First Letter to Timothy 6

¹ All slaves ‘under the yoke’ must have unqualified respect for their masters, so that the name of God and our teaching are not brought into disrepute.

² Slaves whose masters are believers are not to think any the less of them because they are brothers; on the contrary, they should serve them all the better, since those who have the benefit of their services are believers and dear to God.

³ Anyone who teaches anything different, and does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine which is in accordance with true religion,

⁴ is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit – with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words. All that can come of this is jealousy, contention, abuse and wicked mistrust of one another;

⁵ and unending disputes by people who are neither rational nor informed and imagine that religion is a way of making a profit.

⁶ Religion, of course, does bring large profits, but only to those who are content with what they have.

⁷ We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it;

⁸ but as long as we have food and clothing, let us be content with that.

⁹ People who long to be rich are a prey to temptation; they get trapped into all sorts of foolish and dangerous ambitions which eventually plunge them into ruin and destruction.

¹⁰ ‘The love of money is the root of all evils’ and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith, and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds.

¹¹ But, as a man dedicated to God, you must avoid all that. You must aim to be saintly and religious, filled with faith and love, patient and gentle.

¹² Fight the good fight of the faith and win for yourself the eternal life to which you were called when you made your profession and spoke up for the truth in front of many witnesses.

¹³ Now, before God the source of all life and before Christ, who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate, I put to you the duty

¹⁴ of doing all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁵ who at the due time will be revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and the Lord of lords,

¹⁶ who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light, whom no man has seen and no man is able to see: to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen.

¹⁷ Warn those who are rich in this world’s goods that they are not to look down on other people; and not to set their hopes on money, which is untrustworthy, but on God who, out of his riches, gives us all that we need for our happiness.

¹⁸ Tell them that they are to do good, and be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share –

¹⁹ this is the way they can save up a good capital sum for the future if they want to make sure of the only life that is real.

²⁰ My dear Timothy, take great care of all that has been entrusted to you. Have nothing to do with the pointless philosophical discussions and antagonistic beliefs of the ‘knowledge’ which is not knowledge at all;

²¹ by adopting this, some have gone right away from the faith. Grace be with you.