The Liberation & Inclusion Translation
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1 Timothy 6 in the Liberation and Inclusion Translation (LIT). scripture 1timothy 6 yoke enslaved-workers enslavers teaching controversies money attachment-to-money run-away pursue take-hold king-of-kings immortality wealthy share protect-the-deposit

1 Timothy 6

1 Whoever is under the yokea as enslaved workers should considerb even their own enslaversc as worthy of being treated with complete dignity so that the name of God and the Teaching would not be discredited. 2 Those who have “faithful”d enslavers should not look down on them, because they are members of the Family, but rather serve them even that much more, because the ones who benefit from their kind action are faithful and loved.

Teach and encourage these things. 3 If someone teaches something different and does not come over to healthy ideas (to the ones of our Lord Jesus Christ) and to the Teaching that is grounded in respectfulness, 4 having been deluded, understanding nothing, but rather having a sick obsession with controversies and arguments, out of which come to be resentment, fighting,e speaking disrespectfully,f acts of harmful suspiciousness,g 5 and constant friction from people whose minds have been corrupted and robbed of the truth, who consider treating people respectfully as being for their own gain. 6 However, treating people respectfully is itself sufficiently great gain.h 7 You see, we brought nothing into the world, so neither can we bring anything out of it. 8 When we have food and shelter,i we’ll be satisfied with those. 9 However, those who intend to be wealthy fall into testing and a trap and many foolish and injurious desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 You see, attachment to money is a root of every sort of harm, by which some who reach for it have been led away from the commitment and inflicted many sorrows on themselves.j

11 However, as a person of God, run away from these things. Instead, pursue living justly, respectfulness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. 12 Strive for the honorable prize of faithfulness, take hold of the life of the Age for which you were called and for which you acknowledged the honorable acknowledgment in front of many witnesses. 13 I pass on to you—in front of the God-Who-Births-Life-for-All-Things and Christ Jesus who testified the honorable acknowledgment to Pontius Pilate— 14 to preservek the flawless and non-negotiablel directionm until our Lord Jesus Christ is made clearly visible, 15 which the gratified and only powerful one, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will show at the proper time. 16 He alone is who possesses immortality, who resides in unapproachable light, whom no human has seen or can see. To him be honor and agelong power. Amen.

17 Pass it on to those who are wealthy in the present age not to think of themselves as above others or to have placed their hope in wealth because of uncertainty but, instead, in God who richly offers us everything for gratification. 18 Pass on to them to be generous, to be wealthy in honorable actions, to be willing to give freely, inclined to share with others, 19 investing in a noble foundation for themselves for the coming Age, so that they can take hold of what is truly life.

20 Timothy, protect the deposit, turning your back on the normal, empty discussion and incompatibility of what is falsely called knowledge, 21 by which some, those who promote it, have diverged from faithfulness.

May good fortune be with you all.

Footnotes

  1. a A yoke was a device to attach farm animals together to coordinate their efforts in pulling a plow. Applied to humans, it is a symbol of oppression.

  2. b The Greek is hegeomai. It can mean ‘consider,’ but its more common range includes leading/acting as guide/ruling; ‘consider’ is a less primary sense.

  3. c More literally, ‘masters/owners.’ despotes differs from the more common kurios in enslavement contexts.

  4. d Traditionally, ‘believing.’ Better: faithful/trusting. Quotation marks indicate possible intentional irony, given Jesus’ liberation ethic.

  5. e Including verbal arguments, competition, or even battle.

  6. f Traditionally, ‘slanders.’ This is blasphemia, not strictly religious; it means belittling/speaking disrespectfully about anyone.

  7. g Or ‘acts of speculation,’ ‘acts of conjecture,’ or even ‘conspiracy theories’ / ‘stereotypes’ depending on context.

  8. h Literally: “Respectfulness with self-sufficiency is great gain.” It may mean the respectfulness is sufficient in itself, or respectfulness without using others for gain; the point remains that this is the true gain.

  9. i Literally, ‘covering’ often used for shelter/protection and sometimes clothing.

  10. j Or more literally, ‘stabbed themselves with many sorrows.’

  11. k Or ‘watch over’ or ‘maintain’ or ‘keep a close eye on’.

  12. l Or ‘undebatable’ or ‘indisputable’.

  13. m This seems to refer to pursuing the ways of living described in verse 11.

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The Liberation & Inclusion Translation (LIT) is an original English translation prepared from The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (ed. Michael W. Holmes; © 2010 Society of Biblical Literature & Logos Bible Software).

The SBLGNT is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, International Licence (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. This translation constitutes an adaptation of that Greek text. Used with permission.

Greek quotations are presented in transliterated form; accentuation and punctuation follow LIT house style, mostly removed for accessibility to readers without prior knowledge of Greek.

Portions of the SBL Greek text quoted here remain available under CC BY 4.0; the NC-ND restrictions apply only to the original English translation and other LIT-specific content.

The Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software do not endorse the LIT Bible.