What People will be Like in the Last Days
3 You must realize, however, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unfeeling, uncooperative, slanderous, degenerate, brutal, hateful of what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. 5 They will hold to an outward form of godliness but deny its power. Stay away from such people. 6 For some of these men go into homes and deceive foolish women who are burdened with sins and swayed by all kinds of desires. 7 These women are always studying but are never able to arrive at a full knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and their faith is a counterfeit. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those two men,[a] their stupidity will be plain to everyone.
Continue to Teach the Truth
10 But you have observed my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance, 11 and how I was persecuted and suffered in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in union with the Messiah[b] Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse as they deceive others and are themselves deceived.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and found to be true, because you know from whom you learned it. 15 From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to give you the wisdom you need for salvation through faith in the Messiah[c] Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed[d] and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good action.
Footnotes
- 2 Timothy 3:9 The Gk. lacks two men
- 2 Timothy 3:12 Or Christ
- 2 Timothy 3:15 Or Christ
- 2 Timothy 3:16 Or inspired by God