Good workers for Jesus Christ

1So Timothy, you are like my own son now. I want you to be strong. And if you always stay joined up to Jesus Christ, you can do that. You see, he is always good to you, and he will help you.

2You heard me tell those true things about Jesus to lots of people, so you have to teach those things to more people. Pick good people that everyone respects, then teach them those things, so that they can go to other people and teach them those same things.

3Remember that you belong to Jesus Christ. You are like his soldier. If soldiers get hurt, they don’t stop fighting. They just forget their pain and keep going. Well, you have to be like that now. If people see that you belong to Jesus, and then they hurt you, you just have to forget it and keep going, just like a good soldier, and like other good Christians.

4And you know that soldiers don’t get other jobs while they are in the army. They just work for their army captain and try to make him happy. Well, just like that, Jesus is your captain, so you have to just do the things that Jesus wants you to do, and don’t get mixed up with anything that he doesn’t want.

5And you are also like a sportsman. You know that sportsmen have to follow the rules of their game. If they don’t, they can’t win. Well, just like that, you have to follow the rules that God set down, so that in the end God will tell you that you won.

6And I will use another picture story, about a gardener. He works hard, and then he is the first person to eat the food he grows in the garden. Well, like that gardener, if you work hard for God, he will quickly pay you.

7Now think about those things that I just told you, and Jesus, our leader, will help you to properly understand them all.

8So if people make trouble for you, just remember that they made trouble for Jesus Christ. He was born into the family of David, the man that was the big boss a long time ago. But people gave Jesus a lot of trouble, and they killed him. But then God made him alive again. That is the good news that I always tell people about Jesus.

9But some of them don’t like me telling everybody that message, so they make trouble for me. They even treat me like a criminal. They tied me up and put me here in this jail. But nobody can tie up God’s word or keep it in jail. Anyone out there now can still go around and tell people God’s message.

10So I reckon it’s all right for me to stay here in jail so that other people will hear that message and believe in Jesus. They are the people that God picked out. He will save them and make them great, and they will live happy with him for ever.

11Listen to these things that you sometimes hear Christians say. They are very true. They say, “If we follow Jesus and stop doing bad things, it is like we die with him, and so we don’t do anything bad any more, and then later we will live with him.

12If we follow him and people give us trouble, and if we keep on following him and don’t let that trouble stop us, then we will become important leaders with him.
Or if we say that we don’t know him, then later, he will say that he doesn’t know us.

13But if we break our promise to him, that is different. He is not like us. He can never break his promise to us. He will always do what is right. That’s the sort of person he is.”

The sort of worker God likes

14So talk to your mob there, and don’t let them forget about those things. Tell them not to argue with anyone about words. Let them know that God is listening as you tell them that. If they argue like that, nobody wins, and anyone that listens to those arguments gets all messed up in the end.

15Try your best to be the sort of teacher that God likes. He likes teachers that teach the true message, and that help people understand it properly. That’s how you have to work for God.

16Stay away from people that teach useless stories that give God no respect, because if somebody talks like that, they just push people away from God.

17Their message is like a bad sore on a man that will not heal, and in the end it kills him. Those 2 men, Hymenayus and Filetus, they are bad teachers like that.

18They say that God already raised up the dead people and made them alive again. But their message is wrong. Some people listened to them, and now these people don’t believe in Jesus any more.

19But God gave us the true word that can’t ever change. It is like a solid slab of concrete that builders put a house on. And it is like they wrote some words in that concrete. It is like they wrote this, “God knows those people that belong to him,” And like they also wrote, “If anyone says that they belong to God, they have to stop doing bad things.” So God’s people have to live that way.

20Let me use another picture story. In a big house there are lots of things that people use all the time. Some of those things are really special, like gold bowls and silver spoons, and people use those things for good clean jobs. But for dirty jobs, they use pots made from the ground, or from wood.

21Well, it is like that too with people that belong to God. If you stop doing bad things, you are like gold things or silver things, and God will use you for the good jobs. You will live in a clean way, and you will be ready for God to use you any way he wants to.

22Lots of young people just follow their own feelings, and then they do bad things. But you have to keep away from anything like that. Keep away from anything that will push you into doing something bad. Instead of that, you have to try to do good things, and always trust God, and love people, and don’t fight anyone. Some people live like that. They pray to God, and they only want to do good things. Well, make those people your good friends, and you live like that too.

23But you can’t argue about stupid things that are not important. If you argue like that, you might get into a fight.

24And anyone that works for God can’t get into fights, but they have to be good to everybody. So don’t get angry with people that give you trouble. You have to teach people in a good way.

25If somebody doesn’t agree with the true message, you have to straighten them out, but do it quietly, in an easy way. You know, the devil, the boss over the bad spirits, he tries to trick people. It is like he sets a trap for them. He catches people in his trap, then he makes them do whatever he wants them to do. But if you teach people properly, they can wake up, then God will help them turn around, and he will get them to think straight, and they will understand that true message, and God will get them out of the devil’s trap.