First Letter to Timothy 1

¹ From Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus appointed by the command of God our saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,

² to Timothy, true child of mine in the faith; wishing you grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ As I asked you when I was leaving for Macedonia, please stay at Ephesus, to insist that certain people stop teaching strange doctrines

⁴ and taking notice of myths and endless genealogies; these things are only likely to raise irrelevant doubts instead of furthering the designs of God which are revealed in faith.

⁵ The only purpose of this instruction is that there should be love, coming out of a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith.

⁶ There are some people who have gone off the straight course and taken a road that leads to empty speculation;

⁷ they claim to be doctors of the Law but they understand neither the arguments they are using nor the opinions they are upholding

⁸ We know, of course, that the Law is good, but only provided it is treated like any law,

⁹ in the understanding that laws are not framed for people who are good. On the contrary, they are for criminals and revolutionaries, for the irreligious and the wicked, for the sacrilegious and the irreverent; they are for people who kill their fathers or mothers and for murderers,

¹⁰ for those who are immoral with women or with boys or with men, for liars and for perjurers – and for everything else that is contrary to the sound teaching

¹¹ that goes with the Good News of the glory of the blessed God, the gospel that was entrusted to me.

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, and who judged me faithful enough to call me into his service

¹³ even though I used to be a blasphemer and did all I could to injure and discredit the faith. Mercy, however, was shown me, because until I became a believer I had been acting in ignorance;

¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them;

¹⁶ and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who would later have to trust in him to come to eternal life.

¹⁷ To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸ Timothy, my son, these are the instructions that I am giving you: I ask you to remember the words once spoken over you by the prophets, and taking them to heart to fight like a good soldier

¹⁹ with faith and a good conscience for your weapons. Some people have put conscience aside and wrecked their faith in consequence.

²⁰ I mean men like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to teach them not to be blasphemous.