2 Timothy 3:1-5

Ministry in the Last Days

3:1 But understand this, that in the last days difficult ¹  times will come. 3:2 For people ²  will be lovers of themselves, ³  lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. 3:5 They will maintain the outward appearance ⁴  of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these. ⁵ 

2 Timothy 3:13

3:13 But evil people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, ⁶  deceiving others and being deceived themselves. ⁷ 

¹ tn Or perhaps, “dangerous,” “fierce.”

² tn Grk “men”; but here ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi) is generic, referring to both men and women.

³ tn Or “self-centered.” The first two traits in 2 Tim 3:2 and the last two in 3:4 are Greek words beginning with the root “lovers of,” and so bracket the list at beginning and end.

⁴ tn Or “form.”

⁵ tn Grk “and avoid these,” with the word “people” implied.

⁶ tn Grk “will advance to the worse.”

⁷ tn Grk “deceiving and being deceived.”