Fathers

2 Timothy 3

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But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected. But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be. But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, persecutions, 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. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing 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, which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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What the Fathers say

2 Timothy 3:17

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

Correction, he says, comes through Scripture, so that the man who lives according to God may lack nothing good. So if you too desire to become equally well-fitted (artios), that is, perfect, sound, and always even in all things, not despairing in sorrowful circumstances and not becoming proud in favorable ones—for this is characteristic of an uneven disposition of soul—then have Scripture as your counselor instead of me. If the apostle wrote to Timothy, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, about reading, how much more so to us? …

Commentary on 2 Timothy ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

But its final effect is to lead men to the perfect good; for it produces not just any good, but a perfect good: let us go on to things more perfect (Heb 6:1). Hence he says, that the man of God may be perfect, because he cannot be perfect, unless he is a man of God. For that is perfect which lacks nothing. Consequently, a man is perfect when he is furnished, i.e., prepared, to every good work, not only to those that are necessary for salvation, but even to those that are of supererogation: and in doing good let us not fail (Gal 6:9).

Commentary on 2 Timothy ↗