How to pray

1First of all, I ask you to pray for everyone. Ask God to help and bless them all, and tell God how thankful you are for each of them. 2Pray for kings and others in power, so that we may live quiet and peaceful lives as we worship and honour God. 3This kind of prayer is good, and it pleases God our Saviour. 4God wants everyone to be saved and to know the whole truth, which is,

5There is only one God,

and Christ Jesus

is the only one

who can bring us

to God.

Jesus was truly human,

and he gave himself

to rescue all of us.

6God showed us this

at the right time.

7This is why God chose me to be a preacher and an apostle of the good news. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. God sent me to teach the Gentiles about faith and truth.2.7: 2 Ti 1.11.

8I want everyone everywhere to lift innocent hands towards heaven and pray, without being angry or arguing with each other.

9I would like women to wear modest and sensible clothes. They should not have fancy hair styles, or wear expensive clothes, or put on jewellery made of gold or pearls.2.9: 1 P 3.3. 10Women who claim to love God should do helpful things for others, 11and they should learn by being quiet and paying attention. 12They should be silent and not be allowed to teach or to tell men what to do. 13After all, Adam was created before Eve,2.13: a Gn 2.7; b Gn 2.21,22. 14and the man Adam wasn't the one who was fooled. It was the woman Eve who was completely fooled and sinned.2.14: Gn 3.1-6. 15But women will be saved by having children,2.15 saved by having children: Or “brought safely through childbirth” or “saved by the birth of a child” (that is, by the birth of Jesus) or “saved by being good mothers”. if they stay faithful, loving, holy, and modest.