1 Let all who are servants under the yoke regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching are not reviled.
2 Those whose masters are believers should not think less of them because they are brothers; on the contrary, they should serve them all the better, since those who benefit from their good service are believers and dearly loved. Teach and urge these things.
3 If anyone teaches some other doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching that accords with godliness,
4 he is swollen with conceit and understands nothing. He has a sickly appetite for controversies and battles over words, which give rise to envy, quarreling, abusive talk, evil suspicions,
5 and endless friction among men whose minds are corrupt and who have been robbed of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to make a profit. Keep away from such people.
6 Yet godliness joined with contentment is indeed great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and clearly we cannot take anything out of it either.
8 And if we have food and things to cover us, with these we will be satisfied.
9 But people who are set on being wealthy fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless, injurious desires, which drown men in ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is the root of all evils; some, in reaching for it, have been led astray from the faith and have run themselves through with many pangs.
11 But you, man of God, run from these things. Strive after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, meekness.
12 Fight the good fight of the faith; get a firm grip on eternal life, to which you were called, and you made the good confession before many witnesses.
13 Before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who bore witness to the good confession before Pontius Pilate, I instruct you
14 to keep this commandment spotless and beyond reproach until our Lord Jesus Christ appears,
15 an appearing that the blessed and only Sovereign will bring about in his own time, the King of those who reign and Lord of those who rule,
16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in light no one can approach, whom no human has seen or is able to see; to him be honor and power forever. Amen.
17 Charge the rich of this present age not to think too highly of themselves or to rest their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on the living God, who supplies us with all things in abundance to enjoy.
18 to work what is good, to be wealthy in good works, open-handed, sharing with others,
19 storing away for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may grasp eternal life.
20 Timothy, keep safe what has been committed to you, avoiding the irreverent, empty talk and the contradictions of what is falsely named knowledge,
21 which some have claimed and have missed the mark regarding the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.