1But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. 2For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, 4traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5holding a form of godliness but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. 6For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected. 9But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be.
10But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, 11persecutions, and sufferings—those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all. 12Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. 15From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 17that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Three groups of people are in view in 2 Timothy 4:3-5. His special interest is for believers and his exhortation for believers is based on the importance of truth. Paul uses this word in 1 Timothy 2:4, 7; 3:15; 4:3, and 6:5. In the short letter of 2 Timothy he does similarly in 2:15, 18, 25; 3:7, 8, and 4:4. This teaching does not only apply to his generation of believers but those of subsequent generations, even to our day ("the time will come"). His command comes from the fact that all Scripture comes from the mouth of God, and that this being true it gives the preacher the authority to teach doctrine, reproof, rebuke, and correct believers.
The second group that the apostle addresses is believers who will not be faithful to the truth taught in the Word of God. He says those who claim to be believers "will not listen to sound doctrine." In light of this lure to stop preaching what is true, Timothy is to "preach the Word." When those who profess Christ are led aside to falsehood by turning "away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables" (vv. 3, 4), Timothy is to be watchful. He is to be willing to suffer hardship, even as his mentor had done and was still doing while in a Roman prison. Timothy was to tell the good news of Jesus and complete the service that God had for him, even as Paul enunciates he has done in verses 6-8.
The third group are teachers who are willing to forsake the truth at the urge of people that no longer want to hear the truth. These teachers may be even like Demas, mentioned in verse 10, but church history and our modern day has many examples of preachers who know little of the Bible and, thus, the truth, but instead use the ministry largely for their own profit and pride. This is diametrically different from their Lord Jesus, the apostles, and many preachers who have been faithful over the centuries.