The Lord is not slow about His promise, in the sense in which some think of slowness, but He is really dealing patiently with you, because He is not willing for any to perish but for all to have an opportunity to repent?

and saying, "Where is His promised coming? For ever since our forefathers fell asleep everything has remained exactly as it was from the beginning of creation!"

because you recognize this truth above all else, that no prophecy in Scripture is to be interpreted by one's own mind,

for no prophecy has ever yet originated in man's will, but men who were led by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

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.

Now there were false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you too, who will insidiously introduce destructive heresies and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction.

knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, patient endurance with piety,

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.

piety with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with universal love.

but instead, you must continue to grow in the spiritual strength and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever!

The day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be destroyed by being burned up, and the earth with all its works will melt away.

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;

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.

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.

Yet I think it right, as long as I live in this bodily tent, to arouse you by a reminder,

But you must avoid forgetting this one fact, dearly beloved, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day.

because I know that the removal of my bodily tent is to be very soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but hurled them down to Tartarus and committed them to dark dungeons to await their doom,

Now for this very reason you must do your level best to supplement your faith with moral character, moral character with knowledge,

For whoever lacks these qualities is blind -- or short-sighted-- and forgetful of the cleansing that he has received from his former sins.

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:

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.

First of all, you must understand this, that in the last days mockers will come with their mockeries, living in accordance with their evil passions,

In accordance with His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which uprightness will have its permanent home.

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,"

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.

speaking of it as he does in all his letters. In them are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsteady twist to their ruin, as they do the rest of the Scriptures.

spiritual blessing and peace be to you in increasing abundance through a full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

we heard this voice ourselves borne from heaven while we were with Him on that sacred mountain.

Always think of our Lord's patience as salvation, just as our dearly beloved brother Paul, with the wisdom granted him, wrote you to do,

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,

surely, then, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from trial and to keep wrongdoers under punishment for the day of judgment,

But by the same command the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire and are kept for the day when godless men are to be doomed and destroyed.

For if, after men have escaped the corrupting ways of the world through a full knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are conquered by them, then their last condition is worse than their former one.

This is the second letter, dearly beloved, that I have already written to you, in both of which I am trying by reminders to stir up your unsullied minds

for as long as that upright man was living among them, his upright soul, day and night, was always being tortured by what he saw and heard in their lawless actions --

since you are awaiting and hastening the coming of the day of God, which will cause the heavens to blaze and dissolve and the heavenly bodies to burn up and melt away!

and saved the upright Lot who was constantly distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless men --

These men, like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct created to be caught and killed, abuse the things that they do not understand, and so by their corruption they will be destroyed, suffering wrong as punishment for their wrongdoing.

whereas angels who are far superior in strength and power to these beings bring no abusive accusation against them before the Lord.

They have left the straight road and gone astray. They have followed the road that Balaam, the son of Beor, trod, who fell in love with the profits of wrongdoing

They have eyes full of adultery and insatiable by sin. They practice enticing unsteady souls. They have trained their hearts in greed. They are doomed to a curse!

They think their daily luxurious living real pleasure; they are spots and blots, deceitfully living in luxurious pleasure while they continue their religious feasting with you.

to remember the things foretold by the holy prophets, and the command of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles.

Many people will follow their immoral ways, and because of them the true Way will be abused,

but was reproved for his offense; a dumb animal spoke with a human voice and stopped the prophet's madness.

For by uttering arrogant nonsense, through base desires of the lower nature, they entice into immorality men who are just escaping from those who live in error,

Such men are dried-up springs, clouds driven by the storm, and they are doomed to densest darkness.

In them is verified the truth of the proverb, "A dog turns back to what he has vomited"; and of that other proverb, "A sow that has washed herself goes back to wallow in the mire."

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command committed to their trust.

If all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what men you ought to be! What holy and pious lives you ought to lead,

For they willfully ignore the fact that long ago the heavens existed and the earth that had been formed by God's command out of water and through water,

and if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others when He brought the flood upon the world of godless people;

promising them freedom, though they are slaves of destruction themselves; for a man is the slave of anything that conquers him.

Therefore, I will always remind you of these things, although you know them and are firmly grounded in the truth that you already have.

and if He condemned, by burning them to ashes, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, making them an example to godless people of what was coming to them,

So, dearly beloved, since you have been forewarned, you must always be on your guard against being led astray by the errors of lawless men, and so against falling away from your present firmness;

In their greed they will exploit you with messages manufactured by themselves. From of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destruction has not been slumbering.

Therefore, dearly beloved, since you are expecting this, be in earnest to be found by Him without a blot, without reproach, and at peace.

especially those who satisfy their lower nature by indulging in its evil passions which defile them, and who despise authority. Daring, headstrong men! They do not tremble when they abuse persons of majesty,

by which also the world, through being deluged with water, was destroyed.