1I’m writing now about Christians that have to work all the time for somebody else. They have to really respect their bosses. If they don’t, people that are not Christians will rubbish the things we teach and worse than that, they will rubbish God too.
2If that workman’s boss is a Christian, that man can’t think like this, “My boss is my Christian brother so I can be lazy.” No, that boss believes in Jesus and he loves him too so that workman has to work harder for him. You have to teach people this kind of thing and tell them to behave this way.
3Some people teach things that are wrong. They teach things that are different from the good things that our leader, Jesus Christ, taught. He taught things that help people live in a way that makes God happy.
4If anybody teaches different things that are not true, those people are wrong. They don’t really understand anything. They just want people to think they are important. They want to make trouble and get people to have arguments about words. Once people start to do this they start to get jealous of each other. They think bad things and they say bad things about each other.
5They always argue with each other. They listened to that wrong teacher and he tricked them, and he made them think the wrong way so they don’t really know the true message. They think that if they follow God’s way they will get a lot of money, but they are wrong.
6It is like this, at the time we were born we didn’t bring any money with us into this life, and when we die we will not take any money with us out of this life.
8So while we live in this life, if we have enough food and clothes, we can be really happy. So now if you follow God’s way and don’t try to get a lot of money for yourself you will be very happy, and you will get a lot out of life.
9But people that try to get lots of money, they let the devil trick them. The devil gets them to want things so badly that they will do anything to get them. That is the way they fall into the devil’s trap. They do silly things and bad things too. The devil really spoils them.
10If you love money a lot you will do all kinds of bad things to get it. Some people went wrong like that. They wanted a lot of money, so they quit believing in Jesus and they got themselves into lots of trouble, and now they are really sad.
11But Timothy, you belong to God. So you’ve got to keep away from all these bad things that I just told you about. Instead you’ve got to try to do the right thing all the time. And try to do things that make God happy. And try to trust him more, and try to love people better, and try to keep going when things are tough, and try to be gentle. These are the things you have to try to do all the time.
12It’s like we are in a big fight against the devil. He wants us to go wrong and quit believing in Jesus. But Jesus gives us life that goes on for ever. We have to keep trusting Jesus so that we will beat the devil. Do you remember the time that you first believed in him and you told a lot of people about it? That was the time He called you to follow him and to get that really good life that goes on for ever. So now keep on believing in Jesus and keep following him so that you keep living that good life for ever.
13You know about God. He makes things live. And you know about Jesus. They took him to the governor called Pontius Pilate and he told that boss the true story about himself. God is watching us now and Jesus is listening to us. So I want you to promise me this one thing with both of them as witnesses. I want you to promise me that you will do everything that I’m telling you to do in this letter. Promise that you will do it all properly, so that nobody can say you did it wrong. And keep doing it till we see Jesus Christ come back again.
15God will bring Jesus back at the right time. God is the only really big boss. He is the really big boss over everybody. He is the really big boss over all other big bosses. And he is boss over every other boss too.
16He is the only one that never dies but goes on and on for ever. He is really bright, and he lives in light that is so bright that nobody can go near him. Nobody ever really saw him, and nobody can see him now. We have to really respect him all the time and think about his power. That’s right.
17There are some people that have a lot of money and a lot of things. You tell them that they shouldn’t think they are smart just because they are rich. They still have to pray to God and believe that he will give them everything they really need. They can’t get it with their money, so they shouldn’t think they can. But they just have to trust God. He gives us everything we need to be happy. So we have to trust him, not trust money.
18So tell them to use their money to do good for other people. Tell them to be ready to give it to people that need it.
19If they do that they will really be saving that money for themselves in heaven. This will give them a good start in that new life. In that way they will have a very good life.
20All right, Timothy, God gave you his good news, so you have to look after it properly. Make sure nobody changes it around. There are some people that have big discussions but say bad things about God. Don’t listen to them. They might reckon they know all about it and they might say that you are wrong, but really, they are the ones that are wrong.
21Some people did follow them and now those people too have stopped believing in Jesus. That’s all for now. I’m asking God to be really good to all you mob there. From Paul
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