1 SIMON PETER, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us in 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 Seeing that his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and might;
4 through which he has given us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust;
5 yea for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith fortitude; and to fortitude, knowledge;
6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patience; and to patience, godliness;
7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
8 For if these things are in you, and abound, they cause that ye shall not be inactive nor unfruitful in attaining to the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacks these things is blind, not seeing afar off, having forgotten the cleansing away of his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.
11 For so shall be richly ministered to you the entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 Wherefore, I will not neglect to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and are established in the truth that is with you.
13 But I think it right, so long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
14 knowing that I must soon put off my tabernacle, as also our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
15 Moreover I will endeavor that at all times ye may be able after my departure to call these things to mind.
16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but had been eye-witnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when such a voice was borne to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;
18 and this voice we heard borne from heaven, being with him in the holy mount.
19 And we have more sure the prophetic word; to which ye do well that ye take heed, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts;
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture comes of private interpretation;
21 for prophecy was never brought by the will of man; but moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God.
1 BUT there were false prophets also among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who stealthily will bring in destructive factions, even denying as Master him who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their dissolute ways; by reason of whom the way of truth will be evil spoken of.
3 And in covetousness will they with feigned words make merchandise of you; for whom the judgment from of old lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not.
4 For if God spared not angels, having sinned, but casting them down to hell delivered them over to chains of darkness, reserved unto judgment;
5 and spared not the old world, but kept Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood on the world of ungodly men,
6 and turning to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah condemned them to overthrow, having made them an example of those who should afterward live ungodly;
7 and delivered righteous Lot, wearied out with the lewd conduct of the lawless;
8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, with seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust under punishment to the day of judgment;
10 but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise dominion. Presumptuous, self-willed, they are not afraid to rail at dignities;
11 whereas angels, being greater in strength and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these, as natural brute beasts born to be taken and destroyed, railing at things that they understand not, shall utterly perish in their own corruption,
13 receiving the wages of unrighteousness, as they who account reveling for a day pleasure; spots, and blemishes, reveling in their own deceits while feasting with you;
14 having eyes full of the adulteress, and that cease not from sin; alluring unstable souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of a curse;
15 forsaking the right way, they went astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,
16 but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, forbade the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, mists driven by a tempest, to whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.
18 For, speaking swelling words of vanity, in lusts of the flesh they allure, by wanton ways, such as partly escape those who live in error;
19 promising them liberty, while they themselves are servants of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by the same he is also brought into bondage.
20 For if, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christy but having again become entangled therein they are overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first.
21 For it were 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, returned to his own vomit; and, A sow that was washed, to the wallowing in the mire.
1 THIS second letter, beloved, I now write to you; in both which I stir up your pure mind by putting you in remembrance;
2 that ye may be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Savior by your apostles;
3 knowing this first, that there shall come in the last of the days scoffers, in their scoffings, walking after their own lusts,
4 and saying: Where is the promise of his coming? for from the day the fathers fell asleep, all things so continue, from the beginning of the creation.
5 For of this they willingly are ignorant, that by the word of God there were heavens of old, and earth framed out of water and by means of water,
6 whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished;
7 but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by his word are kept in store, being reserved for fire unto the day of judgment and of perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not tardy in respect to the promise, as some account tardiness; but is long-suffering toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will be dissolved with burning heat, and the earth and the works therein will be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things are dissolving, what manner of men ought ye to be, in all holy deportment and godliness;
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with burning heat?
13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, be diligent that ye may be found without spot and blameless in his sight, in peace.
15 And the long-suffering of our Lord account salvation; as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you;
16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things; in which things are some that are hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the lawless, ye 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 forever. Amen.