12. So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
13. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.
14. Do everything without grumbling or questioning,
15. that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world,
16. as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
17. But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.
18. In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.
19. I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be heartened by hearing news of you.
20. For I have no one comparable to him for genuine interest in whatever concerns you.
21. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
22. But you know his worth, how as a child with a father he served along with me in the cause of the gospel.
23. He it is, then, whom I hope to send as soon as I see how things go with me,