1 B ut realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 F or men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 u nloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 t reacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 h olding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

6 F or among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,

7 a lways learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8 J ust as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.

9 B ut they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

10 N ow you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,

11 p ersecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!

12 I ndeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

13 B ut evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

14 Y ou, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,

15 a nd that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

16 A ll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

17 s o that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.