Timothy must be a soldier of Christ Jesus
1Timothy, you are like my child. You must be strong now. You must remember that you belong to Christ Jesus and that He will be good to you and give you his grace. 2You and many other witnesses have heard what I told the people. You must also teach people who will do what they promise, and who can teach these things to other people.
3You must be like a good soldier of Christ Jesus and suffer with the other believers. 4A soldier who is doing his work and wants his officer to be pleased with him can not also do other work. 5It is the same as an athlete who runs in a race. The athletes must obey all the rules of the race. If an athlete does not do that, then he can not win. 6The farmer who has worked hard is the first person who can eat the wheat or fruit that he has planted. 7You must think about everything that I have told you, and God will help you to understand it all.
Always think of Jesus Christ
8You must always think of Jesus Christ. He is from the family of King David. After He had died, God made Him live again. This is the Good_News that I preach. 9Because I preach this Good_News, the people have made me suffer and they have arrested me and put me in jail like a thief. But they can not stop the message of God and keep it in jail. 10That is why I am patient and brave and I keep on serving God. God has chosen people and I work to help those people so that Jesus Christ will save them and they can be with God, our King, forever. 11You can believe these words. They are true:
‘Christ has died and we have died with Him.
God made Christ live again and we will live with Christ.
12If we continue to believe in Christ,
then we will also rule with Him as kings.
If we do not want to tell people that we belong to Christ,
then Christ will not say that we belong to Him.
13If we are unfaithful
and we don't do what we have promised,
Christ will still be faithful.
He will always do what He has promised,
because He can not be unfaithful to Himself.
He will always be God.’
Timothy must serve God
14Timothy, you must keep on telling these things to the believers. You must warn them and tell them that God listens to what you say. Warn them that God does not want them to fight and argue about words. It does not help them when they do that and it is bad for the people who listen when they argue, because it breaks their faith. 15You must try hard to serve God so that He will be pleased with your work. You must do your work so that you will never be ashamed about it. Teach the message of God's truth in the right way.
16Do not listen to the stories of people who know nothing about God. Those people will say bad things and it will lead people further away from God. 17-18The wrong things they say will grow further like a person who becomes very sick and dies. There are people who said the same things. They have stopped telling the truth and they have made some people stop believing in Christ. They are Hymenaeus and Philetus who said that God has already raised the dead people and made them live, but that is not_true. 19God has built a foundation that is strong and He wrote these words on the foundation:
‘The Lord knows who belongs to Him,’ and:
‘Any person who worships the name of God
and prays to Him
must stop doing things that are wrong.’
20In a big house there are beautiful cups and bowls made of gold and silver, but there are also things that are not special, made of wood and clay. People use the golden cups when there is a special feast, but they use the cups of wood every day. 21It is the same with the people of God. If we stop doing bad things and our lives are pure, then we will be like golden cups to God and He will use us to do special things for Him. He will use us to do good work.
22That is why you must run away from the bad things that young people want to do. You must always try to do what is right, you must believe in Christ, you must love other people and you must live in peace with them. Worship with people who serve only the Lord. 23Do not argue about foolish things like some people do. People who have learned nothing always want to do that, and later they want to fight. 24A person who serves God must not fight or argue with other people. He must be friendly to everyone. He must teach other people and he must be patient, even when he suffers.
25If people want to teach the believers other things that are different from what the servant of God teaches them, then the servant of God must stay friendly when he shows them that they are wrong. He must pray that God will change their hearts so that they will know the truth and live as God wants. 26The devil has made them blind and he tells these people to do what he wants. Pray that God will open their eyes and help them to think right again and to escape from the devil's power.
