So we are the representatives of Christ, as if God was making a request to you through us: we make our request to you, in the name of Christ, be at peace with God.

Bonds

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles,

I then, the prisoner in the Lord, make this request from my heart, that you will see that your behaviour is a credit to the position which God's purpose has given you,

And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father was a friend to me. So David sent his servants, to give him words of comfort on account of his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.

And Paul said, It is my prayer to God that, in little or great measure, not only you, but all those hearing me today might be even as I am, but for these chains.

But for this reason I sent for you, to see and have talk with you: for because of the hope of Israel I am in these chains.

So it is right for me to take thought for you all in this way, because I have you in my heart; for in my chains, and in my arguments before the judges in support of the good news, making clear that it is true, you all have your part with me in grace.

May the Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus because he frequently gave me help, and had no feeling of shame because I was in chains;

In which I put up with the hardest conditions, even prison chains, like one who has done a crime; but the word of God is not in chains.

My request is for my child Onesimus, the child of my chains,

Boldly

And for me, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make clear without fear the secret of the good news,

Make a loud cry, do not be quiet, let your voice be sounding like a horn, and make clear to my people their evil doings, and to the family of Jacob their sins.

But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a child: for wherever I send you, you are to go, and whatever I give you orders to say, you are to say.

And the children are hard and stiff-hearted; I am sending you to them: and you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord.

What I say to you in the dark, say in the light: and what comes to your ear secretly, say publicly from the house-tops.

But Peter and the Apostles, answering, said, We have to do the orders of God, not of man.

Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ without fear, and no orders were given that he was not to do so.

So that I may make it clear, as it is right for me to do.

In the measure of my strong hope and belief that in nothing will I be put to shame, but that without fear, as at all times, so now will Christ have glory in my body, by life or by death.

But after we had first undergone much pain and been cruelly attacked as you saw, at Philippi, by the help of God we gave you the good news without fear, though everything was against us.

In this we see what love is, because he gave his life for us; and it is right for us to give our lives for the brothers.

My loved ones, while my thoughts were full of a letter which I was going to send you about our common salvation, it was necessary for me to send you one requesting you with all my heart to go on fighting strongly for the faith which has been given to the saints once and for ever.

General references

And Jeremiah gave orders to Baruch, saying, I am shut up, and am not able to go into the house of the Lord:

So that it became clear through all the Praetorium, and to all the rest, that I was a prisoner on account of Christ;

Brothers, keep us in mind in your prayers.