But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come.
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,
traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!
. . .
They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions,
who are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them.
From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions,
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
. . .
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.
You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
They are of the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them.
. . .
But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come.
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,
traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!
. . .
For the choirmaster, to be accompanied by flutes. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.
Attend to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I pray.
In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.
For You are not a God who delights in wickedness; no evil can dwell with You.
The boastful cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all workers of iniquity.
. . .
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
. . .
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.
The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,
and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie,
in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.
. . .
Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”
So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh.
He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.
The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.
. . .
In that day the Lord will take away their finery: their anklets and headbands and crescents;
their pendants, bracelets, and veils;
their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes; their perfume bottles and charms;
their signet rings and nose rings;
their festive robes, capes, cloaks, and purses;
. . .
My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.
Keep my commandments and live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman,
that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.
. . .
Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
. . .
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
. . .
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to listen to Jesus.
So the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable:
“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,
. . .
Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.
After a long time, in the third year of the drought, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the face of the earth.”
So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,
and Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah greatly feared the LORD,
for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)
Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and every valley. Perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to destroy any livestock.”
. . .
“Throw her down!” yelled Jehu. So they threw her down, and her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses as they trampled her underfoot.
Then Jehu went in and ate and drank. “Take care of this cursed woman,” he said, “and bury her, for she was the daughter of a king.”
But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.
So they went back and told Jehu, who replied, “This is the word of the LORD, which He spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘On the plot of ground at Jezreel the dogs will devour the flesh of Jezebel.
And Jezebel’s body will lie like dung in the field on the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one can say: This is Jezebel.’”
This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.
You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,
. . .
While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you.
For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
. . .
These are the words of King Lemuel—the burden that his mother taught him:
What shall I say, O my son? What, O son of my womb? What, O son of my vows?
Do not spend your strength on women or your vigor on those who ruin kings.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to crave strong drink,
lest they drink and forget what is decreed, depriving all the oppressed of justice.
. . .
When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
If they wish to inquire about something, they are to ask their own husbands at home; for it is dishonorable for a woman to speak in the church.
Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai, for her name is to be Sarah.
And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.”