Simeon Peter, a slave and an envoy of Anointed Jesus,
To the ones who have obtained a trust in our God's Right and in our savior Anointed Jesus, a trust which is equally valuable as ours.
1:1 Hello to you, and let peace be multiplied to you in the recognition of God and of Jesus our Lord, just as his divine power has given us all things which direct toward life and piety, through the recognition of the one who called us to his own glory and virtue, through which the valuable and great promises have been given to us, so that through this you might become partners in a divine nature, since you have fled from the corruption which is in creation in strong desire.
5 And now, for this same reason, bring in all diligence and add virtue to your trust, and to the virtue add knowledge, and to the knowledge add self-control, and to the self-control add endurance, and to the endurance add piety, and to the piety add brotherly affection, and to the brotherly affection add love. For if these things belong to you and become abundant, they will set you down to be neither idle nor unfruitful in the recognition of our Lord, Anointed Jesus. For the one for whom these things are not present is blind since he is nearsighted, having received a forgetfulness of the cleansing of his old sins.
10 So, brothers, try hard to make your calling and choice sure. For if you do these things, you won't ever fall. For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and savior Anointed Jesus will be provided richly to you.
12 So I will remember always to remind you about these things, although you know and have been confirmed in the truth which is present. Now I think it is just to stir you up in reminding you for as long as I am in this tent, knowing that the time of laying aside my tent is coming quickly, just as also our Lord Anointed Jesus pointed out to me. Now I will also try always to have you make a reminder of these things after my departure.
16 For we were not following around fables that add wisdom when we made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Anointed Jesus. On the contrary, we became onlookers of that magnificence. For when Jesus received value and glory from Father God, this kind of voice was brought to him by the magnificent glory: "This is my son, my beloved one, in whom I am well pleased." And this is the voice that we heard, which was brought from heaven, with him being on the holy mountain.
19 And we hold more firmly the prophetic message, which you are doing well to heed, as you would heed a lamp shining in a dirty place until the daylight shines through and the light-bringer arises in your hearts. Know this first: that no written prophecy becomes its own explanation. For at no time was prophecy brought by human wishes, but people from God spoke as they were carried by holy breath. Yet it happened that there were also false prophets among the people, as there will also be false teachers among you. These ones will bring in secretly destructive schools of thought, denying also the Sovereign who bought them, bringing on themselves a quick destruction.
2:2 And many will follow their debaucheries around; on account of them the way of the truth will be spoken evil of. And in greed they will profit financially from you by using deceptive words. Their judgment waiting since ancient times is not lingering now, and their destruction is not sleeping. For God did not spare the sinning messengers, but he imprisoned them in Tartarus with chains of gloom and handed them over to custody for judgment.
And he did not spare the original creation, but he guarded Noah (the eighth, a herald of Right) and brought a drenching rain to a creation full of impious people.
And he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, overthrowing and condemning them, placing them as an example for those who were about to be impious. And he rescued Lot the just, who was tired of the behavior of the unprincipled ones in their debauchery. For when the just one kept seeing and hearing it, as he dwelt among them day by day, his just soul was tormented with lawless deeds.
9 Yahweh knows to rescue pious people out of trial, and to keep unjust people for a day of judgment to be cut off--especially those who go after the flesh in polluted strong desire and who have their attitudes opposed to lordship. These people are daring, selfish. They do not tremble when they speak evil of glorious beings, whereas messengers who are greater in strength and power do not bring a harshly spoken judgment against them from Yahweh. Now like the natural irrational animals, these ones were made for capture and decay. Since they speak evil of things about which they are ignorant, they will decay in their corruption. As wrong's reward, they are being wronged.
They regard as pleasure their revelry in the daytime. They are spots and stains who revel in their self-deception while feasting together with you. They have eyes that are full of an adulteress and which sin unceasingly. They entice unstable souls; their hearts have been trained in greed. They are children of a curse.
15 After leaving a straight path, they went astray, following along the path of Balaam of Bosor, who loved wrong's reward. But he had a reproof for his own wandering: a soundless beast of burden, uttering with a human voice, restrained the insane attitude of the prophet.
17 These people are waterless springs and mists led along by a whirlwind. For them the blackness of darkness has been reserved. For in uttering swellings of worthlessness, in strong fleshly desires and debauchery they entice those people who have barely fled from the ones who have turned themselves over to error. They are promising them freedom, when they themselves are slaves to corruption. For whatever someone has been overcome by, to it he is also a slave. For if they have fled from the pollutants of creation, in recognition of our Lord and savior Anointed Jesus, yet if they are ensnared again with these and are overcome, the last things have become worse than the first for them. For it was better for them not to have recognized the path of Right than to have recognized it and to have turned away from the holy precept that was delivered to them. It has transpired to them as in the true analogy: "To its own vomit, the dog has turned back. And the washed hog has returned to its wallowing in the mud."
3:1 Beloved: I am already writing this second letter to you, in both of which I have been stirring up your sincerely judging minds in reminding you to recall the declarations that were spoken previously by the holy prophets and of the precept of our Lord and savior spoken by your envoys. Know this first: that in the last days mockers will come in, mocking, walking according to their own strong desires and saying, "Where is the promise of his presence? For from the time when the ancestors went to sleep, all things have continued this way from the beginning of creation."
5 For it willingly escapes them that the heavens were of old, and the land was put together out of water and through water by God's statement. Through a statement, thecreation that existed then was drenched in water and was destroyed. But the present-day heavens and land have been treasured up by the same statement and are being kept until a day of judgment and of destruction of the impious people.
8 Now don't let this one thing escape you, beloved, that one day with Yahweh is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. Yahweh of the promise is not slow, as some consider slowness. On the contrary, he is being longsuffering toward us, not wishing for anyone to be destroyed, but for all to hold to a change of mind. Now Yahweh's day will arrive like a thief. In it, the heavens will be released with a roar. Now the elements will be released and burnt up, and will the land and all the deeds in it be found?
Since these things will all be released in this way, what sort of people is it necessary for you to exist as, in holy conduct and piety? We are expecting and hastening the day of God's presence, through which the heavens will be on fire and will be released, and through which the elements will be burnt up and melted. But, according to his promise, we are expecting "a new heaven and a new earth" in which right dwells.
So, beloved, since you expect these things, try hard to be found by him in peace, without spots and without stains, and regard the longsuffering of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paulus also wrote to you, according to the wisdom that was given to him (just as he speaks in all of his letters about these things). Some things are difficult to understand in them, and the unlearned and unstable people distort them to their own destruction, as they do the remaining writings.
17 Therefore, beloved, since you know beforehand, guard yourselves, so that you will not be carried away by the deceit of unprincipled people and will not fall from your place of stability. Now grow in generosity and knowledge of our Lord and savior, Anointed Jesus. To him be the glory, even now and into the day of the age. [A-mein.]
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