Moffatt(i)
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right;
2 honour your father and mother (it is the first command with a promise),
3 that it may be well with you and that you may live long on earth.
4 As for you fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the discipline and on the admonitions of the Lord.
5 Servants, be obedient to those who are your masters here below with reverence and trembling, with singleness of heart as to Christ himself;
6 instead of merely working when their eye is on you, like those who court human favour, do God's will from the heart like servants of Christ,
7 by rendering service with goodwill as to the Lord and Master, not to men.
8 Be sure that everyone, slave or free, will be paid back by the Lord and Master for the good he has done.
9 And as for you masters, act by your servants in the same way, and stop threatening them; be sure that they and you have a Lord and Master in heaven, and there is no partiality about him.
10 To conclude. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might;
11 put on God's armour so as to be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil.
12 For we have to struggle, not with blood and flesh but with the angelic Rulers, the angelic Authorities, the potentates of the dark present, the spirit-forces of evil in the heavenly sphere.
13 So take God's armour, that you may be able to make a stand upon the evil day and hold your ground by overcoming all the foe.
14 Hold your ground, tighten the belt of truth about your loins, wear integrity as your coat of mail,
15 and have your feet shod with the stability of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, take faith as your shield, to enable you to quench all the fire-tipped darts flung by the evil one,
17 put on salvation as your helmet, and take the Spirit as your sword (that is, the word of God),
18 praying at all times in the Spirit with all manner of prayer and entreaty — be alive to that, attend to it unceasingly, interceding on behalf of all the saints
19 and on my behalf also, that I may be allowed to speak and open my lips in order to expound fully and freely that open secret of the gospel
20 for the sake of which I am in custody as its envoy. Pray that I may have freedom to declare it as I should.
21 Our beloved brother Tychicus, a faithful minister in the Lord, will give you all information about me, so that you may know how I am;
22 that is why I am sending him to you, to let you know how I am and to encourage your hearts.
23 Peace and love with faith be to the brothers from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.