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, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 holding a form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people.

6 For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, weighed down with sins and swayed by various impulses,

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

8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the 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 You, however, know all about my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,

11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

12 Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, knowing from whom you learned it,

15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise 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 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.