- 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
- 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
- 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
- 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--
- 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
- 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,
- 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
- 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.
- 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone. (Paul's Charge to Timothy )
- 10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,
- 11persecutions, sufferings--what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
- 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
- 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
- 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
- 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
- 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
- 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.