| 3:1 | Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. |
| 3:2 | As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, |
| 3:3 | dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, |
| 3:4 | treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. |
| 3:5 | They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people. |
| 3:6 | These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself "truth." |
| 3:7 | They get exploited every time and never really learn. |
| 3:8 | These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were rejects from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself. |
| 3:9 | But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax. |
| 3:10 | You've been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, |
| 3:11 | troubles, sufferings--suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! |
| 3:12 | Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it. |
| 3:13 | Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They're as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse. |
| 3:14 | But don't let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers-- |
| 3:15 | why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. |
| 3:16 | Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another--showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. |
| 3:17 | Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. |
2 Timothy 3 - The Message Bible
