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3:1 You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. 3:2 For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3:3 inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, 3:4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 3:5 holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! 3:6 For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, 3:7 who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 3:8 As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. 3:9 But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men, their folly will become plain to everyone. 3:10 Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 3:11 my persecutions and suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 3:12 Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 3:13 But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 3:15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 3:16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 3:17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.