1All who are slaves under a yoke should regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed.
2And those who have believing masters should not despise them because they are brothers, but rather serve them all the more, because those who benefit from their good service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these things.
3If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the teaching that accords with godliness,
4he is puffed up with conceit, understanding nothing, but has a sickly craving for controversies and disputes about words, out of which come envy, strife, slanders, evil suspicions,
5constant frictions among people corrupted in mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
6But godliness with contentment is great gain,
7for we brought nothing into the world, so that neither can we carry anything out;
8but having food and coverings, with these we will be content.
9But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils, and by craving it some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
11But you, O man of God, flee these things; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
12Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession before many witnesses.
13I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,
14that you keep the commandment spotless and beyond reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15which he will display in his own times—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of those who reign and Lord of those who exercise lordship,
16who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one of humanity has seen or is able to see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
17Charge those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy,
18to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share,
19storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
20O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, turning away from the profane, empty chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge,
21which some, professing it, have missed the mark concerning the faith. Grace be with you.
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