no longer a mere slave but something more than a slave — a beloved brother; especially dear to me but how much more to you as a man and as a Christian!
Therefore, my beloved, as you have been obedient always and not simply when I was present, so, now that I am absent, work all the more strenuously at your salvation with reverence and trembling,
My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you.
For though I am a man under authority myself, I have soldiers under me; I tell one man to go, and he goes, I tell another to come, and he comes, I tell my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
No one can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other — you cannot serve both God and Mammon.