Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. That sort of seems like an oxymoron to me. I remember being a kid and being provoked to anger many times by my mom bringing me up in discipline. I'll just assume the original Greek is not translating all that well there. I've often wonder if there was any use for knowing salvation. For example when I hear an argument about whether a Christian can lose their salvation I am always wondering... do we need to know? We can argue about it all day but in the end its up to God, and our actions shouldn't be motivated by a fear of hell or a desire for heaven correct? Rather a love for God and desire to live the way he intended, a genuine repentance for the ways in which we've taken advantage of His gifts to us. However, in this chapter Paul suggests that knowing our salvation is our helmet in the spiritual battle. Not sure how exactly but thinking maybe he talks about it elsewhere. Also in the chapter... and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. What's the meaning of the word mystery here? What's mysterious about it and should we be building a little more mystery into our gospel understanding?