⁶ You know that I have served your father with all my strength,

²⁹ Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have fared with me.^(A)

The Example of Christ’s Suffering

¹⁸ Slaves, be subject to your masters with all respect,^[a] not only those who are good and gentle but also those who are dishonest.

⁹ Urge slaves to be submissive to their masters in everything, to be pleasing, not talking back,^{(A) 10} not stealing, but showing complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the teaching of God our Savior.

²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters^[a] in everything, not with a slavery performed merely for looks, to please people, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.^{[b](A) 23} Whatever task you must do, work as if your soul depends on it, as for the Lord and not for humans, ²⁴ since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.^{(B) 25} For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality.^(C)

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect^[a] and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ,^{(A) 6} not with a slavery performed merely for looks, to please people, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul. ⁷ Render service with enthusiasm, as for the Lord and not for humans, ⁸ knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are enslaved or free.

³⁸ These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. ³⁹ That which was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself; of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.^{(A) 40} It was like this with me: by day the heat consumed me and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.^{(B) 42} If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear^[a] of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”^(C)