2 Peter Chapter 1
Greeting
1 Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Partakers of the divine nature
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
8 If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 Whoever lacks these qualities is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,
11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 For this reason, I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.
13 I think it right to remind you while I am still in this body,
14 since I know that shortly I must put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
15 And I will make every effort to ensure that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
Eyewitnesses to the glory of Christ
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter Chapter 2
False prophets and false teachers
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute .
3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes and making them an example to those who would live ungodly lives,
7 and rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, living among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by the lawless deeds he saw and heard),
9 the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment,
10 especially those who indulge the flesh in its lust and impurity and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on the glorious ones,
11 whereas even angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these people, like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They will perish in their own destruction,
13 receiving the wages of their wickedness. Their idea of pleasure is to indulge in pleasure every day. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their sins while they feast with you.
14 Their eyes are full of adultery; they never stop sinning. They seduce unstable souls; their hearts are trained in greed. They are children of the curse.
15 They have forsaken the straight path and gone astray, following the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
16 But he was rebuked for his transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.
18 For speaking pompous and empty words, they entice with fleshly lusts and debauchery those who have truly escaped from those who live in error.
19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whoever is overcome by someone is enslaved to that one.
20 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 overcome, their last state has become worse for them 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 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing herself, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
2 Peter Chapter 3
The day of the Lord will come
1 Beloved, this is now my second letter to you, and in both I stir up your pure minds by way of rebuke,
2 that you may remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior given through your apostles.
3 Knowing this first of all, that in the last days scoffers will come, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For they willfully forget that long ago by the word of God the heavens came into being, and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
6 by which the world that then existed was deluged and destroyed.
7 But by the same word the heavens and the earth that now exist are reserved for fire, kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives
12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these things, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
15 And consider that the patience of our Lord is salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
16 speaking in all his epistles of these things. In them are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
17 Therefore, beloved, since you are foreknowledgeable, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.