Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

 Good morning. All these bad things that people today do that we talked about before: but evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived. How could they get any worse? Deceiving and being deceived - when you deceive others, you open yourself up to further deception. What are we supposed to do? We are supposed to continue in the things we have learned and become convinced of, knowing from home we have learned them. Because of the lives of the pastor and other teachers, we know we can trust the word that they have given to us. Then Paul tells Timothy: from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. It is the uniting of our faith in Christ Jesus with the word of God that brings us to salvation. It is not just some emotional feel good situation. It has to be based on the word. That does not mean that you have to quote chapter and verse. It does not have to be the Roman Road. Then a really powerful verse. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate; equipped for every good work. If it is not inspired by God, it cannot be scripture. They may be good and true words, but they are not scripture. We are to use it to teach others. It reproves us when we do wrong. It corrects the course of our lives. Living a righteous life does not come naturally; we must be trained in how to live it. Somehow the word adequate does not seem adequate. Adequate means barely good enough. This means we are prepared in every area of our lives to take care of whatever situation comes. Father thank You that the reader is prepared for everything that comes against him/her. He/she follows the word of God daily and applies it to his/her life completely.