The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.
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First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
2 Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation.
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for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
3 This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.
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This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,
4 He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we've learned:
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who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
5 that there's one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us - Jesus,
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For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out.
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who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
7 This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.
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For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
8 Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray - not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.
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I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;
9 And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions
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likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,
10 but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.
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but with what is proper for women who profess godliness--with good works.
11 I don't let women take over and tell the men what to do.
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Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
12 They should study to be quiet and obedient along with everyone else.
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I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
13 Adam was made first, then Eve;
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For Adam was formed first, then Eve;
14 woman was deceived first - our pioneer in sin! - with Adam right on her heels.
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and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
15 On the other hand, her childbearing brought about salvation, reversing Eve. But this salvation only comes to those who continue in faith, love, and holiness, gathering it all into maturity. You can depend on this.
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Yet she will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.