“Difficult Times Will Come”

3 But realize this, that ^(A)in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be ^(B)lovers of self, ^(C)lovers of money, ^(D)boastful, ^(E)arrogant, ^(F)revilers, ^(G)disobedient to parents, ^(H)ungrateful, ^(I)unholy, ^3 (J)unloving, irreconcilable, ^(K)malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, ^[a](L)haters of good, ^4 (M)treacherous, ^(N)reckless, ^(O)conceited, ^(P)lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of ^[b](Q)godliness, although they have ^(R)denied its power; ^(S)Avoid such men as these. ⁶ For among them are those who ^[c](T)enter into households and captivate ^[d](U)weak women weighed down with sins, led on by ^(V)various impulses, ⁷ always learning and never able to ^(W)come to the ^[e]knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as ^(X)Jannes and Jambres ^(Y)opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, ^(Z)men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. ⁹ But they will not make further progress; for their ^(AA)folly will be obvious to all, just ^(AB)as ^[f]Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 ^(A)What shall we say then? Are we to ^(B)continue in sin so that grace may increase? ^2 (C)May it never be! How shall we who ^(D)died to sin still live in it? ³ Or do you not know that all of us who have been ^(E)baptized into ^(F)Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been ^(G)buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was ^(H)raised from the dead through the ^(I)glory of the Father, so we too might walk in ^(J)newness of life. ⁵ For ^(K)if we have become ^[a]united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be ^[b]in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our ^(L)old ^[c]self was ^(M)crucified with Him, in order that our ^(N)body of sin might be ^[d]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷ for ^(O)he who has died is ^[e]freed from sin.

⁸ Now ^(P)if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been ^(Q)raised from the dead, ^[f]is never to die again; ^(R)death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Even so consider yourselves to be ^(S)dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.