1 Commends their faith and piety; exhorts them
to persevere;
10 desires their prayers for himself and the
church at Antioch.
MAY I therefore have joy of you in all things, if I shall be worthy of it. For though I am bound, yet am I not worthy to be compared to one of you that are at liberty.
2 I know that ye are not puffed up; for ye have Jesus Christ in your hearts.
3 And especially when I commend you, I know that ye are ashamed, as it is written, The just man condemneth himself.
4 Study therefore to be confirmed in the doctrine of our Lord, and of his Apostles; that so whatever ye do, ye may prosper both in body and spirit, in faith and charity, in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Holy Spirit; in the beginning, and in the end:
5 Together with your most worthy bishop, and the well-wrought spiritual crown of your presbytery, and your deacons, which are according to God.
6 Be subject to your bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ was to the Father, according to the flesh; and the Apostles, both to Christ, and to the Father; and to the Holy Ghost: that so ye may be united both in body and spirit.
7 Knowing you to be full of God, I have the more briefly exhorted you.
8 Be mindful of me in your prayers, that I may attain unto God, and of the church that is in Syria, from which I am not worthy to be called.
9 For I stand in need of your joint prayers in God, and of your charity, that the church which is in Syria may he thought worthy to be nourished by your church.