1FROM PAUL,
APOSTLE of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope,
2to Timothy his true-born son in the faith.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3When I was starting for Macedonia, I urged you to stay on at Ephesus. You were to command certain persons to give up teaching erroneous doctrines 4and studying those interminable myths and genealogies, which issue in mere speculation and cannot make known God's plan for us, which works through faith.
5The aim and object of this command is the love which springs from a clean heart, from a good conscience, and from faith that is genuine. 6Through falling short of these, some people have gone astray into a wilderness of words. 7They set out to be teachers of the moral law, without understanding either the words they use or the subjects about which they are so dogmatic.
8We all know that the law is an excellent thing, provided we treat it as law, 9recognizing that it is not aimed at good citizens, but at the lawless and unruly, the impious and sinful, the irreligious and worldly; at parricides and matricides, murderers 10and fornicators, perverts, kidnappers, liars, perjurers—in fact all whose behaviour flouts the wholesome teaching 11which conforms with the gospel entrusted to me, the gospel which tells of the glory of God in his eternal felicity.
12I thank him who has made me equal to the task, Christ Jesus our Lord; I thank him for judging me worthy of this trust and appointing me to his service— 13although in the past I had met him with abuse and persecution and outrage. But because I acted ignorantly in unbelief I was dealt with mercifully; 14the grace of our Lord was lavished upon me, with the faith and love which are ours in Christ Jesus.
15Here are words you may trust, words that merit full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'; and among them I stand first. 16But I was mercifully dealt with for this very purpose, that Jesus Christ might find in me the first occasion for displaying all his patience, and that I might be typical of all who were in future to have faith in him and gain eternal life. 17Now to the King of all worlds, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever! Amen.
18This charge, son Timothy, I lay upon you, following that prophetic utterance which first pointed you out to me. 19So fight gallantly, armed with faith and a good conscience. It was through spurning conscience that certain persons made shipwreck of their faith, 20among them Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I consigned to Satan, in the hope that through this discipline they might learn not to be blasphemous.
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