Paul, An Apostle of Christ Jesus, In virtue of the command of God our Saviour, And Jesus Christ our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith: And Jesus Christ our Lord. Just as I urged you to stay at Ephesus when I was going to Macedonia, so do I now. And I do this so that you may charge some men not to spread a different kind of teaching, nor to give their attention to fictions, and endless genealogies. For these furnish questions for controversy rather than further God's arrangement for man's salvation which comes to realization in his faith. But the purpose of the charge is to develop a pure and hearty love, a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some have missed the truth and have gone into empty talk desiring to be teachers of the law when they really do not understand either what they are saying, or about what they are making their confident assertions. 1: 8. Now we know that the law is a noble thing If any one uses it as it was meant to be used. For we know that the law does not exist For a good man, But for the lawless and disobedient, For the irreverent and sinners, For the impure and profane, For smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers, For manslayers, menstealers, Immoral people, Sodomites, Liars, perjurers, And everything else Which is contrary to healthy teaching. This is the view of the law Which is in accord with the majestic character Of the blessed God As contained in the Good News And made known by it. It was this with which I was once for all entrusted. I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord for giving me strength and considering me fit to serve him, though formerly I was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, insolent in word and outrageous in deed. But God had pity on me because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Yes, our Lord's favor produced in me a most abundant harvest of faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. To be relied |