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Beginning

Read the Bible from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation.

Duration: 365 days

2 Peter 1-3

Salutation

Chapter 1

Address.^[a] ¹Simon Peter,^[b] a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: ²may grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge^[c] of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Exhortation to Growth in Christian Virtues

Strengthen Your Vocation.^[d] ³His divine power has bestowed on us everything that is necessary for life and for devotion through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue. ⁴By these he has given us his precious promises, great beyond all price, so that through them you may escape from the corruption with which evil desires have infected the world and thereby may come to share in the divine nature.^[e]

⁵^[f]In view of all this, you should make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with piety, ⁷and piety with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.

⁸If you possess these qualities and they increase in abundance, they will prevent your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ from being ineffective and unfruitful. ⁹For anyone who lacks them is near-sighted or blind, since he has forgotten how his past sins were washed away.^[g]

¹⁰Therefore, brethren, be diligent in providing a firm foundation for your call and election. If you do this, you will never stumble, ¹¹and you will receive a glorious welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.^[h]

¹²The Witness of an Apostle.^[i] Therefore, I will continue to emphasize these things repeatedly, even though you already know them and are well grounded in the truth you possess. ¹³For I think it is right, to refresh your memory as long as I remain in this body,^[j] ¹⁴since I know that my death^[k] will come soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. ¹⁵And I shall also make every effort to ensure that you will always recall these things after my departure.

¹⁶We did not rely upon cleverly concocted myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, we had beheld his majesty with our own eyes. ¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when a voice came to him from the transcendent Majesty, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” ¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice that came down from heaven, when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

¹⁹Pay Close Attention to the Message of the Prophets.^[l] This confirms the message of the Prophets more fully for us. You would do well to pay close attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰First of all, however, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private interpretation. ²¹No prophecy ever came from human initiative. Rather, when people spoke as messengers of God, they did so under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.^[m]

Warning against False Teachers^[n]

Chapter 2

False Teachers Will Arise. ¹Just as there were false prophets who arose among the people, so there will be false teachers among you. They will introduce their disruptive views and even deny the very Master who redeemed them, thus bringing swift destruction on themselves.

²Many will be seduced by their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be brought into disrepute. ³In their greed they will exploit you with concocted stories.

The Condemnation of False Teachers. However, their condemnation has been hanging over them for a long time, and the destruction awaiting them does not slumber. ⁴For God did not spare the angels who sinned, but he cast them into the dark abyss to be chained, where they are being held until the judgment.^[o] ⁵Nor did he spare the ancient world,^[p] even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, one of eight, when he brought a flood upon the world with its godless people.

⁶God also reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, thereby condemning them to total ruin and making them an example of what awaited the ungodly. ⁷However, he rescued Lot, an upright man who was sickened by the licentiousness of the lawless society in which he lived ⁸for that man was greatly tormented in his righteous soul by the crimes that he saw and about which he was told day after day.

⁹Therefore, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials and to hold the wicked for punishment until the Day of Judgment. ¹⁰Above all, he will punish those who succumb to the desires of their corrupt human nature and show no respect for authority.

The Ways of False Teachers. Bold and headstrong, they are not afraid to insult celestial beings, ¹¹whereas angels, despite their superior strength and power, do not bring slanderous accusations against such men in the Lord’s presence.^[q] ¹²These men are like wild beasts, mere creatures of instinct born to be caught and killed.

They pour abuse on things they do not understand, and in their corruption they also will be destroyed, ¹³receiving the penalty^[r] for doing wrong. They regard it as a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. While they share your table, they are ugly blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures.

¹⁴They have eyes that are always on the trail of adultery, insatiable in their desire for sinful pursuits. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are fixed on greed. Truly, they are an accursed brood.^[s] ¹⁵They have abandoned the straight path and have gone astray, following in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor,^[t] who loved to receive payment for wrongdoing. ¹⁶However, he received a rebuke for his crime when a mute donkey spoke with a human voice and put a stop to the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷Such people are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸They speak boastful words devoid of meaning, and by arousing licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who are just escaping from living in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, although they themselves are slaves of depravity.^[u] For people are slaves of whatever has mastered them. ²⁰If they have escaped the world’s defilements through coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then again become entangled and are overpowered, they are worse off in this latter state than they were before.

²¹It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back and abandon the holy commandment that was handed on to them. ²²What happened to them manifests the truth of the proverbs:

“The dog returns to its own vomit,”^[v]

and

“The washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”

Chapter 3

The Fact of Christ’s Return

The Day of the Lord Will Come.^[w] ¹Beloved, this is now the second letter I have written to you. In both of them I have tried to stir up your memories for a clear understanding ²so that you might remember the words spoken in the past by the holy Prophets and by the apostles at the command of our Lord and Savior.

³First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will appear who have led lives of indulgence. ⁴They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ that was promised? Ever since our ancestors^[x] died, everything has remained just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

⁵^[y]These people deliberately ignore the fact that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and that the earth stands out of water and in water. ⁶Furthermore, by these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. ⁷By the same word, the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and the destruction of sinners.

