CHAPTER IV.

MASTERS, render unto

your servants justice and equality; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.

3

2 Persevere in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving; that God would open unto us Withal praying for us also, a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds :

4 That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

5 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, buying up opportunities.

Let your speech be alway in grace, seasoned with salt, ought to answer every man. that ye may know how ye

7 All my state shall Tychicus make known unto you, the beloved brother, and faithful

minister and fellow-servant in the Lord:

8 Whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose, that comfort your hearts; She may know your state, and

9 Together with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved bro

ther, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all the things here.

IO Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him ;

II And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circum8 Several of the oldest MSS. have that ye may know our state: from Eph. vi. 22.

cision. These only are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, men that proved a comfort unto me.

12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, saluteth you, always striving earnestly for you in his prayers, that ye may stand perfect and 2fully assured in all the will of God.

13 For I bear him witness, that he hath much labour for you, and those at Laodicea, and those at Hierapolis.

14 Luke, the beloved physician, saluteth you, and Demas. 1 So most of the oldest MSS. 2 So all the oldest MSS.

15 Salute the brethren at Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church in his house.

16 And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read in the church of the Laodiceans also; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

17 And say to Archippus, Look to the ministry which thou receivedst in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.

18 The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you.3

3 Most of the oldest MSS. omit Amen.

proved among you for your sakes.

6 And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord, receiving the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit : 7 So that ye became an example to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

8 For from you hath sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is toward God is gone forth; so that we need not to speak any thing.

9 For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from your idols to serve the living and true God;

10 And to wait for his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath which is to come.

F

CHAPTER II.

OR yourselves know, brethren, our entering in unto you, that it hath not been in vain :

2 Nay, after that we had suffered before, and had been shamefully treated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God in much conflict. 3 For our exhortation springeth not from deceit, nor yet from impurity, nor yet is it in guile :

4 But according as we have been approved of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as

pleasing men, but God, which proveth our hearts.

5 For neither at any time did we practise words of flattery, as ye know, nor a pretext of covetousness; God is witness : 6 Nor of men sought we glory, either from you, or from others, though we might have been burdensome, as apostles of Christ.

7 But we proved gentle among you, like as when a nursing mother cherisheth her own children :

8 Thus being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to impart unto you, not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because ye became very dear unto us.

9 For ye remember, brethren, our labour and toil: working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we proclaimed unto you the gospel of God.

Io Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe:

II Even as ye know, exhorting and comforting every one of you, as a father his own children, and charging you,

12 That ye might walk worthily of God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory.

13 And for this cause we also thank God unceasingly, because, when ye received God's word by hearing it from us, ye accepted, not the word of men,⚫ but as it is in truth, the word of God, which worketh also in you that believe.

14 For ye became imitators,

brethren, of the churches of God which are in Judæa in Christ Jesus because ye also suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they suffered of the Jews:

15 Who both killed Jesus the Lord, and the prophets, and drove out us; and please not God, and are contrary to all

men,

16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to the end that they may fill up their sins alway. But the wrath of God] came upon them to the uttermost.

17 But we, brethren, when we had been separated from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.

18 Wherefore we would fain have come unto you, even I Paul, both once and again; and Satan hindered us.

19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting? Are not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus2 at his coming?

20 For ye are our glory and joy.

CHAPTER III.

THEREFORE being no

WH
W longer able to forbear,

we thought it good to be left
behind alone in Athens ;
2 And we sent Timothy, our
brother, and fellow-worker

1 Not expressed in the original. 2 Christ is omitted in all the oldest authorities.

3 The readings are in some confusion. That adopted in the text

with God in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to exhort you on behalf of your faith:

3 That no one might be disquieted in these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.

4 For even when we were with you, we told you before that we are to suffer tribulation; even as it also came to pass, and ye know.

5 For this cause I also, when I could no longer forbear, sent in order to know your faith, lest haply the tempter have tempted you, and our labour prove in vain.

6 But Timothy having just now come unto us from you, and brought us good tidings of your faith and love, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, longing to see us, as we also to see you :

7 For this cause we were comforted, brethren, over you in all our distress and affliction by your faith:

8 Since now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.

9 For what thanksgiving can we render again to God for you, for all the joy wherewith we rejoice for your sakes before our God;

10 Night and day praying very exceedingly that we may see your faces, and may fill up the defects of your faith?

was probably the original, and the alterations took place from the expression seeming objectionable. The Sinaitic and Alexandrian MSS. have only minister of God: the Vatican, only and fellow-worker: the Claromontane, as in text.

11 But may God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way unto you. 12 And you yourselves may the Lord make to increase and abound in your love one toward another, and toward all, even as we also toward you :

13 To the end that he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God and our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

F

CHAPTER IV. URTHERMORE then, brethren, we beseech you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, 1even as also ye are walking, ye would abound yet more.

2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification, to wit, that ye abstain from fornication:

4 That every one of you should know how to acquire his own vessel in sanctification and honour;

5 Not in the lust of carnal desire, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

6 That he should not go beyond and overreach his brother in the matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

1 So all the most ancient MSS.

8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who also gave unto you his Spirit, which is holy.

one

9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that write unto you for ye yourselves are taught of God that ye should love one another.

IO And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in the whole of Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, to abound yet more ;

II And to study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we commanded you;

12 That ye may walk becom. ingly toward them that are without, and may have lack of nothing.

13 But we would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are sleeping, that ye may not sorrow, even as the rest do which have no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which fell asleep through Jesus will God bring together with Him.

15 For this we say unto you in the word of the Lord, that we which are living, who remain behind unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise gain an advantage over them which fell asleep.

16 Because the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the

2 So most of the oldest MSS. 3 So all the oldest MSS.

So the three most ancient MSS.