¹⁴ So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless^(A) and at peace with him. ¹⁵ Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience^(B) means salvation,^(C) just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.^{(D) 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^(E) people distort,^(F) as they do the other Scriptures,^(G) to their own destruction.

¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard^(H) so that you may not be carried away by the error^(I) of the lawless^(J) and fall from your secure position.^{(K) 18} But grow in the grace^(L) and knowledge^(M) of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.^(N) To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.^(O)

⁸ All inhabitants of the earth^(A) will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life,^(B) the Lamb^(C) who was slain from the creation of the world.^[a](D)

⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.^(E)

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness^(G) on the part of God’s people.^(H)