Called to Care – Day 22

₁Those who are slaves must consider their masters worthy of all respect, so that no one will speak evil of the name of God and of our teaching. ₂Slaves belonging to Christian masters must not despise them, for they are their brothers and sisters. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their work are believers whom they love.

You must teach and preach these things. ₃Whoever teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the true words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching of our religion ₄is swollen with pride and knows nothing. He has an unhealthy desire to argue and quarrel about words, and this brings on jealousy, disputes, insults, evil suspicions, ₅and constant arguments from people whose minds do not function and who no longer have the truth. They think that religion is a way to become rich.

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.