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¹ THE SECOND LETTER OF PETERa. Greeting From Simonb Peter, an apostlec of Jesus Christ, to those who’ve received faith as precious as ours, through the justiced of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

² May grace and peace be multiplied for you, though your knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ Make Sure of your Calling After all, hise divine power has given us everything we need for life and reverence for God. We’re given all this through the knowledge of the One who has called us tof his own glory and virtue.g

⁴ Through them, the greatest and most precious promises have been given to us. Because of them, you can escape from the corruptionh that’s in the world through lust, and be partners in the divine nature.i

⁵ And that’s why you should do your very best to fill out your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge,

⁶ your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with endurance, your endurance with reverence for God,

⁷ your reverence for God with mutual affection, and your mutual affection with love.

⁸ If these things are in you and growing, they’ll make you effective and fruitfulj as you come into the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ Because the person without these qualities is blind and short-sighted. They’re ignoring their cleansing from their past sins.

¹⁰ So try all the harder to make sure of your calling and chosenness,k brothers and sisters. Because if you do these things, you’ll be certain not to fail-

¹¹ and your entrance into the eternal reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be generously provided for.l

¹² So I’m always going to remind you about these things-even though you know them, and you’re well grounded in the truth that you have.m

¹³ And I think it’s right-as long as I’m in the tent of this mortal bodyn.-to be stirring you up with reminders.

¹⁴ Because I know that the moment for taking off this tent of mine is coming very soon:o our Lord Jesus Christ has made that clear to me.p

¹⁵ Soq I’m going to do my best to make sure that you’ll always remember these things after my departure.

¹⁶ Eyewitnesses to the Glory of God’s Son Because when we told you about our Lord Jesus Christ’s power, and about his coming, we weren’t following clever myths. Far from it-we were eyewitnesses of his greatness.

¹⁷ Because when he received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice like this camer to him from the Majestic Glory: “This is my dear Son! I’m pleased with him!”

¹⁸ We were with him on that holy mountain, and we heard that voice coming from heaven.

¹⁹ And so we have all the more confidence in the message of the prophets.s You’ll do well to keep your attention on it: use it like a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰ Here’s the first point to understand:t none of the prophecies of scripture come out ofu somebody’s own interpretation.

²¹ Because prophecy never came by human will. No, it happened when people, carried along by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.

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¹ False Prophets and False Teachers Now, there were also false prophets in Israel.a And in the same way, there are going to be false teachers among you. They’re going to bring in destructive philosophies-even denying the Master who bought them. They’re going to bring swift destruction on themselves.b

² And lots of people are going to imitatec their promiscuous ways.d And because of them, the true Waye will be subjected to insults.

³ And in their greed for money, they’re going to sell youf made-up stories. Judgment has been ready for them for a long time, and their destruction is waiting attentively.g

⁴ After all, God didn’t spare angels when they sinned-far from it. God threw them in dark cavesh in the deepest part of the underworld, and handed them over to be kept there until the judgment.

⁵ And God certainly didn’t spare the ancient world, but brought a flood on the worldi of the godless.j God only protected Noah, a preacher of justice,k and seven others.

⁶ And God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destructionl by reducing them to ashes. God made them an example to people who’d be godless in the future.m

⁷ And God rescued Lot, a person of integrity, when he was being oppressed by the behavior of lawless, promiscuous people.n

⁸ (As he lived among them, that man of integrity felt tormentedo day after day, as he saw and heardp lawless things being done.)

