Prayer and Submission to Authority

1First of all, then, I urge you to offer to Goda petitions, prayers, intercessions, and expressions of thanks for all people, 2for kings, and for everyone who has authority, so that we might lead a quiet and peaceful life with all godliness and dignity.b 3This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who wants all people to be saved and to come to know the truth fully. 5There is one God. There is also one mediator between God and human beings—a human, the Messiahc Jesus. 6He gave himself as a ransom for everyone, the testimony at the proper time. 7For this reason I was appointed to be an announcer, an apostle, and a faithful and true teacher of the gentiles. (I am telling you the truth.d I am not lying.)

Instructions to Men and Women

8Therefore, I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without being angry or argumentative. 9Women, for their part, should display their beauty by dressing modestly and decently in appropriate clothes, not with elaborate hairstyles or by wearing gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, 10but through good actions. This is proper for women who claim to revere God.

11Let a woman learn with a quiet spirit, and submissively. 12Moreover, in the area of teaching, I am not allowing a woman to instigate conflict toward a man. Instead, she is to remain calm. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve, 14and it was not Adam who was deceived. It was the woman who was deceived and became disobedient, 15even though she will be saved through the birth of the Child,e if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, along with good judgment.f