But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may be encouraged

when I learn of your condition, for I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare, for they all

seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.

But you know of his proven worth 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. And I trust in the Lord that I myself

also shall be coming shortly. But I thought it necessary to send to you a Aphroditis,

my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who was also

your messenger and minister to my need, because he was longing for you all and was distressed

because you had heard that he was sick.

For indeed he was sick to the point of death,

but God had mercy on him,

and not on him only but also on me,

lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I have sent him all the

more eagerly in order that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be

less concerned about you.

Therefore, receive him in the Lord with all joy

and hold men like him in high regard,

because he came close to death for the work of Christ,

risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. My heart was very much encouraged Wednesday night through the freedom and the earnestness and the affection

for God with which many of you prayed in our time together.

I think it's the mark of a growing people,

a people who are growing towards God in their hearts, that they very often in their prayers move beyond a delight in God's gifts to a delight in God's gifts to a delight in God himself.

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