⁹ If that’s all true, thenq the Sovereign One knows how to save people who have reverence for God from temptation. And God knows how to keep unjust people under punishment for the day of judgment-

¹⁰ and especially those who follow their flesh in a lust for filthiness, and despise authority. People like that are daring and self-centered. They insult glorious angelic beings without fear.r

¹¹ Yet angels, though they’re greater in strength and power, don’t bring insulting accusations against them.s

¹² But these people are like irrational animals in nature-bred to be hunted down and killed.t They insult things they know nothing about, and they’re going to be killed just like those animals.u

¹³ They’re going to be wronged, as their reward for doing wrong.v They regard carousingw in broad daylight as a pleasure. They’re spots and stains-partying away in their self-deceptions.x They join in your dinner parties,

¹⁴ their heads filled with fantasies about seducing people’s spouses.y They never stop sinning. With a heart trained in greed, they seduce people with weak personalities.z They’re a cursed breed!aa

¹⁵ They’ve gone astray and left the straight path, and have followed the path of Balaam, Bosor’sbb son.cc He loved getting paid for doing wrong,

¹⁶ but he got told off for his lawlessness: a mute donkey spoke with a human voice, and stopped that prophet’s madness.

¹⁷ These people are springs with no water, mists swept along by a stormy wind.dd The deepest darkness is reserved for them.

¹⁸ They talk boastful nonsense, and they seduce people by appealing to their physical lusts for promiscuity. They prey on people who are barely escaping from the majorityee who live in error.

¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are still slaves of self-destruction.ff After all, if something has mastered somebody, that’s what they’re enslaved to.

²⁰ Because suppose they’ve escaped from the filthy waysgg of the world through the knowledge of our Lordhh and Savior Jesus Christ-but then they get mixed up in them all over again, and they’re overcome by them. In the end, they’re worse off than they were in the first place.ii

²¹ Because it would have been better for them not to know the path of right livingjj at all, than to know it, and to turn away from the holy commandment that had been handed down to them.

²² They’ve experienced what’s said in this true proverb: A dog goes back to its own vomit,kk. And, A washed pig goes back to roll in the mud.

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¹ The Day of the Lord is Coming Dear friends, this is now the second letter I’ve written to you. In both of them, I’ve been trying to reawakena your genuineb understanding with reminders.

² I’ve wanted to remind you of the things that have been said by the holy prophets-and of the command of the Lord and Savior that your apostlesc have given.

³ The first thing to understand is this: in the last days,d scoffers are going to be living in mockery of the faith. They’ll be living according to their own obsessions.e

⁴ And they’ll be saying, “What happened tof the promise of his coming? Because from the time that our ancestors passed away, everything’s been the sameg as it has been since the beginning of creation.”

⁵ They say that because they’re deliberately ignoring something:h long ago the heavens and the earth were put together-out of water, and through water-by God’s word.

⁶ Through those waters, the world of that time was destroyed by flooding.

⁷ And, by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire. They’re being kept for the Day of Judgment, for the destruction of godless people.

⁸ And here’s one thing you shouldn’t ignore,i dear friends: with the Lord,j one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.k

⁹ The Lord isn’t slow about the promise-in the way that certain people count slowness.l Far from it-the Lord is being patient with you.m God doesn’t want people to be lostn.-but wants everyone to find room for a change of heart.o

¹⁰ But the Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief.p On that day,q the heavens are going to disappear with a roar,r and the elements are going to burn up and fall apart.s And the earth, and what’s done in it, is going to be discovered.t

¹¹ Since everything is going to be destroyed like that,u what should youv be like? You should live holy and reverent lives,

¹² as you look forward to, and work towards,w the arrival of God’s day. That day will set off the fiery disintegration of the heavens, and the elements are going to melt as they burn.x

¹³ But in line with God’s promise, we’re waiting for “a new heavens and a new earth,”y where justicez lives.

¹⁴ Final Words of Encouragement and Warning So, dear friends, as you wait for these things, do your best to be found spotless and blameless-at peace with God.aa

¹⁵ And look on the patience of our Lord Jesus as your salvation. It’s just like our dear brother Paul has also written to you, by the wisdom that’s been given to him.bb

¹⁶ He also talks about these things in all his letters. There are certain things in them that are hard to understand-which ignorant and unstable people twist. They also do the same thing to the other scriptures-leading to their own destruction.

¹⁷ So then, dear friends, be forewarned-be on your guard. Don’t go along with the deception of lawless people and losecc your own stability.

¹⁸ Instead, grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory to him-both now and forever!dd Amen.ee