Growth in Christian Virtue

Simon Peter, a bond-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:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

for 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.

and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,

and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such a declaration as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory: “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased”—

for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment;

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!