AFV2020 - II Peter

Chapter 1

1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained the same precious faith as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

1:2  Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

1:3  According as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and virtue;

1:4  Through which He has given to us the greatest and most precious promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

1:5  And for this very reason also, having applied all diligence besides, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;

1:6  And to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, endurance; and to endurance, godliness;

1:7  And to godliness, brotherly love; and to brotherly love, the love of God.

1:8  For if these things exist and abound in you, they will cause you to be neither lacking effort nor lacking fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:9  But the one in whom these things are not present is spiritually blind—so shortsighted that he has forgotten that he was purified from his old sins.

1:10  For this reason, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure; because if you are doing these things, you will never fall at any time.

1:11  For in this way, you will be richly granted an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1:12  Therefore, I will not neglect to make you always mindful of these things, although you already know them and have been established in the present truth.

1:13  For I consider it my duty, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by causing you to remember these things;

1:14  Knowing that shortly the putting off of my tabernacle will come, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has signified to me.

1:15  But I will make every effort that, after my departure, you may always have a written remembrance of these things in order to practice them for yourselves,

1:16  For we did not follow cleverly concocted myths as our authority, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His magnificent glory;

1:17  Because He received glory and honor from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, "This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased."

1:18  And this is the voice from heaven that we heard when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

1:19  We also possess the confirmed prophetic Word to which you do well to pay attention, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts;

1:20  Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture originated as anyone's own private interpretation;

1:21  Because prophecy was not brought at any time by human will, but the holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 2

2:1  But there were also false prophets among the people, as indeed there will be false teachers among you, who will stealthily introduce destructive heresies, personally denying the Lord who bought them, and bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

2:2  And many people will follow as authoritative their destructive ways; and because of them, the way of the truth will be blasphemed.

2:3  Also, through insatiable greed they will with enticing messages exploit you for gain; for whom the judgment of old is in full force, and their destruction is ever watching.

2:4  For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but, having cast them into Tartarus, delivered them into chains of darkness to be kept for the judgment;

2:5  And if God did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, the eighth, a preacher of righteousness, when He brought the Flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2:6  And having reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, condemned them with a catastrophic destruction, making them an example for those who would be ungodly in the future;

2:7  And if He personally rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the lawless ones living in licentious conduct;

2:8  (For that righteous man, dwelling among them, through seeing and hearing their lawless activities, was tormented day by day in his righteous soul;)

2:9  The Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unrighteous to the day of judgment to be punished;

2:10  But particularly those who walk after the flesh in corrupting lust, and hold in utter contempt the lordship of God. They are audacious and self-willed. They are not afraid to blaspheme the divine powers

2:11  Whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a railing condemnation against them before the Lord.

2:12  But these—as irrational brute beasts, born to be caught and destroyed— blaspheme those things of which they are ignorant, and shall be utterly destroyed in their own corruption.

2:13  They are bringing upon themselves the reward of unrighteousness, while finding pleasure in satisfying their lustful desires day by day. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their own deceptions, while feasting together with you.

2:14  Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, they are engaged in seducing unstable souls, having a heart trained in lustful cravings—cursed children

2:15  Who have abandoned the straight way. They have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness.

2:16  But he received a rebuke for his own transgression; the dumb donkey, speaking in a man's voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.

2:17  These false prophets are fountains without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom is reserved the blackest of darkness forever.

2:18  For they speak bombastic words of vanity, enticing others through the lusts of the flesh by granting indulgences to sin, and ensnaring those who had indeed escaped from those who live in deception.

2:19  While promising them freedom, they themselves are actually slaves of corruption because by whatever anyone is overcome, he is also held in bondage.

2:20  For if, after escaping the moral defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them, and are overcome, the final end is worse than the beginning.

2:21  For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them.

2:22  But the pronouncement found in the true proverb has happened to them: The dog has returned to eat his own vomit; and the sow that was washed has returned to her wallowing place in the filthy mire.

Chapter 3

3:1  Now, beloved, I am writing this second epistle to you; in both, I am stirring up your pure minds by causing you to remember

3:2  In order for you to be mindful of the words that were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Savior, spoken by us, the apostles;

3:3  Knowing this first, that in the last days there will come mockers, walking according to their own personal lusts,

3:4  And asking, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the forefathers died, everything has remained the same as from the beginning of creation."

3:5  But this fact is hidden from them— they themselves choosing to ignore it— that by the Word of God the heavens existed of old, and the earth came forth out of water and amid water,

3:6  By which the world at that time, having been deluged with water, had itself been destroyed.

3:7  But the present heavens and earth are being held in store by His Word, and are being reserved for fire in the day of the judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

3:8  Now, beloved, do not let this one fact be hidden from you: that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

3:9  The Lord is not delaying the promise of His coming, as some in their own minds reckon delay; rather, He is longsuffering toward us, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

3:10  However, the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night in which the heaven itself shall disappear with a mighty roar, and the elements shall pass away, burning with intense heat, and the earth and the works in it shall be burned up.

3:11  Since all these things are going to be destroyed, what kind of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

3:12  Looking forward to and striving for the coming of the day of God, during which the heavens, being on fire, shall be destroyed, and the elements, burning with intense heat, shall melt?

3:13  But according to His promise, we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

3:14  For this reason, beloved, since you are anticipating these things, be diligent, so that you may be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.

3:15  And bear in mind that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, exactly as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has also written to you;

3:16  As he has also in all his epistles, speaking in them concerning these things; in which are some things that are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable are twisting and distorting, as they also twist and distort the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

3:17  Therefore, beloved, since you know this in advance, be on guard against such practices, lest you be led astray with the error of the lawless ones, and you fall from your own steadfastness;

3:18  Rather, be growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and into the day of eternity. Amen.