1.
Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.
2.
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
3.
Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, 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, redeeming the time.
6.
Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
7.
All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord:
8.
Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts;
9.
With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.
10.
Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)
11.
And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.
12.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
13.
For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.
14.
Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
15.
Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.
15. Nymphas and other brethren in Laodicea and the Church in their house (as the Christian in the apostolic age had no church edifice) also received Christian greetings.
16.
And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
16. This verse enjoins the reading of this epistle in the Church of the Laodiceans, which was near; also that the Loadicean epistle should be read in the Church at Colosse. We are sorry the epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans was lost. It may yet be found, as the explorations in the Bible lands are this day moving vigorously. When I was at Jerusalem in 1895, Dr. Bliss was excavating in Mt. Zion without the walls, down toward the Valley of Hinnom. The great manuscript of Tischendorf, which I hold in my hand, containing the whole New Testament, flooding the world with light on the inspired text, lay hidden in the convent of St. Catharine, on Mt. Sinai, until 1859. So it is not too late for the Laodicean epistle yet to come to light.
17.
And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
17. “ Say to Archippus: See to the ministry which you received in the Lord, that you fill it. ” Lord, send this admonition, with sledgehammer conviction, to every one whom the Lord has commissioned to preach the living Word!
18.
The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.
18. The feebleness of Paul’s eyes disqualified him for his own writing. So, as in case of Luke’s Gospel, Acts of the Apostles, and the Pauline epistles, he dictated them to Luke, his faithful companion and noble amanuensis. But we see he gives his autograph with his own hand. After Paul’s decapitation, Luke was hung on an olive-tree in Greece, thus, like his apostolical comrades, receiving a martyr’s crown.