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

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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.

⁹ They will not, however, make further progress; for their wicked folly will be plain to every one, just as that of Jannes and Jambres was.

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,

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!

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

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

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

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.

¹⁶ Everything that is written under divine inspiration is helpful for teaching, for refuting error, for giving guidance, and for training others in righteousness;

¹⁷ so that the Servant of God may be perfect himself, and perfectly equipped for every good action.