Difficult Times Ahead

1But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days.a 2For people will be lovers of self,b lovers of money,c boastful, proud,d blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,e 3unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers,f without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,g 4traitors,h reckless,i conceited,j lovers of pleasurek rather than lovers of God, 5holding to the form of godliness but denying its power.l Avoid these people!m

6For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions,n 7always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.o 8Just as Jannes and Jambresp resisted Moses,q so these also resist the truth, men who are corrupt in mind,r worthlesss in regard to the faith. 9But they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirst was also.

Struggles in the Christian Life

10But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose,u faith, patience, love,v and endurance, 11along with the persecutions and sufferingsw that came to me in Antioch,x Iconium,y and Lystra.z What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from them all. 12In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.aa 13Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceivingab and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you,ac 15and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures,ad which are able to give you wisdom for salvationae through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is inspired by Godaf, ag and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.ah