Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

² may grace and peace be multiplied to you, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ God has bestowed upon us, through his divine power, everything that we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue. ⁴ The result is that he has given us, through these things, his precious and wonderful promises; and the purpose of all this is so that you may run away from the corruption of lust that is in the world, and may become partakers of the divine nature. ⁵ So, because of this, you should strain every nerve to supplement your faith with virtue, and your virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and your knowledge with self-control, and your self-control with patience, and your patience with piety, ⁷ and your piety with family affection, and your family affection with love. ⁸ If you have these things in plentiful supply, you see, you will not be wasting your time, or failing to bear fruit, in relation to your knowledge of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. ⁹ Someone who doesn’t have these things, in fact, is so short-sighted as to be actually blind, and has forgotten what it means to be cleansed from earlier sins. ¹⁰ So, my dear family, you must make the effort all the more to confirm that God has called you and chosen you. If you do this, you will never trip up. ¹¹ That is how you will have, richly laid out before you, an entrance into the kingdom of God’s coming age, the kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus the Messiah.

Prophecy made sure

¹² So I intend to go on and on reminding you about all this—even though you know it, and have been firmly established in the truth which has come to you. ¹³ But it seems right to me, as long as I am living in this present tent, to stir you up with a reminder, ¹⁴ since I know that I shall shortly be putting off this tent, as our Lord Jesus the Messiah showed me. ¹⁵ So I shall also be making every effort to ensure that, once I am gone, you may be able to call these things to mind at any time.