2 Timothy 3

¹But understand this: in the final days, dangerous seasons will set in. ²For people will be self-obsessed, money-obsessed, braggarts, arrogant, slandering others, defiant toward parents, ungrateful, profaning what is sacred, ³lacking family affection, unyielding to peace, malicious accusers, without self-control, savage, hating what is good, ⁴betrayers, reckless, swollen with conceit, loving pleasure rather than loving God, ⁵holding to an outward form of devotion while having rejected its power. Turn away from such people.

⁶Among them are those who worm their way into households and take captive vulnerable women burdened by sins and driven by all kinds of cravings, ⁷who are always studying but never able to arrive at a full recognition of the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres stood against Moses, so these people stand against the truth—men with corrupted minds, disqualified concerning the faith. ⁹But they will not get much further, for their senselessness will be obvious to everyone, just as it was with those men.

¹⁰You, however, have closely followed my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance, ¹¹my persecutions, my sufferings—the kinds of things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! And the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²Indeed, all who desire to live a life of devotion in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³But wicked people and charlatans will advance from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴But as for you, remain in what you have learned and have become convinced of, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and that from infancy you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through the trust that is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶Every scripture is exhaled by God and is useful for teaching, for exposing error, for setting things right, and for training in justice, ¹⁷so that the person of God may be capable, fully equipped for every good work.