2 Timothy 3

Contemporary English Version

What People Will Be Like in the Last Days

3 You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. ² People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, ³ heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything good. ⁴ They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. ⁵ Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won't be real. Don't have anything to do with such people.

⁶ Some men fool whole families, just to get power over those women who are slaves of sin and are controlled by all sorts of desires. ⁷ These women always want to learn something new, but they never can discover the truth. ^8 (A) Just as Jannes and Jambres^[a] opposed Moses, these people are enemies of the truth. Their minds are sick, and their faith isn't real. ⁹ But they won't get very far with their foolishness. Soon everyone will know the truth about them, just as Jannes and Jambres were found out.

Paul's Last Instructions to Timothy

¹⁰ Timothy, you know what I teach and how I live. You know what I want to do and what I believe. You have seen how patient and loving I am, and how in the past I put up with ^11 (B) trouble and suffering in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Yet the Lord rescued me from all those terrible troubles. ¹² In fact, anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others. ¹³ But evil people who pretend to be what they are not will become worse than ever, as they fool others and are fooled themselves.

¹⁴ Keep on being faithful to what you were taught and to what you believed. After all, you know who taught you these things. ¹⁵ Since childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise enough to have faith in Christ Jesus and be saved. ¹⁶ Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. ¹⁷ The Scriptures train God's servants to do all kinds of good deeds.