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“In the Last Days There Will Come Times of Great Difficulty”
1 Now, you must understand this: In the last days there will come times of great difficulty.
2 Indeed, people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers,+ disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without regard for others, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, savage, enemies of what is good,+
4 traitors, reckless, prideful and conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 possessing all the contents of the faith+ but denying its power. From such people keep away.
6 Among this sort,+ for example, are those who use deceit to make their way into homes and take prisoner foolish women+ who are loaded down with sins,+ women who are carried away by evil desires of various kinds,
7 women who, though always receiving instruction, are never able to come to this: A knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as those two magicians in Pharaoh’s service+—Jannes and Jambres—opposed Moses, in the same way these men, too, are themselves opposing the truth—men whose minds are corrupt and who, when placed under scrutiny, are shown to be frauds with respect to the faith.
9 Yet their success will be short-lived,+ because their folly will become to everyone very clear and easy to see, as did, too, the folly of those two+ men.
“You Have Followed My Example”
10 You, however, have faithfully adhered to my teaching and made my way of life your own; you have followed my example of resolve,+ faith, patience, love, and endurance;
11 you know all about the persecutions and the sufferings I experienced in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! And yet the Lord rescued me from them all.
12 All will be persecuted, too, who are set on living a godly life in union with Messiah Jesus.
13 Evil people and imposters, however, will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and of which you have become firmly convinced, remembering the way of life modeled by those who taught you,+
15 and how from a young age you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able, with regard to you, to give you the wisdom leading to salvation+ through the faith that is found in union with Messiah Jesus.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and+ valuable+ for teaching, for reproving, for bringing correction, and for instructing people in righteousness,
17 so that God’s servant+ may be for his task fully ready, equipped for indeed every kind of good work.