Second Epistle of Peter - The New Testament

¹ Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as precious as our own, given through the saving justice of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

² Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of our Lord.

³ By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness.

⁴ Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion.

⁵ With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding,

⁶ understanding with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion,

⁷ devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love.

⁸ The possession and growth of these qualities will prevent your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ from being ineffectual or unproductive.

⁹ But without them, a person is blind or short-sighted, forgetting how the sins of the past were washed away.

¹⁰ Instead of this, brothers, never allow your choice or calling to waver; then there will be no danger of your stumbling,

¹¹ for in this way you will be given the generous gift of entry to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

¹² That is why I will always go on recalling the same truths to you, even though you already know them and are firmly fixed in these truths.

¹³ I am sure it is my duty, as long as I am in this tent, to keep stirring you up with reminders,

¹⁴ since I know the time for me to lay aside this tent is coming soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

¹⁵ And I shall take great care that after my own departure you will still have a means to recall these things to mind.

¹⁶ When we told you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were not slavishly repeating cleverly invented myths; no, we had seen his majesty with our own eyes.

¹⁷ He was honoured and glorified by God the Father, when a voice came to him from the transcendent Glory, This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour.

¹⁸ We ourselves heard this voice from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹ So we have confirmation of the words of the prophets; and you will be right to pay attention to it as to a lamp for lighting a way through the dark, until the dawn comes and the morning star rises in your minds.

²⁰ At the same time, we must recognise that the interpretation of scriptural prophecy is never a matter for the individual.

²¹ For no prophecy ever came from human initiative. When people spoke for God it was the Holy Spirit that moved them.