Some people have failed in these things and been diverted into fruitless talk.

These are the instructions that I intrust to you, my son Timothy, and they are in accordance with the predictions made long ago about you. Fight the good fight with their aid,

Cultivate these things, devote yourself to them, so that everyone will see your progress.

Insist upon these points, so that people may be irreproachable.

I charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the chosen angels to observe these rules without any discrimination, and to be perfectly impartial.

Those who have Christian masters must not think lightly of them because they are brothers; they must serve them all the more faithfully, because those who benefit by it are believers and hence dear to them. These are the things you must teach and preach.

But you, man of God, must fly from these things. Strive for uprightness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.