The Second Epistle General of Peter

{1:1} Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to themthat have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousnessof our God and [the] Saviour Jesus Christ: {1:2} Grace to you and peacebe multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; {1:3}seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things thatpertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him thatcalled us by his own glory and virtue; {1:4} whereby he hath grantedunto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through theseye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from thecorruption that is in that world by lust. {1:5} Yea, and for this verycause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue;and in [your] virtue knowledge; {1:6} and in [your] knowledgeself-control; and in [your] self-control patience; and in [your]patience godliness; {1:7} and in [your] godliness brotherly kindness;and in [your] brotherly kindness love. {1:8} For if these things areyours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto theknowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. {1:9} For he that lacketh thesethings is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten thecleansing from his old sins. {1:10} Wherefore, brethren, give the morediligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do thesethings, ye shall never stumble: {1:11} for thus shall be richlysupplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord andSaviour Jesus Christ. {1:12} Wherefore I shall be ready always to putyou in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and areestablished in the truth which is with [you]. {1:13} And I think itright, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by puttingyou in remembrance; {1:14} knowing that the putting off of mytabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ signified untome. {1:15} Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be ableafter my decease to call these things to remembrance. {1:16} For we didnot follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you thepower and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses ofhis majesty. {1:17} For he received from God the Father honor andglory, when there was borne such a voice to him by the Majestic Glory,This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: {1:18} and thisvoice we [ourselves] heard borne out of heaven, when we were with himin the holy mount. {1:19} And we have the word of prophecy [made] moresure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining ina dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in yourhearts: {1:20} knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is ofprivate interpretation. {1:21} For no prophecy ever came by the will ofman: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

{2:1} But there arose false prophets also among the people, as amongyou also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring indestructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them,bringing upon themselves swift destruction. {2:2} And many shall followtheir lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of the truth shallbe evil spoken of. {2:3} And in covetousness shall they with feignedwords make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingerethnot, and their destruction slumbereth not. {2:4} For if God spared notangels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed themto pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; {2:5} and spared notthe ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher ofrighteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;{2:6} and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemnedthem with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those thatshould live ungodly; {2:7} and delivered righteous Lot, sore distressedby the lascivious life of the wicked {2:8} (for that righteous mandwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soulfrom day to day with [their] lawless deeds): {2:9} the Lord knoweth howto deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteousunder punishment unto the day of judgment; {2:10} but chiefly them thatwalk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise dominion.Daring, self-willed, they tremble not to rail at dignities: {2:11}whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railingjudgment against them before the Lord. {2:12} But these, as creatureswithout reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed, railing inmatters whereof they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely bedestroyed, {2:13} suffering wrong as the hire of wrong-doing; [men]that count it pleasure to revel in the day-time, spots and blemishes,revelling in their deceivings while they feast with you; {2:14} havingeyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; enticingunstedfast souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children ofcursing; {2:15} forsaking the right way, they went astray, havingfollowed the way of Balaam the [son] of Beor, who loved the hire ofwrong-doing; {2:16} but he was rebuked for his own transgression: adumb ass spake with man’s voice and stayed the madness of the prophet.{2:17} These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm;for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved. {2:18} For,uttering great swelling [words] of vanity, they entice in the lusts ofthe flesh, by lasciviousness, those who are just escaping from themthat live in error; {2:19} promising them liberty, while theythemselves are bondservants of corruption; for of whom a man isovercome, of the same is he also brought into bondage. {2:20} For if,after they have escaped the defilements of the world through theknowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are againentangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse withthem than the first. {2:21} For it were better for them not to haveknown the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn backfrom the holy commandment delivered unto them. {2:22} It has happenedunto them according to the true proverb, The dog turning to his ownvomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire.

{3:1} This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write untoyou; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you inremembrance; {3:2} that ye should remember the words which were spokenbefore by the holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord andSaviour through your apostles: {3:3} knowing this first, that in thelast days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their ownlusts, {3:4} and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, fromthe day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they werefrom the beginning of the creation. {3:5} For this they willfullyforget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted outof water and amidst water, by the word of God; {3:6} by which means theworld that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: {3:7} butthe heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have beenstored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment anddestruction of ungodly men. {3:8} But forget not this one thing,beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and athousand years as one day. {3:9} The Lord is not slack concerning hispromise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, notwishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.{3:10} But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which theheavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall bedissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that aretherein shall be burned up. {3:11} Seeing that these things are thusall to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in [all]holy living and godliness, {3:12} looking for and earnestly desiringthe coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being onfire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?{3:13} But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a newearth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. {3:14} Wherefore, beloved,seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may befound in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight. {3:15} Andaccount that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as ourbeloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wroteunto you; {3:16} as also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them ofthese things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which theignorant and unstedfast wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures,unto their own destruction. {3:17} Ye therefore, beloved, knowing[these things] beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with theerror of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness. {3:18} Butgrow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.To him [be] the glory both now and for ever. Amen.

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