“The Lord God of Israel has a message for you. ¹  ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors ²  when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. ³  It stipulated, ⁴ 

So take note, ¹  I am about to make you slaves of ²  the tribes ³  of the east. They will make camps among you and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.

“I am about to punish them ¹  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

So the slaves ¹  of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

After ¹  he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who owed him one hundred silver coins. ²  So ³  he grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him, ⁴  saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ ⁵ 

Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. ¹  My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”’

“Who then is the faithful and wise slave, ¹  whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves ²  their food at the proper time?

It is like a man going on a journey. He left his house and put his slaves ¹  in charge, assigning ²  to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to stay alert.

Blessed are those slaves ¹  whom their master finds alert ²  when he returns! I tell you the truth, ³  he will dress himself to serve, ⁴  have them take their place at the table, ⁵  and will come ⁶  and wait on them! ⁷ 

But if ¹  that ²  slave should say to himself, ³  ‘My master is delayed ⁴  in returning,’ and he begins to beat ⁵  the other ⁶  slaves, both men and women, ⁷  and to eat, drink, and get drunk,

So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; ¹  we have only done what was our duty.’” ² 

When ¹  he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned ²  these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted ³  to know how much they had earned ⁴  by trading.

I no longer call you slaves, ¹  because the slave does not understand ²  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ³  I heard ⁴  from my Father.

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, pulled it out and struck the high priest’s slave, ¹  cutting off his right ear. ²  (Now the slave’s name was Malchus.) ³ 

(Now the slaves ¹  and the guards ²  were standing around a charcoal fire they had made, warming themselves because it was cold. ³  Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.) ⁴ 

One of the high priest’s slaves, ¹  a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, ²  said, “Did I not see you in the orchard ³  with him?” ⁴ 

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.

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.

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 

not like those who do their work only when someone is watching ¹  – as people-pleasers – but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. ²