1 Timothy 1:1-13 ▼

1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the appointment of God our saviour, and of Jesus Christ our hope,

2 to Timothy my sincere convert, favour, mercy and peace from God our father, and Jesus Christ our Lord.

3 At my departure from Macedonia, I advised you to stay at Ephesus in order to charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,

4 or trouble their heads with fables and endless genealogies, which rather promote disputes than the gospel-dispensation:

5 such a charge will produce that charity, which arises from purity, from a good conscience, and a sincere belief:

6 for want of which, some have lost themselves in frivolous disputes,

7 pretending to be doctors of the law, tho' they neither understand what they advance, nor upon what it is founded.

8 I own that the law is good, if a man make a right use of it:

9 it being plain, that the law was not design'd against the just, but against the lawless and refractory, against irreligion and vice, impiety and prophaneness, parricide and man-slaughter,

10 against licentiousness and unnatural passion, against men-stealers, lyars, perjured persons, and every thing that is inconsistent

11 with the salutary doctrine of the gospel of immortality, which the blessed God committed to my trust.

12 I offer thanks to Jesus Christ our Lord, who qualified me for the ministry he has plac'd me in, for having appointed me to such a trust,

13 who was before a blasphemer, and a violent persecutor; but I obtained mercy, because I acted thro' ignorance in incrudelity.