1. From Paul.God our Saviour and Christ Jesus commanded me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, who gives us hope.
2. Timothy, because of our faith, you are like a son to me. I pray that God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind and merciful to you. May they bless you with peace!
3. When I was leaving for Macedonia, I asked you to stay on in Ephesus and warn certain people there to stop spreading their false teachings.
4. You needed to warn them to stop wasting their time on senseless stories and endless lists of ancestors. Such things only cause arguments. They don't help anyone to do God's work that can only be done by faith.
5. You must teach people to have genuine love, as well as a good conscience and true faith.
6. There are some who have given up these for nothing but empty talk.
7. They want to be teachers of the Law of Moses. But they don't know what they are talking about, even though they think they do.
8. We know that the Law is good, if it is used in the right way.
9. We also understand that it wasn't given to control people who please God, but to control lawbreakers, criminals, godless people, and sinners. It is for wicked and evil people, and for murderers, who would even kill their own parents.
10. The Law was written for people who are sexual perverts or who live as homosexuals or are kidnappers or liars or won't tell the truth in court. It is for anything else that opposes the correct teaching
11. of the good news that the glorious and wonderful God has given me.
12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. He has given me the strength for my work because he knew that he could trust me.
13. I used to say terrible and insulting things about him, and I was cruel. But he had mercy on me because I didn't know what I was doing, and I had not yet put my faith in him.