⁸But do not ignore this one fact, beloved: with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. ⁹The Lord does not delay in keeping his promise, as some think in terms of delay, but he is patient with you. It is not his wish that any should perish but rather that all should be brought to repentance.

¹⁰However, the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a mighty roar,^[z] and the elements will be dissolved in flames, and the earth and all that it contains will be disclosed.

¹¹Wait for and Speed the Day of God.^[aa] Since everything is to be destroyed in this way, consider what sort of people you ought to be, living holy and saintly lives. ¹²Wait for and speed the coming of the Day of God,^[ab] on which the heavens will be set ablaze and all the elements will melt because of the intense heat. ¹³We eagerly await the promised new heavens and a new earth^[ac] in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, in expectation of all this, do everything possible to lead blameless lives that are above reproach so that he will find you at peace. ¹⁵Think of our Lord’s patience as your opportunity to be saved;^[ad] our beloved brother Paul told you this when he wrote to you with the wisdom that was given to him, ¹⁶speaking of it^[ae] in all his letters. In them, there are some things that are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and the unstable distort in the same way that they distort the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Conclusion

¹⁷Guard against Error and Grow in Grace. Therefore, beloved, you have been forewarned about this. Take care that you are not led astray by the errors of unprincipled people and thus lose your secure position. ¹⁸Rather, grow in the grace and the knowledge^[af] of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Doxology. To him be glory both now and for all eternity. Amen.

