Copyright (c) Timothy E. Clontz 1999 All rights reserved.
The Second Letter of Peter
1
1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those
who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness
of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 grace and peace be multiplied to
you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life
and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his
own glory and excellence. 4 By these he has granted to us 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 become partakers of
the divine nature. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your
faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge, 6 and to knowledge, self-control,
and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, 7 and to
godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if
these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being
ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For
whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten
that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the
more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these
things, you will never fall; 11 so there will be an entrance richly provided
for you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 Therefore I will always remind you of these things, even
though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now
have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way
of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting aside of my body will be
soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will see to
it that after my departure you will be able at any time to call these things
to mind.
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales 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 the voice came to him by the Majestic Glory,
saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." 18 We
ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven when we were with him on
the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word made more sure,
and you will do well to pay attention 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 for no prophecy was ever made by
the act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there
will also 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
licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. 3
And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from long ago
their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been
asleep.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast
them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for
judgment; 5 and 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 and if he condemned the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having
made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; 7 and
if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives
of lawless men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while
living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their
lawless deeds), 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 indulge the flesh in its corrupt desire and
despise authority.
Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones,
11 whereas angels, though greater in power and might, do not bring a
reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like
irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed,
reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the
same destruction with them, 13 suffering wrong for their wrongdoing.
They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and
blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you. 14 They
have eyes full of adultery, that never cease from sin; they entice unstable
souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking
the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam,
the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was
rebuked for his own transgression by a donkey-a beast without
speech-who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's
madness.
17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm;
for them the blackest darkness has been reserved. 18 For speaking out
arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality,
those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. 19 They promise
them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for
whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they
have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are
overcome, the 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 away from the holy
commandment handed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according
to the true proverb,
"A dog turns back to its own vomit,"
and,
"A sow, after having washed, returns to wallowing in the mire."
3
1 This is now the second letter that I have written to you,
beloved, and in both of them I have aroused 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 spoken
through your apostles. 3 First of all you must understand this, that
scoffers will come in the last days, with scoffing, following 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 They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God
heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by
means of water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed,
being deluged with water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens
and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and
destruction of ungodly men.
8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one
day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The
Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is
patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to
repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the
heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed
with fire, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people
ought you to be in holy lives and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening
the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be
destroyed by fire, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But
according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth,
in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be
diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless. 15 And
regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved
brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. 16 He
writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which
ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to
their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this
beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error
of lawless men and 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. Amen.
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