002:009 It is in consequence of this that God has also so highly exalted Him, and has conferred on Him the Name which is supreme above every other, 002:010 in order that in the Name of JESUS every knee should bow, of beings in Heaven, of those on the earth, and of those in the underworld, 002:011 and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of God the Father. 002:012 Therefore, my dearly-loved friends, as I have always found you obedient, labour earnestly with fear and trembling-- not merely as though I were present with you, but much more now since I am absent from you--labour earnestly, I say, to make sure of your own salvation. 002:013 For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the accomplishment of the desire. 002:014 Be ever on your guard against a grudging and contentious spirit, 002:015 so that you may always prove yourselves to be blameless and spotless-- irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as heavenly lights in the world, 002:016 holding out to them a Message of Life. It will then be my glory on the day of Christ that I did not run my race in vain nor toil in vain. 002:017 Nay, even if my life is to be poured as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I rejoice, and I congratulate you all. 002:018 And I bid you also share my gladness, and congratulate me. 002:019 But, if the Lord permits it, I hope before long to send Timothy to you, that I, in turn, may be cheered by getting news of you. 002:020 For I have no one likeminded with him, who will cherish a genuine care for you. 002:021 Everybody concerns himself about his own interests, not about those of Jesus Christ. 002:022 But you know Timothy's approved worth--how, like a child working with his father, he has served with me in furtherance of the Good News. 002:023 So it is he that I hope to send as soon as ever I see how things go with me; 002:024 but trusting, as I do, in the Lord, I believe that I shall myself also come to you before long. 002:025 Yet I deem it important to send Epaphroditus to you now-- he is my brother and comrade both in labour and in arms, and is your messenger who has ministered to my needs. 002:026 I send him because he is longing to see you all and is distressed at your having heard of his illness. 002:027 For it is true that he has been ill, and was apparently at the point of death; but God had pity on him, and not only on him, but also on me, to save me from having sorrow upon sorrow.