OEBcth - II Timothy - 3

3:1  Be sure of this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

3:2  People will be selfish, mercenary, boastful, haughty, and blasphemous; disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, impure,

3:3  incapable of affection, merciless, slanderous, wanting in self-control, brutal, careless of the right,

3:4  treacherous, reckless, and puffed up with pride; they will love pleasure more than they love God;

3:5  and while they retain the outward form of religion, they will not allow it to influence them. Turn your back on such people as these.

3:6  For among them are to be found those who creep into homes and captivate weak women — women who, loaded with sins, and slaves to all kinds of passions,

3:7  are always learning, and yet never able to attain to a real knowledge of the truth.

3:8  Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so do these people, in their turn, oppose the truth. Their minds are corrupted, and, as regards the faith, they are utterly worthless.

3:9  They will not, however, make further progress; for their wicked folly will be plain to everyone, just as the folly Jannes and Jambres was.

3:10  But you, Timothy, were a close observer of my teaching, my conduct, my purposes, my faith, my forbearance, my love, and my patient endurance,

3:11  as well as of my persecutions, and of the sufferings which I met with at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. You know what persecutions I underwent; and yet the Lord brought me safe out of all!

3:12  Yes, and all who aim at living a religious life in union with Christ Jesus will have to suffer persecution;

3:13  but wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves.

3:14  You, however, must stand by what you learnt and accepted as true. You know who they were from whom you learnt it;

3:15  and that, from your childhood, you have known the sacred writings, which can give you the wisdom that, through belief in Christ Jesus, leads to salvation.

3:16  All scripture is God-breathed: helpful for teaching, for refuting error, for giving guidance, and for training others in righteousness;

3:17  so that God’s people may be capable and equipped for good work of every kind.