³ In their greed^(A) these teachers will exploit you^(B) with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

⁵ You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed^(A)—God is our witness.^(B)

¹⁷ Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.^(A) On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity,^(B) as those sent from God.^(C)

¹⁸ For such people are not serving our Lord Christ,^(A) but their own appetites.^(B) By smooth talk and flattery they deceive^(C) the minds of naive people.

¹⁵ to judge^(A) everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”^[a](B)

¹¹ They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households^(A) by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.

⁵ and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth^(A) and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials^(A) and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.^(B)