Greeting

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the commandment of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope,

²to Timothy, my true child in faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Law, Love, and False Teachers

³As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach a different doctrine,

⁴and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.

⁵But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

⁶Some people have departed from these things and turned to vain discussion,

⁷desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they are saying nor what they so strongly affirm.

⁸But we know that the law is excellent if a person uses it lawfully,

⁹realizing that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for father-killers and mother-killers, for murderers,

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for practicing homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

¹¹according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Grace Given to Paul

¹²I thank the one who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he counted me faithful, appointing me to deacon-work,

¹³even though I used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. However, I was shown mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

¹⁴The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵The saying is faithful and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the worst.

¹⁶However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as the worst one, Jesus Christ might display all his patience as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life.

¹⁷Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸I commit this instruction to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which were once made concerning you, that by them you may fight the excellent battle,

¹⁹holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected and have shipwrecked the faith.

²⁰Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme.