For this very reason, applying your diligence [to the divine promises, make every effort] in [exercising] your faith to, develop moral excellence, and in moral excellence, knowledge (insight, understanding),

Therefore, believers, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you [be sure that your behavior reflects and confirms your relationship with God]; for by doing these things [actively developing these virtues], you will never stumble [in your spiritual growth and will live a life that leads others away from sin];

I think it right, as long as I am in this earthly tent, to inspire you by reminding you,

knowing that the laying aside of this earthly tent of mine is imminent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

For when He was invested with honor and [the radiance of the Shekinah] glory from God the Father, such a voice as this came to Him from the [splendid] Majestic Glory [in the bright cloud that overshadowed Him, saying], “This is My Son, My Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased and delighted”—

and we [actually] heard this voice made from heaven when we were together with Him on the holy mountain.

But understand this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of or comes from one’s own [personal or special] interpretation,

Beloved, I am now writing you this second letter. In this [as in the first one], I am stirring up your untainted mind to remind you,

First of all, know [without any doubt] that mockers will come in the last days with their mocking, following after their own human desires

For they willingly forget [the fact] that the heavens existed long ago by the word of God, and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.

speaking about these things as he does in all of his letters. In which there are some things that are difficult to understand, which the untaught and unstable [who have fallen into error] twist and misinterpret, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.