John Calvin Commentary 2 Timothy 3:5

"holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power therefore. From these also turn away." — 2 Timothy 3:5 (ASV)

From those turn away. This exhortation sufficiently shows that Paul does not speak of a distant posterity, nor foretell what would happen many ages afterwards; but that, by pointing out present evils, he applies to his own age what he had said about “the last times”; for how could Timothy “turn away” from those who were not to arise till many centuries afterwards? So then, from the very beginning of the gospel, the Church must have begun to be affected by such corruptions.