Beginning

Greeting

1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have obtained the same kind of faith as ours 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^[a] our Lord.

Keep on Growing

³ His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own^[b] glory and excellence. ⁴ Through these he has given us his precious and great promises so that through them you may share in the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that sinful lust causes in the world.

⁵ And, for this very reason, after applying every effort, add moral excellence to your faith. To moral excellence, add knowledge. ⁶ To knowledge, add self-control. To self-control, add patient endurance. To patient endurance, add godliness. ⁷ To godliness, add brotherly affection. And to brotherly affection, add love. ⁸ For if you have these qualities and they are increasing, they are going to keep you from being idle or unfruitful in regard to your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ Indeed, the person who lacks these qualities is shortsighted and, in fact, blind, because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Make Your Calling and Election Sure

¹⁰ Therefore, brothers,^[c] be more eager to make your calling and election sure for yourselves.^[d] For if you do these things, you will never stumble. ¹¹ In fact, in this way you will be richly supplied with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹² That is why I intend^[e] always to keep reminding you of these things, even though you already know them and are established in the truth you now have. ¹³ I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to keep you wide awake by reminding you, ¹⁴ because I know that the putting off of my tent is going to happen soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. ¹⁵ I will also make every effort so that after my departure you always have a reminder of these things.

We Have God’s Inspired Word

¹⁶ To be sure, we were not following cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the powerful appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to him from within the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”^{[f] 18} We heard this voice, which came out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹ We also have the completely reliable prophetic word. You do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts, ²⁰ since we know this above all else: No prophecy of Scripture comes about from someone’s own interpretation. ²¹ In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God^[g] as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit.

A Warning About False Teachers

2 There were false prophets also among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their depraved ways, and because of them the way of the truth will be blasphemed. ³ In their greed they will exploit you with fabricated messages. Their condemnation announced long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

God Will Punish These False Teachers

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned but handed them over to chains^[h] of darkness by casting them into hell, to be kept under guard for judgment; ⁵ and if God did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, along with seven others when he brought a flood on the world of ungodly people; ⁶ and if God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction,^[i] by turning them into ashes when he made them an example of things to come for the ungodly;^{[j] 7} and if he rescued righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the unrestrained immorality of the wicked people ⁸ (while that righteous man was living among them, he was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by the lawless deeds he saw and heard); ⁹ then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under guard until the day of judgment, in order to punish them.

¹⁰ This is especially true of those who follow the defiling lust of the flesh and who despise authority. Daring and arrogant, they do not tremble when they blaspheme glorious beings, ¹¹ whereas angels, even though they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord. ¹² But these people blaspheme in matters about which they are ignorant, just like unreasoning creatures that live by instinct and are born to be captured and destroyed. So they too will be destroyed as a consequence of their destructive activity. ¹³ They will be paid back^[k] for the harm they cause.

They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, who take delight in their deceitful pleasures^[l] while they feast with you. ¹⁴ They have eyes full of longing for adulterous women and sins that never stop. They seduce unstable souls. They have trained their hearts for greed. They are children who are cursed.

¹⁵ They left the right way and went astray, following the path of Balaam, son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. ¹⁶ (He was rebuked for his disobedience. A donkey, which does not talk, spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.) ¹⁷ These men are wells without water, clouds driven away by a windstorm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved.^{[m] 18} For by uttering arrogant, empty words, they use the depraved lusts of the flesh to seduce those who are barely^[n] escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ While they promise these people freedom, they themselves are slaves to corruption, for a person is a slave to what has control of him.

The Tragedy of Being Led Back Into a Sinful Life

²⁰ Indeed, if, after escaping the defiling things of the world through the knowledge of our^[o] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and controlled by them again, they are worse off than they were at first. ²¹ In fact, it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command passed on to them. ²² They demonstrate the truth of the proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit,”^[p] and a washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.

The Destruction of the World Is Coming

3 Dear friends, this is now the second letter that I have written to you. I wrote both of them to stir up your sincere mind with a reminder ² for you to remember the words spoken earlier by the holy prophets and the command of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.

³ First, know this: In the last days scoffers will come with their mocking, following their own lusts. ⁴ They will say, “Where is this promised coming of his? For from the time that our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have from the beginning of the creation.” ⁵ You see, what they are intentionally forgetting is that the heavens came into existence long ago by the word of God and that the earth came together out of the water and between the waters.^{[q] 6} Through these waters the former world perished, when it was flooded with water. ⁷ And now, by that same word, the heavens and earth have been stored up for fire, since they are being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly. ⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: For the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow to do what he promised, as some consider slowness. Instead, he is patient for your sakes,^[r] not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.

Live a Holy Life

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.^[s] On that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be dissolved as they burn with great heat, and the earth and what was done on it will be burned up.^{[t] 11} Therefore,^[u] since all these things will be destroyed, what kind of people ought you to be, living in holiness and godliness, ¹² as you look forward to and hasten the coming of the day of God? That day will cause the heavens to be set on fire and destroyed, and the elements to melt as they burn with great heat. ¹³ But according to his promise we look forward to new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴ Therefore, dear friends, as you look forward to these things, make every effort to be found in peace, spotless and blameless in his sight. ¹⁵ Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom that was given to him. ¹⁶ He spoke about these things the same way in all of his letters. There are some matters that are hard to understand in his letters, which the ignorant and unstable distort, as they also do with the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Conclusion

¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you already know these things, be on your guard so that you do not fall from your own firm position by being led astray through the error of the wicked. ¹⁸ Instead grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen.