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The Dangers of the Last Days

You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

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Ministry in the Last Days

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

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Timothy 3:1 tn Or perhaps, “dangerous,” “fierce.”
  2. 2 Timothy 3:2 tn Grk “men,” but here ἄνθρωποι (anthrōpoi) is generic, referring to both men and women.
  3. 2 Timothy 3:2 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. 2 Timothy 3:5 tn Or “form.”sn Outward appearance. Paul’s contrast with power in 3:5b shows that he regards this “form” to be outward, one of appearance rather than reality (cf. 1 Cor 4:19-20; 1 Thess 1:5).
  5. 2 Timothy 3:5 tn Grk “and avoid these,” with the word “people” implied.