Footnotes

2 Peter 1:1 From the very first words, the author addresses believers, those who have received salvation or righteousness. He insists on faith and on knowledge of the Lord, the Christ.
2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter: see notes on Mt 16:18; 16:19; Jn 1:42. Servant: see note on Rom 1:1. Apostle: see notes on Mk 6:30; Rom 1:1; Heb 3:1-6. To those: probably the same addressees as in 1 Pet 1:1.
2 Peter 1:2 Knowledge: a key theme of the Letter (see 2 Pet 1:3, 5, 8; 2:20; 3:18), probably to combat the claims of the Gnostics.
2 Peter 1:3 Christianity is not just another religious theory among those that are actually in vogue. To believe is to place oneself personally under the very action of God and to know that the destiny of human beings is accomplished in his eternal Kingdom. Christians live in communion with God; the earthly dimension does not suffice for them. And these great realities are not mere words; they demand a radical change in the manner of conceiving one’s destiny and conducting one’s existence. Thus, regardless of the historical distance from the time of its foundation, the Christian life constitutes a new state of existence.
2 Peter 1:4 Share in the divine nature: an expression found only here in the Bible. The author uses it to express the fullness of divine life in Christ (see Jn 1:12; 14:20; 15:4f; Rom 6:5; 1 Cor 1:9f; 1 Jn 1:3b).
2 Peter 1:5 The author lists the virtues that are needed for a genuine Christian life.
2 Peter 1:9 This is similar to the warning in the Johannine Letters against the Gnostics (see 1 Jn 1:8f), who claimed to know God without keeping the commandments.
2 Peter 1:11 Kingdom of . . . Christ: it is also the Kingdom of the Father (see Eph 5:5; 2 Tim 4:1; Rev 11:15).
2 Peter 1:12 The testimony of an Apostle has a greater value than any arbitrary Gnostic speculation.
To emphasize this point, the author presents his work as a testament of Peter, who reminds the readers that the Lord had told him of his proximate death (see Jn 21:18-19) and insists above all on the fact that he had been a witness of the Transfiguration (see Mt 17:1-13; Mk 9:2-13; Lk 9:28-36), an event that bore witness to the glory of Christ and thereby guaranteed his glorious Return, which was being challenged at this time.
2 Peter 1:13 Body: literally, “tent.”
2 Peter 1:14 My death: literally, “the time for laying aside this tent.”
2 Peter 1:19 While awaiting the great Day of fulfillment, Scripture constitutes the light on the human journey. It cannot be handed over to the arbitrary interpretations of teachers of fortune who construe it in their own peculiar way; the inspiration of the Spirit must be respected.
2 Peter 1:21 Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: see note on 2 Tim 3:16. Both God and the authors were active in producing Scripture: God was the source of the content, but the writers used all their talents to set that message down.
2 Peter 2:1 The portrait of the false teachers is drawn in living colors. They deny Christ and his salvation, disfigure the Gospel’s grand ideas about life, and seek their own profit and personal success. They “are not afraid to insult celestial beings” (v. 10)—either the angels or the evil powers whom they claim the right to judge although this right belongs to the Lord. The teachings of the Gnostics multiply theories about the heavenly beings. But these lofty speculations do not prevent them from being propagators of immorality; the author likens them to Balaam, who at this time had become the prototype of the false, venal, and corrupting teacher (see Num 22:2—24:25; Deut 23:5; Rev 2:14-15); all of their preaching focuses only on false freedom, enslavement, and degeneracy. Despite all this, these teachers of falsehood call themselves Christians.
The notice of their fate is severe. The author recalls the great chastisements of the past, the fall of the heavenly beings, the Flood, the unforgettable cursed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the story of Balaam. These illustrations are taken from ancient Biblical accounts (see Gen 6:1-2; 6:5—8:22; 19:1-29; Num 22:2—24:25).
Above all, the author wishes to exhort the believers to stand firm in their faith so that they will be spared on the day of judgment, as were Noah and Lot. Once in a while people have need of such efficacious admonition in order to take stock of their spiritual life.
2 Peter 2:4 The Bible gives no details on the sin of the angels. The dark abyss or Tartus: the term used by the Greeks for the place where the most wicked spirits were imprisoned.
2 Peter 2:5 The ancient world: the world before the Flood.
2 Peter 2:11 In the Lord’s presence: some manuscripts have: “from the Lord.”
2 Peter 2:13 Receiving the penalty: some manuscripts have: “receiving a reward.” In their pleasures: some manuscripts have: “in their love feasts.”
2 Peter 2:14 Accursed brood: literally, “children of a curse.”
2 Peter 2:15 Balaam, the son of Beor: see Num 22–24. Even though God had forbidden Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam was intent on doing it because he wanted the money he had been promised by Balak. In the same way, the false teachers wanted to extract money from those who listened to them.
2 Peter 2:19 Freedom . . . depravity: the “scoffers” use “freedom” to divest themselves of the moral law. But it is faith in Christ that leads to good behavior and true freedom (see Rom 6:15; Jas 1:25; 1 Pet 2:16).
2 Peter 2:22 The dog . . . vomit: see Prov 26:11. The washed . . . mud: its source is unknown. The dog that returns to its own vomit and the sow that is washed portray people who have made a religious profession or outward change without an inner change that affects their nature. They soon return to their true nature.
2 Peter 3:1 We know the spectacle of an immutable universe; the days fly by and the seasons return. Could the fate of the world change someday? Christians of that day are loath to think of it and quick to deny it. To eliminate this uncertainty, the author first of all recalls the teaching of the Prophets, the Apostles, and Christ himself about the end of the world. Furthermore, in the Bible there are two or three passages that make us reflect: the manner in which the cosmos rises in the midst of the initial disorder as well as the drowning of everything at the Flood; hence, our world does not have the promises for eternity.
What then is the reason for the long delay? There are two reasons: first, the Lord does not count time as we do; above all, his mercy is immense and he awaits the conversion of everyone. But the announcement of the end remains such as was taught by the Gospels (see Mt 24:43; Lk 12:39-40; 1 Thes 5:2). In the face of the unforeseeable character of history and the unforeseeable plan of God, there is the temptation to take refuge in the name of the perpetuity of the cosmos.
2 Peter 3:4 Our ancestors: the faithful of the first Christian generation.
2 Peter 3:5 God created the world by his word, and that word will be just as active in the final conflagration.
2 Peter 3:10 The Day of the Lord . . . a mighty roar: this “Day” is also mentioned in Acts 2:20, 1 Cor 5:5, and 1 Thes 5:2 and refers to Christ’s Second Coming, repeating the sayings of the Prophets (e.g., Joel 2:1; Zeph 1:7). This coming is certain, but the time is known only to the Father (see Mk 13:32). It will arrive suddenly, unexpectedly, and without warning (see 1 Thes 5:1-3), ushering in the solemn judgment (see Acts 17:31). The heavens will disappear with a mighty roar: this is apocalyptic, figurative language like that of the Books of Daniel and Revelation.
2 Peter 3:11 What is it that is delaying the coming of the Messiah? The sins of human beings. This is what many thought among the Jewish circles, and our author shared that conviction. He wishes above all to encourage Christians to stand fast and make progress in the faith. Their eyes are not fixed on a hazy horizon; rather, they live from the promise of an unimaginable renewal of humankind and the world through the Christ who comes.
2 Peter 3:12 Day of God: synonymous with “Day of the Lord.” The idea of a final conflagration, found only here in the New Testament, was common in apocalyptic writings and in Greco-Roman thought.
2 Peter 3:13 New heavens and a new earth: promised by Isaiah (65:17; 66:22) and confirmed by Revelation (21:1).
2 Peter 3:15 Your opportunity to be saved: literally, “salvation.”
2 Peter 3:16 Speaking of it: the teaching just set forth in this Letter, which is also found in Paul: God’s saving will (see Rom 2:4; 9:22f; 1 Cor 1:7f); Christ’s return (see 1 Thes 4:16f; 1 Cor 15:23-52); getting ready for the judgment (see Col 1:22f; Eph 1:4-14; 4:30; 5:5-14); God’s just judgment (see Rom 2:5-9); and God’s forbearance as time to repent (see Rom 2:4). Other Scriptures: this comparison of Paul’s Letters with the rest of Scripture indicates that Christian writings are on a par with the Old Testament Books (see 2 Pet 1:21; 2 Tim 3:16).
2 Peter 3:18 Grow in . . . knowledge: the author closes by stressing knowledge once more (see note on 2 Pet 1:2). To him be glory: this doxology corresponds to the one in 1 Pet 5:11.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)