3:1 But of this be assured: in the last days grievous times will set in.

3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, profane. They will be disobedient to parents, thankless, irreligious,

3:3 destitute of natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers. They will have no self-control, but will be brutal, opposed to goodness,

3:4 treacherous, headstrong, self-important. They will love pleasure instead of loving God,

3:5 and will keep up a make-believe of piety and yet live in defiance of its power. Turn away from people of this sort.

3:6 Among them are included the men who make their way into private houses and carry off weak women as their prisoners--women who, weighed down by the burden of their sins, are led by ever-changing caprice,

3:7 and are always learning something new, and yet are never able to arrive at real knowledge of the truth.

3:8 And just as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so also these false teachers withstand the truth--being, as they are, men of debased intellects, and of no real worth so far as faith is concerned.

3:9 But they will have no further success; for their folly will be as clearly manifest to all men, as that of the opponents of Moses came to be.

3:10 But you have intimately known my teaching, life, aims, faith, patience, love, resignation,

3:11 and the persecutions and sufferings which I have endured; the things which happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. You know the persecutions I endured, and how the Lord delivered me out of them all.

3:12 And indeed every one who is determined to live a godly life as a follower of Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

3:13 But bad men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, misleading and being misled.

3:14 But you must cling to the things which you have learnt and have been taught to believe, knowing who your teachers were,

3:15 and that from infancy you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to obtain salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

3:16 Every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for convincing, for correction of error, and for instruction in right doing;