1 Mark this, there are hard times coming in the last days.
2 For men will be selfish, fond of money, boastful, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreverent,
3 callous, relentless, scurrilous, dissolute, and savage; they will hate goodness,
4 they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God ??5 for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such.
6 Some of them worm their way into families and get hold of the women-folk who feel crushed by the burden of their sins ??wayward creatures of impulse,
7 who are always curious to learn and never able to attain the knowledge of the Truth.
8 For these guides of theirs are hostile to the Truth, just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to Moses; they are depraved in mind and useless for all purposes of faith.
9 However, they will get no further, for their aberration will be detected by everyone, as was the case with these magicians.
10 Now you have followed my teaching, my practice, my aims, my faith, my patience, my love, my stedfastness,
11 my persecutions, my sufferings ??all that befell me at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, all the persecutions I had to undergo, from which the Lord rescued me.
12 Yes, and all who want to live the religious life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
13 Bad characters and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves;
14 but hold you to what you have been taught, hold to your convictions, remember who your teachers were,
15 remember you have known from childhood the sacred writings that can impart saving wisdom by faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for amendment, and for moral discipline,
17 to make the man of God proficient and equip him for good work of every kind.