The Good News of Deliverance

Godlessness in the Last Days

3 You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. ² For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,^{(A) 3} unfeeling, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good,^{(B) 4} treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,^{(C) 5} holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! ⁶ For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate immature women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires,^{(D) 7} who are always studying yet never able to recognize truth. ⁸ As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth.^{(E) 9} But they will not make much progress because, as in the case of those two men,^[a] their folly will become plain to everyone.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

¹⁰ Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,^{(F) 11} my persecutions, and my sufferings, the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.^{(G) 12} Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.^{(H) 13} But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived.^{(I) 14} But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All scripture is inspired by God and is^[b] useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,^{(J) 17} so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.^(K)

A Third Time Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

³² They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, ³³ saying, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the gentiles;^{(A) 34} they will mock him and spit upon him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he will rise again.”^(B)

The Request of James and John

³⁵ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶ And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”^{(C) 38} But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”^{(D) 39} They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized,^{(E) 40} but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

⁴¹ When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴² So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³ But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,^{(F) 44} and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”^(G)