1 I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead in his appearing and in his kingdom: 2 Preach the word; be instant in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, they shall heap up unto themselves teachers who shall speak to them according to their own lusts, 4 and thus they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall return unto fables. 5 But watch thou in all things, labour, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry.
6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my release is at hand. 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; 8 from now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all those also that have loved his appearing.