God has given to us everything that we need to be his people

1 This letter is from me, Simon Peter. I am Jesus Christ's servant and his apostle.

I am writing to you people who believe in Jesus Christ, as we do. That is a valuable gift that God has given to us all. He has done this because Jesus is completely good and right. Jesus is the one who saves us. He is the God that we serve.

² I pray that God will help you and give you peace in your minds more and more. You will grow as believers because you know God and you know Jesus, our Lord.

³ God is very powerful because he is God. He has used that power to help us. He has given us everything that we need to live in a good way. We can do things that make God happy. This is possible because now we know him. God has chosen us to be his people because he is very great and very good. ⁴ Because of this, God has promised that he will do very great and valuable things for us. As a result, you can do what is right, like God does. The people who belong to this world want to do bad things. Those bad things make them become worse and worse. But God gives you the power to be free from all that.

⁵ God has done all this to help you. So now that you believe in Christ, you must grow as believers. Try very much to do always what is good. Then you should grow to know God more and more. ⁶ Then you should learn to control yourselves properly. That is not all. You should also learn to be patient and brave. And you should live in a way that pleases God. ⁷ You should not only please God, but you should be kind to other believers. You should not only love other believers, but you must also love all people.

⁸ You should continue to grow as believers in all these ways. Then it will show that you really know our Lord Jesus Christ. People will see that your life has good results. ⁹ But some people do not live in these good ways. They do not think that these things are important. They are like blind people. They cannot really see anything properly. They have forgotten that God has made them clean from all the sins that they did in past times.

¹⁰ So, my friends, try very much to live in a way that pleases God. God has chosen you to be his own people. Show that you really do belong to him! If you do these things, you will never turn away from God. ¹¹ Then God will bring you safely into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ that continues for ever. Jesus Christ is our Saviour and God will be happy to welcome you into his kingdom.

¹² You already know these things. You know that they are completely true. But because they are important, I will continue to tell you about them again and again. ¹³ While I am still alive on this earth I will continue to make sure that you remember them. I think that it is right for me to do that. ¹⁴ I know that I will die soon. Our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that clearly. ¹⁵ After I am no longer with you, I want you still to remember what I have told you. So I will make sure that you have something to help you not to forget.

Peter himself saw how great Christ is

¹⁶ We told you that our Lord Jesus Christ is powerful. We also told you that he will return to earth again. We were not telling you false stories that came from people's clever ideas. Instead, we were telling you what we ourselves had seen. We ourselves saw that the Lord Jesus is very great. ^17-18 We were with him on the holy mountain when his Father God spoke to him.^[a] God gave honour to his Son, Jesus, and he said that Jesus is great. We ourselves heard God's voice speak to Jesus from heaven above where God rules with power. He said: ‘This is my Son and I love him. He makes me very happy.’

God's messages in the Bible are very important

¹⁹ As well as that, we have the prophets' messages from long ago. They also show us very clearly that these things are true. The prophets' words are like a light that shines in a dark place. That light continues to shine in the dark until the dawn comes. So you need to think about those messages carefully. Then the morning star will rise and it will bring light deep inside you.^{[b] 20} It is very important that you should understand this: The prophets' messages in the Bible did not come from their own ideas. That never happens. ²¹ None of the prophets' messages came because any person wanted to say something. Instead, God's Holy Spirit caused people to speak words that came from God.^[c]