CHAPTER 4
1 May I therefore have joy of you in all things, if I shall be worthy of it. For though I am bound, yet I am not worthy to be compared to one of you that are at liberty.
3 And especially when I commend you, I know that ye are ᵃashamed, as it is written, The just man condemneth himself.
4 Study therefore to be confirmed in the doctrine of our Lord, and of his Apostles; that so whatever ye do, ye may prosper both in body and spirit, in faith and charity, in the Son, and in the Father and in the Holy Spirit: in the beginning, and in the end.
5 Together with your most worthy bishop, and the ᵃwell-wrought spiritual ᵇcrown of your presbytery, and your ᶜdeacons, which are according to God.
6 Be ᵃsubject to your bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh: and the Apostles both to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost: that so ye may be united both in body and spirit.
7 Knowing you to be full of God, I have the more briefly exhorted you.
8 Be mindful of me in your prayers, that I may ᵃattain unto God the Church that is in Syria, from ᵇwhich I am not worthy to be called.
9 For I stand in need of your joint prayers in God, and of your charity, that the church which is in Syria may be thought worthy to be nourished by your church.
10 The Ephesians ᵃfrom Smyrna salute you, from which place I write unto you: (being present here to the glory of God, in like manner as you are,) who have in all things ᵇrefreshed me, together with Polycarp, the bishop of the Smyrnæans.
11 The rest of the churches in the honour of Jesus Christ, salute you.
12 Farewell, and be ye strengthened in the concord of God: ᵃenjoying his inseparable spirit, which is Jesus Christ.
To the Magnesians