¹ You may be quite sure that in the last days there will be some difficult times.

² People will be self-centred and avaricious, boastful, arrogant and rude; disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious;

³ heartless and intractable; they will be slanderers, profligates, savages and enemies of everything that is good;

⁴ they will be treacherous and reckless and demented by pride, preferring their own pleasure to God.

⁵ They will keep up the outward appearance of religion but will have rejected the inner power of it. Keep away from people like that.

⁶ Of the same kind, too, are those men who insinuate themselves into families in order to get influence over silly women who are obsessed with their sins and follow one craze after another,

⁷ always seeking learning, but unable ever to come to knowledge of the truth.

⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres defied Moses, so these men defy the truth, their minds corrupt and their faith spurious.

⁹ But they will not be able to go on much longer: their folly, like that of the other two, must become obvious to everybody.

¹⁰ You, though, have followed my teaching, my way of life, my aims, my faith, my patience and my love, my perseverance

¹¹ and the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in places like Antioch, Iconium and Lystra -- all the persecutions I have endured; and the Lord has rescued me from every one of them.

¹² But anybody who tries to live in devotion to Christ is certain to be persecuted;

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

¹⁴ You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true; remember who your teachers were,

¹⁵ and how, ever since you were a child, you have known the holy scriptures -from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶ All scripture is inspired by God and useful for refuting error, for guiding people's lives and teaching them to be upright.

¹⁷ This is how someone who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work.