¹⁴ Put these things before them, giving them orders in the name of the Lord to keep themselves from fighting about words, which is of no profit, only causing error in their hearers.

²³ And put away foolish and uncontrolled questionings, seeing that they are a cause of trouble.

¹ I give you orders, before God and Christ Jesus, who will be the judge of the living and the dead, and by his revelation and his kingdom;

²¹ I give you orders before God and Christ Jesus and the angels of God's selection, to keep these orders without giving thought to one side more than another.

¹ Do not put on one side him who is feeble in faith, and do not put him in doubt by your reasonings.

²¹ And do not go from the right way turning to those false gods in which there is no profit and no salvation, for they are false.

⁸ See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit.

²⁶ For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

¹³ I give you orders before God, the giver of life, and Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate gave witness to the faith,

⁹ But have nothing to do with foolish questionings, and lists of generations, and fights and arguments about the law; for they are of no profit and foolish.

¹⁰ A man whose opinions are not those of the church, after a first and second protest, is to be kept out of your society;

¹¹ Clearly he is in error and a sinner, being self-judged.

⁹ Do not be turned away by different strange teachings, because it is good for your hearts to be made strong by grace, and not by meats, which were of no profit to those who took so much trouble over them.

¹³ And it seems right to me, as long as I am in this tent of flesh, to keep your minds awake by working on your memory;

¹⁶ But take no part in wrong and foolish talk, for those who do so will go farther into evil,

⁴ He has an over-high opinion of himself; being without knowledge, having only an unhealthy love of questionings and wars of words, from which come envy, fighting, cruel words, evil thoughts,

⁵ Bitter talk of men who, being evil in mind and dead to what is true, take the faith to be a way of making profit.

⁸ For the training of the body is of profit for a little, but religion is of profit in every way, giving hope for the life which now is, and for that which is to come.

⁶ From which some have been turned away, giving themselves to foolish talking;

⁴ Or to give attention to stories and long lists of generations, from which come questionings and doubts, in place of God's ordered way of life which is in faith;

⁸ The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who were expert in the law had no knowledge of me: and the rulers did evil against me, and the prophets became prophets of the Baal, going after things without value.

¹¹ Has any nation ever made a change in their gods, though they are no gods? but my people have given up their glory in exchange for what is of no profit.

¹⁹ O Lord, my strength and my strong tower, my safe place in the day of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and say, The heritage of our fathers is nothing but deceit, even false things in which there is no profit.

³² See, I am against the prophets of false dreams, says the Lord, who give them out and make my people go out of the way by their deceit and their uncontrolled words: but I did not send them or give them orders; and they will be of no profit to this people, says the Lord.

³⁶ And you will no longer put people in mind of the word of weight of the Lord: for every man's word will be a weight on himself; for the words of the living God, of the Lord of armies, our God, have been twisted by you.

¹⁸ What profit is the pictured image to its maker? and as for the metal image, the false teacher, why does its maker put his faith in it, making false gods without a voice?

¹⁰ O you, who are full of false tricks and evil ways, a son of the Evil One, hating all righteousness, will you for ever be turning people from the right ways of the Lord?

²⁴ Because we have knowledge that some who went from us have been troubling you with their words, putting your souls in doubt; to whom we gave no such order;

⁷ Which is not another sort: only there are some who give you trouble, desiring to make changes in the good news of Christ.

¹⁷ This I say, then, and give witness in the Lord, that you are to go no longer in the way of the Gentiles whose minds are turned to that which has no profit,

⁶ Now we give you orders, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from all those whose behaviour is not well ordered and in harmony with the teaching which they had from us.

⁶ For this reason I say to you, Let that grace of God which is in you, given to you by my hands, have living power.

¹ And last of all, the prayer which we make to you from our heart and in the name of the Lord Jesus, is this: that as we made clear to you what sort of behaviour is pleasing to God, as in fact you are doing now, so you will go on in these ways, but more and more.