way, so that you want to do the good things that make him happy, and he gives you the power to do those good things.
14And while you do these things, don’t get angry or argue about them.
15Then you will be properly good, so that nobody can blame you for anything. You are God’s kids living among really bad people that always go wrong. So you have to live in a way that is properly good. Then everyone will see that you are properly good. You will be like bright stars in a dark sky.
16And you have to keep on believing the message about Jesus that gives us life. If you live like that I will be very happy with you. And when Jesus Christ comes back I will tell everyone about you. I will tell them that I didn’t waste my time when I worked among you.
17Yes, I’m happy about you. And even if they kill me I will still be happy. I know you believe in Jesus and you work for him, and in that way you are giving your bodies to God. And if they kill me, I will be giving my body to God too, along with you. So we can all be happy about it together.
18Yes, you can be happy too, even if they kill me. You can be happy with me.
19Now I will tell you what I want to do. Timothy is here with me and I want to send him to you soon. After that he will come back and tell me all about you, and that will make me happy.
20Timothy is different from the other people here. He really cares about you, and he always wants to know how you are going.
21The others think more about their own things, not the things that Jesus Christ wants.
22But you know Timothy. He shows us all that he is a good man. He works with me just like a son works with his father. Together we tell people the good news about Jesus.
23So I will send him to you. But first I will wait and see what they are going to do to me, then I will send him to you,
24even though I’m sure that God will soon let me come to visit you too.
25Right now I’m sending Epaphroditus back to you. You sent him to me a while ago when I needed help. He came here and looked after me. He has been a good Christian friend to me here. We work together. We are both like soldiers fighting for God. But now I reckon I have to send him back to you.
26You know, after he came here he got sick, and then somebody told you about it, and now it worries him. He doesn’t want you to be sad and sorry for him. So he really wants to go back and see you all again.
27Yes, he was very sick a while ago, and he nearly died. But God was good to him and made him better. And God was good to me too. He didn’t let me have another thing to make me sad.
28So now I really want to send him to you, and when you see him again you will be happy, and I will not worry about him any more.
29He belongs to our leader, Jesus, just like you do. You couldn’t come and help me at that time, so he came instead of you. And then he nearly died. But he didn’t worry. He knew he was working for Jesus Christ while he was helping me, and he was ready to die for Jesus. You have to really respect people like Epaphroditus. So when he comes back to you, be happy and say, “Good to see you again. You are our good Christian friend.”
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