31 "My God whom I worship, everything that you do is perfect;

you always do what you promise that you will do.

You are like a shield [MET] to all those who request you to protect them.

30 Everything that Yahweh my God does is perfect.

We can depend on him to do what he promises.

He is like a shield [MET] to protect all those who go to him for refuge.

1 ◄Yahweh is pleased with/Happy are► those about whom no one can say truthfully that they have done things that are wrong,

those who always obey the laws of Yahweh.

2 Only those who always do what is right and do not sin may do that.

They always say what is true

3 and they do not slander others.

They do not do to others things that are wrong,

and they do not say bad things about others.

7 He gives good advice to those who conduct their lives as they should.

He protects [MET] those who do what is right.

2 It is true that we all in many ways do things that are wrong [MET]. But those who always [LIT] control what they say will be all that God intends/wants them to be. They will be able to control all their actions [MTY].

27 One of the things that God has told us to do is to take care of orphans and widows who suffer hardship. Those who do that and who do not think or act immorally like those who do not obey God [MTY] truly [DOU] worship God, who is our Father, and God approves of them.

17 The truth is that God, our heavenly Father [MTY], does only good [DOU] things for us, in order to help us become all that he intends us to be. He is not like all the things in the sky that he created to give light, because they change; that is, they do not shine the same all the time. But God never changes. He is always good.

9 By becoming ◄all that God intended him to be/perfect►, he has now become fully qualified to be our Supreme Priest. As a result, he is the one who saves eternally all who obey him.

21 Jesus said to him, "If you desire to be all that God intends you to be, go home, sell everything that you have and give the money to poor people. The result will be that you will have spiritual riches in heaven. Then come and be my disciple!"

11 I have told you these things so that you may be joyful as I am joyful, and that you may be completely joyful.

24 Up to the present time, using my authority you have not asked God to do anything for you [MTY]. Now keep asking him for things that you need. If you do that, you will receive them, and then you will be completely joyful.

2 Do not let anything non-Christian determine how you should act. Instead, let God change your way of life by making your way of thinking new, in order that you may know what he wants you to do. That is, you will know what is good, and you will know what pleases God, and you will know how to be all that he wants you to be.

10 My fellow believers, by the authority of [MTY] our Lord Jesus Christ, I urgently appeal to all of you to agree with one another. What I mean is, stop dividing into groups. Instead, be united [MET] concerning what you understand about spiritual matters,, and be united in what you decide.

14 And what is more important than all of these is that you love one another, because by doing that you will be perfectly united together.

1 Since Christ encourages us, since he loves us and comforts us, since God’s Spirit fellowships with us, and since Christ is very merciful [DOU] to us, 2 make me completely happy by doing the following things: Agree with one another, love one another, be closely united with one another, and live harmoniously with one another [DOU]. 3 Never try to selfishly make yourselves more important than others nor boast about what you are doing. Instead, be humble, and in particular, honor one another more than you honor yourselves. 4 Each one of you should not only be concerned about your own affairs. Instead, each of you should also be concerned ◄that you help/about the needs of► one another.

5 You should think/act just like Christ Jesus thought/acted. 6 Although he has the same nature as God has, he did not insist on keeping all the privileges of being equal with God. 7 Instead, he willingly gave up divine privileges. Specifically, he became a human being and took the attitude of a servant. When he had become a human being, 8 he humbled himself even more. Specifically, he obeyed God even to the extent of being willing to die. He was even willing to be nailed to a cross, to die as though he were a criminal. 9 As a result, God promoted him to a rank that is above every other rank. 10 God did that in order that every being [SYN] in heaven and on earth and under the earth should worship [MTY] Jesus, 11 and in order that every person [SYN] should declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. As a result of everyone doing that, they will honor God, his Father.

12 My dear friends, as you consider this, since you have always obeyed God, each of you should very reverentially [DOU] try to do those things that are proper for people whom God has saved. You should do those things not only when I am with you. Instead, you should try even more to do them now when I am not with you. 13 You are able to do these things, since God himself causes you to desire to do what he wants you to do, and he also enables you to do what he wants you to do.

14 Do everything God or your leaders ask you to do. Never complain about what they want you to do, or argue with them. 15 Behave like that in order that you may be completely faultless [DOU] and may be perfect children of God [DOU] while you live in the midst of people who are wicked and do very wicked things [DOU]. As you live among them, show them clearly [MET] the way they ought to behave, just like the sun, moon, and stars show the road clearly to us [SIM]. 16 Tell them how to have eternal life. I ask that you do that in order that on the day Christ returns I may be able to rejoice [MTY], that I did not labor [DOU] so hard among you in vain.

17 Perhaps the Roman authorities will execute me, and my blood will pour out [MET] as the wine pours out when the priest offers it to God [MET]. For your part, you believe in Christ firmly. As a result, you have given yourselves completely to God in order that you might do what he wills [MET], just like a priest offers a sacrifice completely to God [MET]. Because I dedicate myself wholly to God together with you, even if they are about to execute me, I will greatly rejoice [DOU], because I am giving myself wholly to God, and because you all are giving yourselves wholly to God. 18 Similarly, you too should rejoice because you are giving yourselves wholly to God, and you should rejoice because I am giving myself wholly to God.

19 My relationship with the Lord Jesus leads me to confidently expect that he will enable me to send Timothy to you soon, in order that his telling you the news about me will encourage you. But I also expect that his returning to me and telling me the news about you will encourage me. 20 Keep in mind that I have no one else like him who genuinely cares for you. 21 All the others whom I have considered that I might send to you are concerned only about their own matters. They are not concerned about what Jesus Christ considers important. 22 But you know that Timothy has proved that he serves the Lord and others faithfully. You know that he has served the Lord closely together with me in proclaiming to people the message about Christ as though he were [SIM] my son and I were his own father. 23 So then he is the one I confidently expect to send to you as soon as I know what will happen to me. 24 And I am confident that I will soon be released {the authorities will soon release me} so that the Lord will enable me also to come/go to you soon.

25 I have concluded that it is really necessary that I send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a fellow believer and my fellow worker, and he endures difficulties together with me [MET], just like soldiers endure difficulties together. You sent him to me in order that he might help me when I was needy [EUP]. 26 But I have concluded that I must send him back to you because he has been longing to see you all. Furthermore, he has been very distressed because he knows that you heard that he had become sick. 27 Indeed, he was so sick that he almost died. However, he did not die. Instead, God pitied him and he also pitied me, and as a result he healed him. God pitied me because he did not want me to be even more sorrowful than I already was. 28 So, I am sending him back to you as quickly as possible, in order that you may rejoice when you see him again and in order that I may be less sorrowful than I was. 29,30 Welcome him very joyfully just like believers in our Lord Jesus should welcome one another. While he was working for Christ, he was helping me in place of you because you were far away. He knew that he might die as a result of helping me, and truly he nearly did die. So honor him, and honor all those who are like him.

15 Make sure that none of you does evil things to anyone who has done evil to you. On the contrary, you must always try to do good things for each other (OR, to fellow believers) and to everyone else.

10 But he knows how I have conducted my life;

and when he has finished testing me, he will see that I am as pure as [SIM] gold whose impurities have all been burned out.

11 I [SYN] have faithfully walked on the path that he showed me;

I have not stopped obeying him.