to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you.

Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope.

But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.

For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way,

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope,

This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” – and I am the worst of them!

The overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher,

And he must be well thought of by those outside the faith, so that he may not fall into disgrace and be caught by the devil’s trap.

They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

But do not accept younger widows on the list, because their passions may lead them away from Christ and they will desire to marry,

For the scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The worker deserves his pay.”

The sins of some people are obvious, going before them into judgment, but for others, they show up later.

O Timothy, protect what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and absurdities of so-called “knowledge.”

Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.

An elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, with faithful children who cannot be charged with dissipation or rebellion.

and a sound message that cannot be criticized, so that any opponent will be at a loss, because he has nothing evil to say about us.

He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good.

but of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.

Therefore we must be wary that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it.

Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.