be like people ¹  waiting for their master to come back from the wedding celebration, ²  so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate ¹  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise ²  the other. You cannot serve God and money.” ³ 

When harvest time came, he sent a slave ¹  to the tenants so that they would give ²  him his portion of the crop. ³  However, the tenants beat his slave ⁴  and sent him away empty-handed.

For who is greater, the one who is seated at the table, ¹  or the one who serves? Is it not ²  the one who is seated at the table? But I am among you as one ³  who serves.

If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow ¹  me, and where I am, my servant will be too. ²  If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

We know that ¹  our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, ²  so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

But now we have been released from the law, because we have died ¹  to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. ² 

For these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds ¹  of the naive.

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves ¹  or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.

Now, brothers and sisters, ¹  you know about the household of Stephanus, that as the first converts ²  of Achaia, they devoted themselves to ministry for the saints. I urge you

For you put up with ¹  it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly ²  toward you, if someone strikes you in the face.

Have you been thinking all this time ¹  that we have been defending ourselves to you? We are speaking in Christ before God, and everything we do, dear friends, is to build you up. ² 

Now this matter arose ¹  because of the false brothers with false pretenses ²  who slipped in unnoticed to spy on ³  our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaves. ⁴ 

But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless ¹  basic forces? ²  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ³ 

Masters, ¹  treat your slaves ²  the same way, ³  giving up the use of threats, ⁴  because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, ⁵  and there is no favoritism with him.

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our ¹  consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

In the same way, you who are younger, ¹  be subject to the elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. ² 

For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve ¹  him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. ² 

cinnamon, spice, ¹  incense, perfumed ointment, ²  frankincense, ³  wine, olive oil and costly flour, ⁴  wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and four-wheeled carriages, ⁵  slaves and human lives. ⁶