¹⁶Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always, in every way. The Lord be with you all.

¹⁷The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a token in every letter; so I write.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

[THE FIRST LETTER OF PAUL TO TIMOTHY.]

I. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope, ²to Timothy, a true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³As I besought thee to remain still in Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge certain ones not to teach other doctrine, ⁴nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which further disputes rather than God's dispensation, which is in faith, [so do.]

⁵Now the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned; ⁶from which some swerving turned aside to idle prattling; ⁷desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. ⁸But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; ⁹knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers^[9]; for man-slayers, ¹⁰for fornicators, for those who defile themselves with mankind, for enslavers of men, for liars, for false swearers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teachings; ¹¹according to the glorious gospel of the blissful God, with which I was entrusted.

¹²And I thank him who gave me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, that he accounted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, ¹³who was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and overbearing. But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief; ¹⁴and the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. ¹⁶But for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first^[16a] Christ Jesus might show forth all his long-suffering^[16b], for a pattern to those who should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.