1Now understand this: In the last days there will be grievous times;
2because people will be self-lovers, money lovers, boasters, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3without family affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4betrayers, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
5wearing a form of godliness while having denied its power! You must avoid such people;
6because they are the sort that press into households and ‘capture’ gullible women loaded down with sins, who are led along by various lusts,
7always learning yet never being able to come to a real knowledge of truth.
8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these oppose the truth—men of depraved mind, disqualified as regards the faith—
9but they will not advance any further because, as in the case of the former, their folly will become evident to all.
10You, however, have carefully followed my doctrine, my lifestyle, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance;
11the persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured; yet the Lord delivered me out of them all.
12In fact, any one who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted;
13while malignant men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14But you, continue in the things you have learned and to which you were committed, knowing from whom you learned,
15and that from infancy you have known the Sacred Scriptures which are able to make you wise into salvation through the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
17so that the man of God may be fully competent, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
