1 Timothy 6

₁If you are a slave, you must respect your owner. Slaves must do this so that other people can not say bad things about the name of God and the things that believers teach people. ₂If you are a slave and your owner believes in Christ, then you must not think you can stop showing respect to him because he is also a believer like you. No, if your owner is also a believer, then you must work harder for him because you work for someone who believes in Christ and because God loves him. You must keep on teaching these things to the people and tell them to obey this.

₃There are false_prophets who teach things that are wrong. Christ taught us the right way to serve God and the church teaches these things to the people, but the false_prophets do not believe what Christ has said. ₄People who do not believe the words of Christ, and who teach other things to the believers, are proud but they know nothing. Their minds are sick and that is why they always want to fight and argue about words. They make people jealous so that they want to fight with each other and say bad things about other people because they think bad things of them. ₅These false_prophets continue to fight. They can not think right, and they do not know the truth. They serve God because they want to become rich.

₆When you serve God and you are happy with what you have, your life is really rich. ₇Because when we were born, we came into the world with nothing and when we die, we can take nothing from this world with us. ₈That is why we must be happy when we have food and clothes. ₉People who want to be rich listen to the devil. They are like a bird that falls into a trap. They are fools who want things that are not good for them. They are like a boat that goes down into the water and is destroyed. ₁₀People who love money do very bad things. Some of them have stopped believing in Christ and now they will suffer a lot.

₁₁Timothy, you belong to God. That is why you must stay away from these bad things. You must keep on trying to do the right things. You must serve God, believe in Christ, love people, keep on doing this and be good to other people. ₁₂It is not easy to serve Christ. It is the same as an athlete who must run a very long race. You must keep on running, and run hard, and try to win this race and get eternal_life. God has called you and He gave you eternal_life when you said that you believe in Christ. A lot of people heard you when you said that. ₁₃Now I ask you to promise, and remember that God and Christ can hear you. God gives life to everything and Christ Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate and was not afraid to tell the truth. You must promise ₁₄that you will do everything that I told you, so that no one can say bad things about you, and so that you will keep on doing it until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

₁₅He will come when God says it is the right time. We must praise God. He is the only One who rules over all. He is the King of kings. He is Lord of all rulers. ₁₆God is the only One who can never die. He lives in a light that is so bright that people can not come near Him. No person has ever seen God, and no one can see Him. We pray that everyone will always praise God the Almighty. Amen.

₁₇You must warn the people who are rich in this world. Tell them they must not think that they are more important than other people. They must not think that their money will always help them. They can lose all their money tomorrow. No, they must believe in God who gives us everything that we need. Yes, He gives us more so that we may enjoy it. ₁₈The rich people must do good things with their money. They must be happy when they give their money to poor people. Then God will say they are rich. ₁₉If they do this, they will store up treasures for themselves in heaven that will be important for the future. If they do this, they will have real_life.

₂₀Timothy, God has given you a lot of things because He trusts you. You must look after it all, and don't listen to the stories of people who know nothing about God. They want to argue and say they know a lot of things, but the things they say are worthless. ₂₁Some people have believed what they say and they have lost their faith in God.

I pray that God will be good to you and give you his grace.