Worsley - II Peter

Chapter 1

1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, in the righteousness of our God, and of our saviour Jesus Christ:

1:2  grace and peace be multiplied unto you, in the acknowledgement of God, and of Jesus our Lord;

1:3  as his divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who hath called us by that glory and virtue,

1:4  by which are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye may become partakers of a divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

1:5  And to this giving all diligence, add to your faith fortitude;

1:6  and to fortitude knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience piety;

1:7  and to piety brotherly affection; and to brotherly affection charity.

1:8  For if these be in you and abound, they will not suffer you to be idle, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:9  But he, that hath not these, is blind, or short-sighted, having forgot his baptismal purification from his former sins.

1:10  Wherefore, my brethren, be the more diligent thus to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things ye shall never fall.

1:11  For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

1:12  Wherefore I will not neglect to put you always in mind of these things, though ye know them, and are established in the present truth.

1:13  And I think it my duty, while I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by way of remembrance:

1:14  knowing that I must soon lay down this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

1:15  And I will endeavour that after my departure also ye may always be able to call these things to remembrance.

1:16  For we did not follow artfully devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; but were eye-witnesses of his majesty.

1:17  For He received from God the Father honor and glory when a voice came to Him from the magnificent glory, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

1:18  And this voice, from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.

1:19  We have also the more sure word of the prophets, to which ye do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, till the day dawn, and the morning-star rise in your hearts:

1:20  knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation;

1:21  for prophecy was not delivered of old at the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Spirit.

Chapter 2

2:1  But there were indeed false prophets among the people of old, as there will be also among you false teachers, who will privately introduce pernicious heresies, denying even the Lord that bought them, and bringing upon themselves swift destruction,

2:2  And many will follow their pernicious tenets, on whose account the way of truth will be reproached:

2:3  and by artful speeches they will make sale of you for gain. Whose judgement is long since hastening, and their destruction doth not slumber.

2:4  For 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 judgement; and if He spared not the old world,

2:5  (but preserved Noah an eighth person, a preacher of righteousness,) bringing a deluge upon the world of the ungodly;

2:6  and reducing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha to ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those that should afterwards be impious;

2:7  and delivered righteous Lot grieved at the lewd conversation of the wicked:

2:8  (for that good man by seeing and hearing their crimes, when he dwelt among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day with their

2:9  iniquitous deeds) then the Lord knoweth how to deliver the pious from temptation, and to reserve the wicked to the day of judgement to be punished:

2:10  especially those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise authority; who, being audacious and self-willed, are not afraid to speak evil of dignities:

2:11  whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, bring not a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

2:12  But these men, like brute beasts naturally produced to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil of things which they do not understand, shall perish by their own corruption; receiving the reward of their unrighteousness:

2:13  who account it a pleasure to riot even in the day; spots and disgraces; revelling in their frauds, while they partake of your feasts:

2:14  having eyes full of adultery, and which cannot be restrained from sin: ensnaring unstable souls, and having a heart practised in rapine; cursed people:

2:15  who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of iniquity;

2:16  but was reproved for his transgression: for a dumb beast speaking with the voice of a man checked the madness of the prophet.

2:17  These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom thick darkness is reserved for ever.

2:18  For when they speak swelling words of vanity, they ensnare in the lusts of the flesh, through their lasciviousness, those who had indeed withdrawn from such as deal in error;

2:19  promising them liberty, while they themselves are the slaves of corruption: for by whom any one is vanquished, by him he is also enslaved.

2:20  For if, after they had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and vanquished by them, their last state is worse than the first;

2:21  for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than when they knew it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

2:22  But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog is returned to his own vomit, and, The swine that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Chapter 3

3:1  This second epistle, my beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your sincere mind in remembrance,

3:2  that ye may be mindful of the words formerly spoken by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first,

3:3  that there will come in the last days scoffers,

3:4  walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the declaration of his coming? for except that the fathers are fallen asleep, all things remain as they were from the beginning of the creation.

3:5  For they are willingly ignorant of this, that by the Word of God the heavens were made of old, and the earth too from the water, and subsisting on the water.

3:6  Whence the old world being drowned in water perished.

3:7  But the heavens and the earth, that now are, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto fire on the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.

3:8  But, beloved; be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

3:9  The Lord is not slow as to his promise (as some count it slowness) but is long-suffering towards us, not willing 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 night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements being set on fire shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works therein shall be burnt up.

3:11  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness,

3:12  expecting and hastening on the coming of the day of God, whereby the heavens being set on fire shall be dissolved, and the burning elements shall be melted.

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

3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing ye expect these things, give diligence to be found of Him in peace, spotless and blameless;

3:15  and account the long-suffering of our Lord salvation, as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, hath written unto you;

3:16  as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things: in which are some things hard to be understood, which the illiterate and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.

3:17  Do ye therefore, beloved, as ye know these things before, take heed least being seduced together with them by the error of the wicked, ye should fall from your own stedfastness.

3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: to Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.