- 1Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ: 2Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3according as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue, 4whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
- 5And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, 6and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, 7and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity; 8for if these things are in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
- 10Wherefore rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall; 11for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- 12Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them and are established in the present truth. 13Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, 14knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. 15Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
- 16For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty; 17for he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory: This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18And this voice, which came from Heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. 19We have therefore a more sure knowledge of the word of prophecy, to which word of prophecy you would do well to take heed, as unto a light which shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, 20knowing this first: that no prophecy of the scriptures is given of any private will of man, 21for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy ghost.
- 2But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in abominable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, 3and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not.
- 4For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5and spared not the old world — but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness — bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly, 7and delivered just Lot — vexed with the filthy conduct of the wicked (8for that righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds).
- 9The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished — 10but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government; presumptuous are they and self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, 11whereas angels — who are greater in power and might — bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 12But these, as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, 13and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, 14having eyes full of adultery; and they cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, a heart they have exercised with covetous practices.
- Cursed children 15who have forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness 16but was rebuked for his iniquity — the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet — 17these are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever; 18for when they speak great inflated words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
- 19While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage. 20For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning, 21for it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb: The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
- 3This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, 2that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3knowing this first: that in the last days, there shall come scoffers, walking after their own lusts, denying the Lord Jesus Christ 4and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the Fathers fell asleep, all things must continue as they are, and have continued as they are from the beginning of the creation. 5For this they are willingly ignorant of: that of old, the heavens and the earth, standing in the water and out of the water, were created by the word of God, 6and by the word of God the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. 7But the heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store by the same word, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
- 8But concerning the coming of the Lord, beloved, I would not have you ignorant of this one thing: that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise and coming, as some men count slackness, but long-suffering toward us — not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall shake, and the earth also shall tremble, and the mountains shall melt and pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be filled with fervent heat; the earth also shall be filled, and the corruptible works which are in it shall be burned up.
- 11If then all these things shall be destroyed, what manner of people ought you to be? In holy conduct and godliness, 12looking unto and preparing for the day of the coming of the Lord, wherein the corruptible things of the heavens (being on fire) shall be dissolved, and the mountains shall melt with fervent heat. 13Nevertheless, if we shall endure, we shall be kept according to his promise. And we look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.
- 14Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 15And account even as our beloved brother Paul also (according to the wisdom given unto him) has written unto you, the long-suffering and waiting of our Lord for salvation — 16as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which they who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
- 17Therefore, beloved, seeing you know before the things which are coming, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. 18But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and for ever. Amen.
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER