From Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. To everyone who shares with us in the privilege of believing that our God and Savior Jesus Christ will do what is just and fair.

Living as the Lord's Followers

We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God's own power, when we learned he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness.

God made great and marvelous promises, so his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.

self-control, patience, devotion to God,

If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful.

But if you don't grow, you are like someone who is nearsighted or blind, and you have forgotten that your past sins are forgiven.

My friends, you must do all you can to show God has really chosen and selected you. If you keep on doing this, you won't stumble and fall.

Then our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will give you a glorious welcome into his kingdom that will last forever.

You are holding firmly to the truth you were given. But I am still going to remind you of these things.

In fact, I think I should keep on reminding you until I leave this body.

And our Lord Jesus Christ has already told me that I will soon leave it behind.

This is why I am doing my best to make sure that each of you remembers all of this after I am gone.

The Message about the Glory of Christ

When we told you about the power and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were not telling clever stories someone had made up. But with our own eyes we saw his true greatness.

God, our great and wonderful Father, truly honored him by saying, “This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him.”

We were there with Jesus on the holy mountain and heard this voice speak from heaven.

All of this makes us even more certain that what the prophets said is true. So you should pay close attention to their message, as you would to a lamp shining in some dark place. You must keep on paying attention until daylight comes and the morning star rises in your hearts.

But you need to realize that no one alone can understand any of the prophecies in the Scriptures.

The prophets did not think these things up on their own, but they were guided by the Spirit of God.

False Prophets and Teachers

Sometimes false prophets spoke to the people of Israel. False teachers will also sneak in and speak harmful lies to you. But these teachers don't really belong to the Master who paid a great price for them, and they will quickly destroy themselves.

They will be greedy and cheat you with smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them, and God doesn't sleep.

God did not have pity on the angels that sinned. He had them tied up and thrown into the dark pits of hell until the time of judgment.

And during Noah's time, God did not have pity on the ungodly people of the world. He destroyed them with a flood, though he did save eight people, including Noah, who preached the truth.

God punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and this is a warning to anyone else who wants to sin.

Lot lived right and was greatly troubled by the terrible way those wicked people were living. He was a good man, and day after day he suffered because of the evil things he saw and heard. So the Lord rescued him.

This shows that the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their sufferings and to punish evil people while they wait for the day of judgment.