¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope;

²to Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³The reason I asked you to remain at Ephesus while I went on to Macedonia, was so that you might command some not to teach differing doctrine, ⁴neither to give attention to inconclusive legends and genealogies, which produce uncertainties rather than furthering the program of God which is in faith. ⁵Now the goal of the commandment is love from a pure heart and good conscience, and faith that is unpretended; ⁶from which some have strayed away, and detoured into idle talk. ⁷Desiring to be teachers of the law, they have no understanding of what they are saying, not even about the things they are dogmatically asserting.

⁸But we know that the law is good, if one uses it correctly, ⁹knowing this, that the law is not there for the righteous person, but for the lawbreakers and the rebellious, the ungodly and the sinful, the unholy and profane, assaulters of fathers and assaulters of mothers, murderers, ¹⁰fornicators, homosexuals, human traffickers, liars, perjurors, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching ¹¹in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

¹²I am thankful to Christ Jesus our Lord who enabled me. Because he deemed me trustworthy, he appointed me to this stewardship, ¹³even though I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and violent. But I received mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. ¹⁴And with faith and love in Christ Jesus, the grace of our Lord abounded all the more.

¹⁵This statement is trustworthy, and deserving of all acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶But I received mercy for this reason: so that in me first, Christ Jesus might show forth all longsuffering, as a pattern for those who in the future were to believe on him unto eternal life. ¹⁷Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, in accordance with the prophecies that were made about you before, that with them you might soldier a good warfare, ¹⁹holding onto faith, and also a good conscience, which some having cast off, have experienced shipwreck as to faith; ²⁰among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered over to Satan, so they may learn not to blaspheme.