Some Will Depart from the Faith

4 Now ^(A)the Spirit expressly says that ^(B)in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to ^(C)deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ² through the insincerity of ^(D)liars whose consciences are seared, ^3 (E)who forbid marriage and ^(F)require abstinence from foods ^(G)that God created ^(H)to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For ^(I)everything created by God is good, and ^(J)nothing is to be rejected if it is ^(K)received with thanksgiving, ⁵ for it is made holy ^(L)by the word of God and prayer.

² Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are ^(A)brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.

False Teachers and True Contentment

^(B)Teach and urge these things. ³ If anyone ^(C)teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with ^(D)the sound^[a] words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching ^(E)that accords with godliness, ^4 (F)he is puffed up with conceit and ^(G)understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for ^(H)controversy and for ^(I)quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, ⁵ and constant friction among people ^(J)who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, ^(K)imagining that godliness is a means of gain. ⁶ But ^(L)godliness ^(M)with contentment is great gain, ⁷ for ^(N)we brought nothing into the world, and^[b] we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸ But ^(O)if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. ⁹ But ^(P)those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, ^(Q)into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that ^(R)plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of ^(S)all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Godlessness in the Last Days

3 But understand this, that ^(A)in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ² For people will be ^(B)lovers of self, ^(C)lovers of money, ^(D)proud, ^(E)arrogant, abusive, ^(F)disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ^3 (G)heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, ^(H)not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, ^(I)swollen with conceit, ^(J)lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but ^(K)denying its power. ^(L)Avoid such people. ⁶ For among them are ^(M)those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, ⁷ always learning and never able to ^(N)arrive at a knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as ^(O)Jannes and Jambres ^(P)opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, ^(Q)men corrupted in mind and ^(R)disqualified regarding the faith. ⁹ But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, ^(S)as was that of those two men.

False Prophets and Teachers

2 But ^(A)false prophets also arose among the people, ^(B)just as there will be false teachers among you, who will ^(C)secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master ^(D)who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth ^(E)will be blasphemed. ³ And ^(F)in their greed they will exploit you ^(G)with false words. ^(H)Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ For if God did not spare ^(I)angels when they sinned, but ^(J)cast them into hell^[a] and committed them to chains^[b] of gloomy darkness ^(K)to be kept until the judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but ^(L)preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ^(M)a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by ^(N)turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, ^(O)making them an example of ^(P)what is going to happen to the ungodly;^{[c] 7} and ^(Q)if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, ^(R)he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then ^(S)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,^[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially ^(T)those who indulge^[e] in the lust of defiling passion and ^(U)despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble ^(V)as they blaspheme the glorious ones, ^11 (W)whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. ^12 (X)But these, like irrational animals, ^(Y)creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, ¹³ suffering wrong as ^(Z)the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure ^(AA)to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,^[f] while ^(AB)they feast with you. ¹⁴ They have eyes full of adultery,^{[g] (AC)}insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts ^(AD)trained in greed. ^(AE)Accursed children! ¹⁵ Forsaking the right way, ^(AF)they have gone astray. They have followed ^(AG)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^(AH)gain from wrongdoing, ¹⁶ but was rebuked for his own transgression; ^(AI)a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

^17 (AJ)These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. ^(AK)For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸ For, ^(AL)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^(AM)escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them ^(AN)freedom, ^(AO)but they themselves are slaves^[h] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if, ^(AP)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(AQ)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(AR)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(AS)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(AT)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(AU)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Warning Concerning Antichrists

¹⁸ Children, ^(A)it is the last hour, and as you have heard that ^(B)antichrist is coming, so now ^(C)many antichrists have come. ^(D)Therefore we know that it is the last hour. ^19 (E)They went out from us, but they were not of us; for ^(F)if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, ^(G)that it might become plain that they all are not of us. ²⁰ But you have been ^(H)anointed by ^(I)the Holy One, and ^(J)you all have knowledge.^{[a] 21} I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ²² Who is the liar but ^(K)he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is ^(L)the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. ^23 (M)No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. ²⁴ Let ^(N)what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then ^(O)you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise that he made to us^[b]—^(P)eternal life.

²⁶ I write these things to you about ^(Q)those who are trying to deceive you. ²⁷ But ^(R)the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and ^(S)you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and ^(T)is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Judgment on False Teachers

³ Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our ^(A)common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you ^(B)to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For ^(C)certain people ^(D)have crept in unnoticed ^(E)who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert ^(F)the grace of our God into sensuality and ^(G)deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ Now I want ^(H)to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that ^(I)Jesus, who saved^[a] a people out of the land of Egypt, ^(J)afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And ^(K)the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— ⁷ just as ^(L)Sodom and Gomorrah and ^(M)the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and ^(N)pursued unnatural desire,^[b] serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and ^(O)blaspheme the glorious ones. ⁹ But when ^(P)the archangel ^(Q)Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing ^(R)about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ^(S)“The Lord rebuke you.” ^10 (T)But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they walked in ^(U)the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain ^(V)to Balaam's error and ^(W)perished in Korah's rebellion. ¹² These are hidden reefs^{[c] (X)}at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, ^(Y)shepherds feeding themselves; ^(Z)waterless clouds, ^(AA)swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, ^(AB)uprooted; ^13 (AC)wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of ^(AD)their own shame; ^(AE)wandering stars, ^(AF)for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ It was also about these that Enoch, ^(AG)the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, ^(AH)“Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, ^15 (AI)to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have ^(AJ)committed in such an ungodly way, and of all ^(AK)the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶ These are grumblers, malcontents, ^(AL)following their own sinful desires; ^(AM)they are loud-mouthed boasters, ^(AN)showing favoritism to gain advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷ But you must ^(AO)remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They^[d] said to you, ^(AP)“In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” ¹⁹ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, ^(AQ)devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved, ^(AR)building yourselves up in your most holy faith and ^(AS)praying in the Holy Spirit, ^21 (AT)keep yourselves in the love of God, ^(AU)waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. ²² And have mercy on those who doubt; ²³ save others by ^(AV)snatching them out of ^(AW)the fire; to others show mercy ^(AX)with fear, hating even ^(AY)the garment^[e] stained by the flesh.