2 Timothy 3
3
1Here is what I want you to know. There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will love themselves. They will love money. They will brag and be proud. They will tear others down. They will not obey their parents. They won’t be thankful or holy. 3They won’t love others. They won’t forgive others. They will tell lies about people. They will be out of control. They will be wild. They will hate what is good. 4They will turn against their friends. They will act without thinking. They will think they are better than others. They will love what pleases them instead of loving God. 5They will act as if they were serving God. But what they do will show that they have turned their backs on God’s power. Have nothing to do with these people.
6They are the kind who trick their way into the homes of some women. These women are ready to believe anything. And they take control over these women. These women are loaded down with sins. They give in to all kinds of evil desires. 7They are always learning. But they are never able to come to know the truth. 8Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. In the same way, the teachers I’m talking about oppose the truth. Their minds are twisted. As far as the faith is concerned, God doesn’t accept them. 9They won’t get very far. Just like Jannes and Jambres, their foolish ways will be clear to everyone.
Paul Gives a Final Command to Timothy
10But you know all about my teaching. You know how I live and what I live for. You know about my faith and love. You know how patient I am. You know I haven’t given up. 11You know that I was treated badly. You know that I suffered greatly. You know what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. You know how badly I have been treated. But the Lord saved me from all my troubles. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be treated badly. 13Evil people and pretenders will go from bad to worse. They will fool others, and others will fool them. 14But I want you to continue to follow what you have learned and are sure about. You know the people you learned it from. 15You have known the Holy Scriptures ever since you were a little child. They are able to teach you how to be saved by believing in Christ Jesus. 16God has breathed life into all Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right. 17By using Scripture, the servant of God can be completely prepared to do every good thing.
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2 Timothy 3
3
The Dangers of the Last Days.#The moral depravity and false teaching that will be rampant in the last days are already at work (2 Tm 3:1–5). The frivolous and superficial, too, devoid of the true spirit of religion, will be easy victims of those who pervert them by falsifying the truth (2 Tm 3:6–8), just as Jannes and Jambres, Pharaoh’s magicians of Egypt (Ex 7:11–12, 22), discredited the truth in Moses’ time. Exodus does not name the magicians, but the two names are widely found in much later Jewish, Christian, and even pagan writings. Their origins are legendary. 1But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days.#1 Tm 4:1; 2 Pt 3:3; Jude 18. 2People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious,#Rom 1:29–31. 3callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, 4traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them.#Rom 2:20–22; Ti 1:16. 6For some of these slip into homes and make captives of women weighed down by sins, led by various desires,#Ti 1:11. 7always trying to learn but never able to reach a knowledge of the truth.#2:25. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so they also oppose the truth—people of depraved mind, unqualified in the faith.#Ex 7:11, 22; 1 Tm 6:5. 9But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be plain to all, as it was with those two.
Paul’s Example and Teaching.#Paul’s example for Timothy includes persecution, a frequent emphasis in the Pastorals. Timothy is to be steadfast to what he has been taught and to scripture. The scriptures are the source of wisdom, i.e., of belief in and loving fulfillment of God’s word revealed in Christ, through whom salvation is given. 10You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured. Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me.#Acts 13:50; 14:5, 19 / Ps 34:20. 12In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.#Jn 15:20; Acts 14:22. 13But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. 14But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it,#2:2. 15and that from infancy you have known [the] sacred scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.#Jn 5:39. 16#Useful for teaching…every good work: because as God’s word the scriptures share his divine authority. It is exercised through those who are ministers of the word.All scripture#Rom 15:4; 2 Pt 1:19–21. is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness,#All scripture is inspired by God: this could possibly also be translated, “All scripture inspired by God is useful for….” In this classic reference to inspiration, God is its principal author, with the writer as the human collaborator. Thus the scriptures are the word of God in human language. See also 2 Pt 1:20–21. 17so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.#2:21.
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