II Peter
1:1 Simon
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 Saviour Jesus
Christ:
1:2 Grace
and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our
Lord,
1:3 According
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:
1:4
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these all of you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust.
1:5
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
1:6
And to knowledge wilful restrain; and to wilful restrain
patience; and to patience godliness;
1:7
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness
love. (o. agape)
1:8 For
if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that all of you shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:9
But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see
far off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
1:10
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your
calling and election sure: for if all of you do these things, all of you shall
never fall:
1:11 For
so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
1:12
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance
of these things, though all of you know them, and be established in the present
truth.
1:13 Yea,
I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting
you in remembrance;
1:14
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle,
even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.
1:15
Moreover I will endeavour that all of you may be able after
my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
1:16
For 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.
1:17
For he received from God the Father honour 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.
1:18
And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we
were with him in the holy mount.
1:19
We have also a more sure word (o. logos) of prophecy; unto
which all of you do well that all of you take heed, as unto a light that shines
in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
1:20 Knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
1:21 For
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 Spirit. (o. pneuma)
2:1
But there were false prophets also among the people, even
as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction.
2:2 And
many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of.
2:3
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words (o.
logos) make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not,
and their damnation slumbers not.
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
judgment;
2:5 And
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;
2:6
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after
should live ungodly;
2:7
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked:
2:8 (For
that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
2:9
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations,
and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
2:10
But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of
uncleanness, and despise government. Arrogant are they, self-willed, they are
not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
2:11
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring
not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
2:12
But 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;
2:13
And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they
that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes,
sporting themselves with their own deceits while they feast with you;
2:14 Having
eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls:
an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
2:15 Which
have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam
the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
2:16
But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking
with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
2:17
These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with
a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
2:18
For when they speak great swelling 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.
2:19
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the
servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought
in bondage.
2:20 For
if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of
the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome,
the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2:21
For it had 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.
2:22
But 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.
3:1 This
second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure
minds by way of remembrance:
3:2
That all of you may be mindful of the words which were spoken
before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the
Lord and Saviour:
3:3 Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts,
3:4 And
saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
3:5
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word
(o. logos) of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water
and in the water:
3:6 Whereby
the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
3:7
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same
word (o. logos) are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and perdition 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 slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; 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 will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
3:11
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought all of you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
3:12 Looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
3:13 Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells
righteousness.
3:14 Wherefore,
beloved, seeing that all of you look for such things, be diligent that all of
you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
3:15
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;
even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has
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 they that are unlearned
and unstable shift, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
3:17 All
of you therefore, beloved, seeing all of you know these things before, beware
lest all of you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your
own steadfastness.
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.