1Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine.
2Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance.
3Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness.
4By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children,
5be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don't want anyone looking down on God's Message because of their behavior.
6Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
7But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching,
8your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
9Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk,
10no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.
11God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone!
12We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now,
13and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears.
14He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
15Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You're in charge. Don't let anyone put you down.