2 Timothy 3

³Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

³For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.

¹Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,

²influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.

³Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.

⁴He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

¹⁷But you, beloved, remember what was foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ

²¹For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

²⁹They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

¹⁶These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.

³For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.

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

¹⁴Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.

¹⁵They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

¹⁸when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.”

³¹They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

²¹Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.

¹⁴Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.

¹¹In the same way, the women must be dignified, not slanderers, but temperate and faithful in all things.

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

¹⁸For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

⁶He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same condemnation as the devil.

⁴For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

¹⁰Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

¹¹Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord.

⁸Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.

⁹But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

¹⁸For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

¹³Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.

²⁸In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

⁸If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

²⁰an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

²¹you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?

¹⁵Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

⁴For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

¹⁷Therefore, beloved, since you already know these things, be on your guard so that you will not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure standing.

¹⁸when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.”

¹¹who must be silenced. For the sake of dishonorable gain, they undermine entire households and teach things they should not.

¹⁹but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

³For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.

⁴So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

⁴who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

⁶A mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.

⁴⁴How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

²⁵He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

⁸But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.

⁹Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked directly at Elymas

¹¹But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.

²⁰But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

⁵and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.

¹⁴But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.

¹⁵In the same way, some of you also hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith.

¹²Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.

¹⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, but you have persuaded this people to trust in a lie.

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”

¹¹The magicians could not stand before Moses, because the boils had broken out on them and on all the Egyptians.

¹⁰Even the wrath of man shall praise You; with the survivors of wrath You will clothe Yourself.

²¹This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.

²²Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’

¹¹But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

⁷In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity,

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;

⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

⁶By pointing out these things to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of faith and sound instruction that you have followed.

²²But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel.

⁹Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.

¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

⁵But when the Gentiles and Jews, together with their rulers, set out to mistreat and stone them,

⁶they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding region,

²³Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.

²⁴Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they blasphemously contradicted what Paul was saying.

¹⁹Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, presuming he was dead.

²⁰But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. And the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

⁹if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

¹⁴But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.”

¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.

¹³But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory.

²⁰How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

²¹For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:

²²strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

²⁴Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

¹⁰Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

¹Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith.

²⁰If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.

⁶And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.

⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way.

³Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

¹³And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is also now at work in you who believe.

²And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well.

¹³Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

⁵because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with great conviction—just as you know we lived among you for your sake.

²²let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

¹¹We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.

⁹⁸Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.

⁹⁹I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.

⁴⁵Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation.

²¹For no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

²⁹Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.

⁴For everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹⁹We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation.

²⁴Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

⁷The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making wise the simple.

⁸The precepts of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

⁹How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word.

²¹So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.

⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

¹¹But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

²⁴And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds.

¹⁴He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.