2 Peter

Chapter 1

1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

3 Since his divine power has granted us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence,

4 through which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through desire.

5 And for this very reason, applying all diligence, supply in your faith virtue, and in virtue knowledge,

6 and in knowledge self-control, and in self-control endurance, and in endurance godliness,

7 and in godliness brotherly affection, and in brotherly affection love.

8 For if these things are yours and are increasing, they render you neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 For whoever lacks these things is blind, being shortsighted, having forgotten the cleansing of his former sins.

10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure; for if you do these things you will never stumble.

11 For in this way there will be richly supplied to you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that is present with you.

13 And I consider it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by way of reminder,

14 knowing that the putting off of my tent is soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ also made clear to me.

15 And I will be diligent that at all times, after my departure, you may be able 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 were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when such a voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

18 And we ourselves heard this voice borne from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain.

19 And we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,

20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one's own interpretation;

21 for prophecy was never borne by the will of man, but men spoke from God, being carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 2

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

2 And many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

3 And in their greed they will exploit you with fabricated words; their judgment from of old is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them into Tartarus and handed them over to chains of gloom, kept for judgment;

5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;

7 and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the licentious conduct of the lawless

8 for that righteous man, dwelling among them, was tormented day after day in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard

9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

10 and especially those who go after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones,

11 whereas angels, though greater in strength and power, do not bring a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

12 But these, like irrational animals, born as creatures of instinct for capture and destruction, blaspheming in matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,

13 suffering wrong as the wages of wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime; they are spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you,

14 having eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin, enticing unstable souls, having hearts trained in greed—children of a curse!

15 Forsaking the straight way, they have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing,

16 but received a rebuke for his own transgression: a mute beast of burden, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet's madness.

17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved.

18 For, uttering bombastic words of vanity, they entice with the lusts of the flesh, with licentiousness, those who are barely escaping from those who live in error,

19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whatever a person is overcome, to this he is enslaved.

20 For if, after escaping the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, their last state has become worse than the first.

21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: "A dog returns to its own vomit," and, "A sow, after washing, to wallowing in the mire."

Chapter 3

1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you, in both of which I stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder,

2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.

3 Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come with mockery, walking according to their own desires

4 and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they were from the beginning of creation."

5 For it escapes their notice, willingly, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,

6 through which the world of that time, being deluged with water, perished.

7 But the present heavens and the earth by the same word have been stored up, being kept for fire until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

8 But do not let this one thing escape your notice, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, on which the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be dissolved with burning heat, and the earth and the works in it will not be found.

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens, being set on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with burning heat.

13 But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

14 Therefore, beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent to be found by him spotless and blameless, in peace,

15 and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,

16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them about these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist, as they do also the rest of the scriptures, to their own destruction.

17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, lest, being carried away by the error of lawless men, you fall from your own steadfastness;

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.