₆Well, religion does make a person very rich, if he is satisfied with what he has. ₇What did we bring into the world? Nothing! What can we take out of the world? Nothing! ₈So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us. ₉But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. ₁₀For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.

₁₁But you, man of God, avoid all these things. Strive for righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. ₁₂Run your best in the race of faith, and win eternal life for yourself; for it was to this life that God called you when you firmly professed your faith before many witnesses. ₁₃Before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who firmly professed his faith before Pontius Pilate, I command you ₁₄to obey your orders and keep them faithfully until the Day when our Lord Jesus Christ will appear. ₁₅His appearing will be brought about at the right time by God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. ₁₆He alone is immortal; he lives in the light that no one can approach. No one has ever seen him; no one can ever see him. To him be honour and eternal dominion! Amen.

₁₇Command those who are rich in the things of this life not to be proud, but to place their hope, not in such an uncertain thing as riches, but in God, who generously gives us everything for our enjoyment. ₁₈Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share with others. ₁₉In this way they will store up for themselves a treasure which will be a solid foundation for the future. And then they will be able to win the life which is true life.