New Testament Plan

¹But know this: Hard times will come in the last days.

²For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

³unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,

⁴traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

⁵holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.

⁶For among them are those who worm their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions,

⁷always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth. They are men who are corrupt in mind and worthless in regard to the faith.

⁹But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be clear to all, as was the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres.

¹⁰But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance,

¹¹along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured — and yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

¹²In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

¹³Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you,

¹⁵and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,

¹⁷so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

¹I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom:

²Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

³For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear.

⁴They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.

⁵But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

⁶For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close.

⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

⁸There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.

⁹Make every effort to come to me soon,

¹⁰because Demas has deserted me, since he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

¹¹Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry.

¹²I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

¹³When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas with Carpus, as well as the scrolls, especially the parchments.

¹⁴Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his works.

¹⁵Watch out for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them.

¹⁷But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

¹⁹Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

²⁰Erastus has remained at Corinth; I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

²¹Make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters.

²²The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.

¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,

²in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

³In his own time he has revealed his word in the preaching with which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior:

⁴To Titus, my true son in our common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

⁵The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town.

⁶An elder must be blameless: the husband of one wife, with faithful children who are not accused of wildness or rebellion.

⁷As an overseer of God’s household, he must be blameless: not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money,

⁸but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled,

⁹holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.

¹⁰For there are many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party.

¹¹It is necessary to silence them; they are ruining entire households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly.

¹²One of their very own prophets said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

¹³This testimony is true. For this reason, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith

¹⁴and may not pay attention to Jewish myths and the commands of people who reject the truth.

¹⁵To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled.

¹⁶They claim to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.