Epistles

I do not give you commands as if I were some[*](Exhortation to Unity) one great, for though I am a prisoner for the Name, I am not yet perfect in Jesus Christ; for now I do but begin to be a disciple, and I speak to you as to my fellow learners. For I needed to be prepared [*](Literally anointed. The allusion is to the preparation of a gymnast or gladiator.) by you in faith, exhortation, endurance, long-suffering.

But since love does not suffer me to be silent concerning you, for this reason I have taken upon me to exhort you that you live[*](Literally run.) in harmony with the will of God. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the will of the Father, even as the bishops, who have been appointed throughout the world, are by the will of Jesus Christ.