Following the True Teaching

2 ¹You must tell people the things they must do to follow the true teaching. ²Teach the older men to have self-control, to be serious, and to be wise. They should be strong in the faith, strong in love, and strong in patience. ³Also, teach the older women to be holy* in the way they live. Teach them not to speak against other people or have the habit of drinking too much wine. Those women should teach what is good. ⁴In that way they can teach the younger women to love their husbands and children. ⁵They can teach the younger women to be wise and to be pure, to take care of their homes, to be kind, and to obey their husbands. Then no person will be able to criticize the teaching God gave us. ⁶In the same way, tell the young men to be wise. ⁷You should do good things to be an example in every way for the young men. When you teach, be honest and serious. ⁸And when you speak, speak the truth so that you cannot be criticized. Then any person who is against you will be ashamed because he has nothing bad that he can say against us. ⁹And tell these things to the people who are slaves: They should obey their masters at all times; they should try to please their masters; they should not argue with their masters; ¹⁰they should not steal from their masters; and they should show their masters that they can be trusted. The slaves should do these things so that in everything they do, they will show that the teaching of God our Savior is good. ¹¹[That is the way we should live], because God's grace (kindness) has come. That grace can save every person. And that grace has been given to us. ¹²That grace teaches us not to live against God and not to do the bad things the world wants to do. That grace teaches us to live on earth now in a wise and right way--a way that shows that we serve God. ¹³We should live like that while we are waiting for the coming of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. He is our great hope, and he will come with glory. ¹⁴He gave himself for us. He died to free us from all evil. He died to make us pure people that belong only to him--people that are always wanting to do good things. ¹⁵Tell the people these things. You have full authority (power). So use that authority to help the people and to correct them when they are wrong. And don't let any person treat you like you are not important.

holy Showing reverence and respect for God.