Greeting
1 Paul,
1an apostle of Christ Jesus
2by command of
3God our Savior and of Christ Jesus
4our hope,
2
To Timothy,
5my true child in the faith:
6Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Warning Against False Teachers
3 7As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not
8to teach any different doctrine,
4
nor
9to devote themselves to myths and endless
10genealogies, which promote
11speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
5
The aim of our charge is love
12that issues from a pure heart and
13a good conscience and
14a sincere faith.
6
Certain persons, by
15swerving from these, have wandered away into
16vain discussion,
7
desiring to be teachers of the law,
17without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
8
Now we know that
18the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,
9
understanding this, that the
19law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,
10
the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to
20sound doctrine,
11
in accordance with
21the gospel of the glory of
22the blessed God
23with which I have been entrusted.
Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners
12 I thank him
24who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful,
25appointing me to his service,
13
though formerly I was a blasphemer,
26persecutor, and insolent opponent. But
27I received mercy
28because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14
and
29the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the
30faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15
The saying is
31trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus
32came into the world to save sinners,
33of whom I am the foremost.
16
But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
17
To
34the King of ages,
35immortal,
36invisible,
37the only God,
38be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
18
This charge
39I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with
40the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may
41wage the good warfare,
19
42holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have
43made shipwreck of their faith,
20
among whom are
44Hymenaeus and
45Alexander, whom I
46have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to
47blaspheme.