I have seen slaves ¹  on horseback and princes walking on foot ²  like slaves.

“‘As for your male and female slaves ¹  who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. ² 

Slaves ¹  rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power. ² 

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men.

But later ¹  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ² 

“So today we are slaves! In the very land you gave to our ancestors to eat its fruit and to enjoy ¹  its good things – we are slaves!

He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his servants.

and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves ¹  as obedient slaves, ²  you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? ³ 

Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

I purchased male and female slaves, and I owned slaves who were born in my house; ¹  I also possessed more livestock – both herds and flocks – than any of my predecessors in Jerusalem. ² 

But then you turned right around ¹  and showed that you did not honor me. ²  Each of you took back your male and female slaves whom you had freed as they desired, and you forced them to be your slaves again. ³ 

Although these false teachers promise ¹  such people ²  freedom, they themselves are enslaved to ³  immorality. ⁴  For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. ⁵ 

Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, “Here we are; we are your slaves.”

Slaves ¹  are to be subject to their own masters in everything, ²  to do what is wanted and not talk back,

If one of us has it, ¹  he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves!”

you must say to them, ¹  “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt in a powerful way. ² 

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed ¹  from the heart that pattern ²  of teaching you were entrusted to,

Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”