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.