2 PETER
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Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To
those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of
our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 May grace and peace be yours in abundance in
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us
everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Thus he has given us, through these
things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may
escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become
participants of the divine nature. 5 For this very reason, you must make every
effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, 6 and
knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with
godliness, 7 and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with
love. 8 For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep
you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 9 For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is
forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be
all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you
will never stumble. 11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. 12 Therefore I
intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already
and are established in the truth that has come to you. 13 I think it right, as
long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, 14 since I know that my death
will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I
will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to
recall these things. 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we
made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been
eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the
Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, "This
is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." 18 We ourselves heard this
voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 So we
have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be
attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this,
that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21
because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy
Spirit spoke from God.
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But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there
will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive
opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them--bringing swift
destruction on themselves. 2 Even so, many will follow their licentious ways,
and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned. 3 And in their
greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced
against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell
and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;
5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald
of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the
ungodly; 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he
condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the
ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the
licentiousness of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day
after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he
saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to
keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment 10 --especially
those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold
and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones, 11 whereas
angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a
slanderous judgment from the Lord. 12 These people, however, are like irrational
animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander
what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also
will be destroyed, 13 suffering the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a
pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in
their dissipation while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,
insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in
greed. Accursed children! 15 They have left the straight road and have gone
astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing
wrong, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke
with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. 17 These are waterless
springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been
reserved. 18 For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of
the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for
people are slaves to whatever masters them. 20 For if, after they have escaped
the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has
become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them
never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn
back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. 22 It has happened to
them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns back to its own vomit," and,
"The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud."
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This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; in
them I am trying to arouse your sincere intention by reminding you 2 that you
should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets, and the
commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. 3 First of all
you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and
indulging their own lusts 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For
ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation!" 5 They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word
of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by
means of water, 6 through which the world of that time was deluged with water
and perished. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been
reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the
godless. 8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day
is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is
not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you,
not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the
Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud
noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and
everything that is done on it will be disclosed. 11 Since all these things are
to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading
lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the
day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and
the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we
wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. 14
Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found
by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15 and regard the patience of our Lord
as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the
wisdom given him, 16 speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are
some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to
their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. 17 You therefore,
beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the
error of the lawless and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and
to the day of eternity. Amen.
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