| 1. | But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. |
| 2. | For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, |
| 3. | inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, |
| 4. | treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, |
| 5. | holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. |
| 6. | For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, |
| 7. | who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. |
| 8. | As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith; |
| 9. | but they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. |
| 10. | Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, |
| 11. | my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Ico'nium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. |
| 12. | Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, |
| 13. | while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. |
| 14. | But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it |
| 15. | and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. |
| 16. | All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, |
| 17. | that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. |
