Study Desk

Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.

always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,

For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.

For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.

according to my eager expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves;

who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

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

But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

But you know of his proven character, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.

Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me;

Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold people like him in high regard,

who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Indeed, true companion, I ask you also, help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement as well as the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.