(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
The last days
- But realize this: trying times will come in the last days.
- For men will be selfish lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters1“boasters” this Greek word properly refers to someone who makes boastful, fantastic claims but can’t follow through. Therefore, they constantly seek a new audience because their old audience loses interest when they realize the man is full of empty words. arrogant, slanderous blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
- without familial affection, not willing to make peace, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
- betrayers, reckless, *puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
- having a form of godliness but *denying its power. And turn away from men such as these.
- For from these are the men creeping into houses and captivating foolish women *burdened with sins, being led astray by various cravings;
- always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
- And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth; Men who are utterly *depraved in mind, falling the test2“falling the test” is one word in Greek. It was used of counterfeit coins which were tested and “failed the test” to see if they were genuine. concerning the faith.
- But they won’t advance much further, for their foolishness will be obvious to all, as the foolishness of those two also became obvious.
All Scripture is God-breathed
- But you closely followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, forbearance, ^love, endurance,
- persecutions, sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, and in Lystra; such persecutions I endured! And the Lord delivered me from all of them.
- And also, all the men desiring to live devoutly in Jesus the Anointed will be persecuted.
- But wicked men and swindling imposters will blaze a trail3“blazing a trail” is one word in Greek with that exact meaning. The Greek word refers to a pioneer cutting through brushwood to create a path, exactly like the English idiom “blaze a trail” to worse; leading some astray and being led astray.
- But you: abide in what you learned and were assured of, *knowing which men you learned them from,
- and that from infancy you have known the sacred writings, the ones able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus the Anointed.
- All scripture is God-breathed and useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
- so the man of God might be prepared; having been fully equipped for every good work.
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