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4Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
²for I give you good precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
³When I was a son with my father,
tender, and my mother’s favorite,
⁴he taught me, and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
⁵Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away
from the words of my mouth.
⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.
⁸Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
⁹She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁷However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches. ¹⁸Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. ¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything. ²⁰Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called. ²¹Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever. ²²For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ. ²³You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters. ²⁴In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God.

6Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ²“Honor your father and mother” —this is the first commandment with a promise: ³“so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” ⁴And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. ⁵Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; ⁶not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. ⁷Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, ⁸knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free. ⁹And, masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.