Difficult Times Ahead

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

6 For 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, r 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. s 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres t resisted Moses, u so these also resist the truth, men who are corrupt in mind, v worthless w in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirs x was also.

Struggles in the Christian Life

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