IV.  Now the Spirit says expressly, that in after-times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and teachings of demons;

²of those who speak lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

³forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from food, which God created to be received with thanksgiving, for those who believe and know the truth.

⁴For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving;

⁵for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

⁶If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nurtured in the words of the faith and of the good teaching, which thou hast strictly followed.

⁷But the profane and silly fables avoid, and exercise thyself unto godliness.

⁸For bodily exercise is profitable for little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

⁹Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptance.

¹⁰For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have hoped in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

¹¹These things command and teach.

¹²Let no one despise thy youth; but become an example of the believers, in word, in deportment, in love, in faith, in purity.

¹³Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.

¹⁴Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee through prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

¹⁵Meditate on these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest to all.

¹⁶Give heed to thyself, and to the teaching; continue in them; for in doing this thou wilt save both thyself, and those who hear thee.