1. If you are a slave, you should respect and honour your owner. This will keep people from saying bad things about God and about our teaching.
2. If any of you slaves have owners who are followers, you should show them respect. After all, they are also followers of Christ, and he loves them. So you should serve and help them the best you can.These are the things you must teach and tell the people to do.
3. Anyone who teaches something different disagrees with the correct and godly teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Those people who disagree are proud of themselves, but they don't really know a thing. Their minds are sick, and they like to argue over words. They cause jealousy, disagreements, unkind words, evil suspicions,
5. and nasty quarrels. They have wicked minds and have missed out on the truth.These people think religion is supposed to make you rich.
6. And religion does make your life rich, by making you content with what you have.
7. We didn't bring anything into this world, and we won't take anything with us when we leave.
8. So we should be satisfied just to have food and clothes.
9. People who want to be rich fall into all sorts of temptations and traps. They are caught by foolish and harmful desires that drag them down and destroy them.
10. The love of money causes all kinds of trouble. Some people want money so much that they have given up their faith and caused themselves a lot of pain.
11. Timothy, you belong to God, so keep away from all these evil things. Try your best to please God and to be like him. Be faithful, loving, dependable, and gentle.
12. Fight a good fight for the faith and claim eternal life. God offered it to you when you clearly told about your faith, while so many people listened.