3:1 But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come.

3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful,
arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3:3 without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good,
3:4 traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
3:5 holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof.

Turn away from these, also.
 

3:6 For of these are those who creep into houses, and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
3:7 always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

3:8 Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so do these also oppose the truth;
men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith.
 

3:9 But they will proceed no further.
For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be.

3:10 But you did follow

my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,
3:11 persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. Out of them all the Lord delivered me.

3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
3:13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

3:14 But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of,
knowing from whom you have learned them.

3:15 From infancy, you have known the sacred writings
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
3:16 Every writing inspired by God {literally, God-breathed}is profitable

• for teaching,
• for reproof,
• for correction, and
• for instruction which is in righteousness,

3:17 that the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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1:3 Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation,
I was constrained to write to you exhorting you
to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
 

1:4 For there are certain men who crept in secretly,
even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation:
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,
and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.

1:5 Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this,
 

that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed those who didn't believe.
1:6 Angels who didn't keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place,
he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them,
having, in the same way as these,
given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh,
are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

1:8 Yet in like manner these also in their dreaming

defile the flesh,

despise authority,

and slander celestial beings.

 

1:9 But Michael, the archangel,
when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses,
dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation,
but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!"
1:10 But these speak evil of whatever things they don't know.
What they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason,
in these things are they destroyed.

1:11 Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain,
and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah's rebellion.

1:12 These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you,
shepherds who without fear feed themselves;

clouds without water, carried along by winds;
autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
1:13 wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame;
wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

1:14 About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying,
"Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
1:15 to execute judgment on all,
and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness
which they have done in an ungodly way,
and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
 

1:16 These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts
(and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage.

1:17 But you, beloved, remember the words
which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:18 They said to you that
"In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts."

1:19 These are they who cause divisions, and are sensual, not having the Spirit.

1:20 But you, beloved,
 

keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Spirit.
1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
1:22 On some have compassion, making a distinction,
1:23 and some save, snatching them out of the fire with fear,
hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

Their Effect

who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,
denying even the Master who bought them,
bringing on themselves swift destruction.

2:2 Many will follow their immoral ways,
{TR reads "destructive" instead of "immoral"}
and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.
2:3 In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words:

Their Condemnation

whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger,
and their destruction will not slumber.
2:4 For

if God didn't spare angels when they sinned,
but cast them down to Tartarus {Tartarus is another name for Hell},
and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved to judgment;
2:5 and didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;
2:6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;
2:7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked

2:8 (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds):

2:9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation
and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;

Their Description

2:10 but chiefly those
who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement,and despise authority.
 

A. They Despise Authority

Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;

2:11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power,
don't bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord.

2:12 But these, as unreasoning creatures,
born natural animals to be taken and destroyed,
speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant,
will in their destroying surely be destroyed,

2:13 receiving the wages of unrighteousness;

B. They Follow Corrupt Desires

people who count it pleasure to revel in the day-time, spots and blemishes,
reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
2:14 having eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin;
enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;
2:15 forsaking the right way, they went astray,
having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor,
who loved the wages of wrong-doing;

2:16 but he was rebuked for his own disobedience.
A mute donkey spoke with man's voice
and stopped the madness of the prophet.

2:17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm;
for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

2:18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness,
they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness,
those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
2:19 promising them liberty,
while they themselves are bondservants of corruption;
for by whom a man is overcome,
by the same is he also brought into bondage.

2:20 For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world
through the knowledge of {epignosis = "knowledge about"}
the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled therein and overcome,
the last state has become worse with them than the first.

2:21 For it would be better for them not to have known {about}
the way of righteousness, than, after knowing {about} it,
to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
2:22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb,
"The dog turns to his own vomit again," (Prov 26:11)
and "the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire."

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The Berean Christian Bible Study Resources Jan 30,2022