1 Let all servants who are under the yoke of slavery remember that their masters are entitled to perfect respect ??otherwise it will be a scandal to the Name of God and to our doctrine.
2 Those who have Christian believers as their masters must not take liberties with them because they are brothers; they must be all the better servants because those who get the good of their service are believers and beloved. This is what you are to teach and preach.
3 Anyone who teaches novelties and refuses to fall in with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine that tallies with piety,
4 is a conceited, ignorant creature, with a morbid passion for controversy and argument which only leads to envy, dissension, insults, insinuations,
5 and constant friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the Truth. They imagine religion is a paying concern.
6 And so it is ??provided it goes with a contented spirit;
7 for we bring nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
8 If we have food and clothes, we must be content with that.
9 Those who are eager to be rich get tempted and trapped in many senseless and pernicious propensities that drag men down to ruin and destruction.
10 For love of money is the root of all mischief; it is by aspiring to be rich that certain individuals have gone astray from the faith and found themselves pierced with many a pang of remorse.
11 Shun that, O man of God, aim at integrity, piety, faith, love, stedfastness, and suavity;
12 fight in the good fight of the faith, secure that life eternal to which you were called when you voiced the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
13 In the presence of God who is the Life of all, and of Christ Jesus who testified to the good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you
14 to keep your commission free from stain, free from reproach, till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ ??15 which will be brought about in due time by that blessed and only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords,
16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in light that none can approach, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion: Amen.
17 Charge the rich of this world not to be supercilious, and not to fix their hopes on so uncertain a thing as riches but on the living God who richly provides us with all the enjoyments of life;
18 tell them to be bountiful, rich in good works, open-handed and generous,
19 amassing right good treasure for themselves in the world to come, in order to secure the life which is life indeed.