1The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.
2Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation.
3This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.
4He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we've learned:
5that there's one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus,
6who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out.
7This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.
8Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.
9And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions
10but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.
11I don't let women take over and tell the men what to do.
12They should study to be quiet and obedient along with everyone else.
13Adam was made first, then Eve;
14woman was deceived first—our pioneer in sin!—with Adam right on her heels.
15On the other hand, her childbearing brought about salvation, reversing Eve. But this salvation only comes to those who continue in faith, love, and holiness, gathering it all into maturity. You can depend on this.