EMTV - II Peter

Chapter 1

1:1  Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

1:2  May grace and peace be multiplied to you in your knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

1:3  As His divine power has granted to us all things pertaining to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

1:4  through which have been given to us precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through these we may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

1:5  But also for this very reason, making every effort, provide with your faith virtue, and with virtue knowledge,

1:6  and with knowledge self-control, and with self-control perseverance, and with perseverance godliness,

1:7  and with godliness brotherly love, and with brotherly love, love.

1:8  For if these things belong to you and are increasing, it makes you neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:9  For he who lacks these things is blind, being shortsighted, having forgotten the cleansing of his past sins.

1:10  Therefore, brothers, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for by doing these things you shall by no means stumble at any time.

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

1:12  Therefore I shall not neglect to constantly remind you concerning these things, although you know and have been established in the present truth.

1:13  But I consider it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by a reminder,

1:14  knowing that the putting off of my tent is soon, just as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

1:15  And I will make an effort also, whenever necessary, to cause you to have a reminder of these things after my departure.

1:16  For we did not follow craftily devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather became eyewitnesses of His majesty.

1:17  For He received from God the Father honor and glory when a voice was brought to Him such as this by the Magnificent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

1:18  And we heard this voice being uttered from heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

1:19  And we have a more sure word of prophecy, which you do well to heed, as a lamp that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

1:20  knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture comes about from one’s own interpretation,

1:21  for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke, being brought along by the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 2

2:1  But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master, the One having bought them, and bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

2:2  And many will follow after their debaucheries, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

2:3  And by covetousness they will exploit you with fabricated words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction will not sleep.

2:4  For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but rather confined them to Tartarus, and delivered them into chains of darkness, reserved for judgment;

2:5  and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, the eighth, a preacher of righteousness, when He brought a flood upon the ungodly world;

2:6  and reducing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, He condemned them to destruction, having made them an example who were to be ungodly,

2:7  and He rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the indecent conduct of lawless men

2:8  (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, tormented his righteous soul by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—

2:9  then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and how to keep the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment,

2:10  and especially those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are bold, self-willed, illustrious persons, they do not tremble at blaspheming,

2:11  whereas angels, being greater in might and in power, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.

2:12  But these, as unreasoning natural animals, having been born for capture and destruction, blaspheme at things which they are ignorant of, and shall be destroyed in their destruction,

2:13  receiving the wages of unrighteousness, counting as a pleasure to revel in the daytime, they are spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you,

2:14  having eyes full of adultery and unable to cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart having been trained in greediness, they are accursed children.

2:15  They have left behind the straight way and have gone astray, having followed after the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

2:16  but he was rebuked for his own lawlessness: a dumb donkey speaking with the voice of a man restrained the madness of the prophet.

2:17  These are waterless wells, clouds being driven by a storm, for whom the darkness of the netherworld has been reserved forever.

2:18  For when they speak haughty words of emptiness, they entice through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, those who have actually escaped from those who are living in error,

2:19  promising to them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom anyone has been defeated, by this one also he has been enslaved.

2:20  For if having escaped from the corruptions of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, yet by these, having become entangled they are defeated, the latter end has become worse for them than the first.

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

2:22  But it has happened to them according to the saying of the true proverb: "A DOG RETURNS TO HIS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, having washed, returns to her wallowing in the mire."

Chapter 3

3:1  This already, beloved, is the second letter I write to you, in both of which I stir up your pure mind by a reminder,

3:2  to remember the words having been previously spoken by the holy prophets, and the commandment of your apostles of the Lord and Savior;

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

3:4  and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as it was from the beginning of creation."

3:5  For they deliberately overlook this fact: that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and the earth, standing out of water and in the water,,

3:6  by which the world at that time perished, being flooded by water;

3:7  but the present heavens and earth, having been stored up by His word, are being reserved for fire until the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

3:8  But in this let it not escape your notice, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

3:9  The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

3:10  But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements, burning with heat, shall be dissolved, both the earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up.

3:11  Therefore, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

3:12  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens, being set on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements, burning with heat, shall melt?

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

3:14  Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot or blemish;

3:15  and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,

3:16  as also in all his letters, speaking in them about these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

3:17  You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on guard, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being carried away by the error of the wicked;

3:18  but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.