Chapter 4
1 I am writing to all the Churches and I charge everyone that I am willingly dying for God, if only you don’t hinder me. I urge you, don’t become an untimely kindness to me.
2 Let me be food for the wild beasts, through whom I can reach God. I am God’s wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may be found pure bread of God.
3 Rather, coax the wild beasts so that they may become a tomb for me and leave nothing of my body behind, so that when I fall asleep I won’t be a burden to anyone. Then I will truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world won’t even see my body.
4 Entreat the Lord for me, so that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God. I’m not giving you orders like Peter and Paul; they were apostles of Jesus Christ, but I am the least. They were free as servants of God, but I am still a servant. But if I suffer, I will become a freedman of Jesus Christ and will rise in him free. Now, bound in him, I am learning to desire nothing worldly or vain.