1 Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have obtained the same precious faith that we have:
2 spiritual blessing and peace be to you in increasing abundance through a full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
3 because His divine power has given us everything that is needful for life and piety, through our full knowledge of Him who through His glory and excellence has called us to Him.
4 It is through these that He has given us His precious and glorious promises, so that through them, after you have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires, you may come to share in the divine nature.
5 Now for this very reason you must do your level best to supplement your faith with moral character, moral character with knowledge,
6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, patient endurance with piety,
7 piety with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with universal love.
8 For if you have these qualities and they continue to increase in you, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For whoever lacks these qualities is blind -- or short-sighted-- and forgetful of the cleansing that he has received from his former sins.
10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more in earnest to make certain to yourselves God's call and choice of you. For if you cultivate these qualities, you will never slip,
11 for it is in this way that to you will be generously granted a triumphant admittance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
12 Therefore, I will always remind you of these things, although you know them and are firmly grounded in the truth that you already have.
13 Yet I think it right, as long as I live in this bodily tent, to arouse you by a reminder,
14 because I know that the removal of my bodily tent is to be very soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.
15 Yes, I will be in earnest, so that every time you have occasion, after I have gone away, you may call these things to mind.
16 For it was not mere stories of fancy that we followed when we told you of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For when He received such honor and glory from God the Father, when from the majestic glory there was borne to Him a voice like this, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I take delight,"
18 we heard this voice ourselves borne from heaven while we were with Him on that sacred mountain.
19 So we have the message of the prophets more certainly guaranteed. Please pay attention to this message as to a lamp that is shining in a dismal place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;
20 because you recognize this truth above all else, that no prophecy in Scripture is to be interpreted by one's own mind,
21 for no prophecy has ever yet originated in man's will, but men who were led by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.