The Second Letter of Peter
Greeting
1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have equal standing with us after obtaining faith by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you all in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Confirm Your Calling and Election
3 As His divine power has given to us the things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellencea, 4 through which He has given us the precious and very great promises in order that through them, you all may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption in the world because of lust 5 and for this very reason, after giving every effort, add to your faith excellence; and to excellence, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patience; and to patience, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly affection; and to brotherly affection, love. 8 For if these things exist in you all and are increasing, they keep you all from inactivity or unfruitfulness in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is blind and nearsighted, after forgetting he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for doing these things, you all will never stumbleb. 11 For in this way there will be richly supplied for you all the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 Therefore, I intend always to remind you all of these things, though you all have known then and have been established in the present truth. 13 But I regard it as righteous as long as I am in this tentc to stir you all up in memory, 14 knowing that soon is the putting off of my tent as even our Lord Jesus Christ made plain to me. 15 And I will be diligent always to have you all, after my departure, make remembrance of these things.
Christ's Glory and the Prophetic Word
16 For we did not follow cleverly-devised myths when we made known to you all the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For after receiving honor and glory from God the Father, such a voice was brought to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” 18 and this is the voice we ourselves heard from heaven, brought with Him while we were on the holy mountain. 19 And we have something more sure: the prophetic word which you all do well to devote yourselves to as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning stard rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first that every prophecy of Scripture does not come from one's own interpretatione. 21 For no prophecy was ever brought by the desire of man, but men spoke from God while they were being brought along by the Holy Spirit.
False Prophets and Teachers
2 But false prophets also arose among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you all who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves quick destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality through whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed, they will exploit you all with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare the angels after sinning, but after casting them into Tartarus, delivered them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 and He did not spare the ancient world but guarded Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, after bringing a flood upon the world of the ungodly 6 and after incinerating the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He condemned them, having made them an example of what is about to happen to the ungodly, 7 and the righteous Lot, being oppressed by the sensual behavior of the wicked, He delivered 8 (for in seeing and hearing, the righteous man living among them day after day was tormenting his righteous soul with their lawless works). 9 The Lord knows how to deliver the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 but especially those following after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despising authority.
Presumptuous and selfish, they do not tremble while blaspheming the glorious ones 11 where angels, being greater in might and power, do not bring a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals governed by natural instinct, born to be captured and destroyed, blaspheming things in which they are ignorant of, will be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their unrighteousness, counting it pleasure to revel in the day. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceitfulness while feasting with you all. 14 They have eyes full of adultery and are insatiable for sin, enticing unstable souls. They have hearts which have been trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Abandoning the right way, they went astray after following Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from unrighteousness 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey who, after speaking in a human voice, restrained the prophet's madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists being driven by a storm. For them, the gloom of darkness has been kept. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entrap in sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those living in error. 19 They were promising them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that, he has been enslaved. 20 For if after escaping from the pollution of the world in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it was better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 The true proverb has happened to them: “The dog returns to its true vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mud.f”
The Day of the Lord Will Come
3 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you all in which I stir up your sincere mind by reminder 2 to remember the foretold words of the holy prophets and of your apostles of the commandment of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following after their own sinful desires 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they are ignorant of this by choice that the heavens existed long ago, and out of water and through water the earth had been formed by the word of God 6 through which the world then, after being deluged with water, perished. 7 But the heavens and the earth now, by the same word, are being stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly men.
8 But you all do not be ignorantg of this one thing, 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 the promises as some count slowness but is patient towards you all, not willing any to perish but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, during which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements being burned up will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be found.
11 All these things being dissolved, what sort of people is it necessary for you all to be in behavior of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the elements melt while burning! 13 But new heavens and a new earth, according to His promise, we are waiting for in which righteousness dwells.
Final Words
14 Therefore, beloved, while waiting for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace without spot or blemish. 15 And the patience of our Lord, count as salvation even as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you all, 16 as he also does in all his letters, speaking in them about these matters. In them, there are some things which are difficult to be understood which the ignorant and the unstable twist as they also do to the other Scriptures to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, you all, beloved, knowing beforehand, keep watch in order that you all are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.h