But I consider it the right thing to do, as long as I am in this "tent" [Note: This is an allusion to his still being alive], to stir up your memory [of these things],

For if people who have escaped from the defiling practices of the world by coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, become tangled up in them again, and are overcome by them, these people are worse off than before they were converted.

It has happened to them like the true proverb [says], "The dog [throws up, and then] goes back and eats its own vomit," and "The hog that was all cleaned up [goes back] to wallowing in the mud."

This is now, my dearly loved ones, the second letter I am writing to you; in both of them, as a reminder, I want to stir up your sincere thoughts

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief [i.e., unexpectedly]. At that time the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements [Note: This refers either to the heavenly bodies or to the material components of the universe], will be dissolved with intense heat. And the earth and its works [i.e., its activities] will be burned up. [Note: Some translations render this phrase as it is in some ancient manuscripts, "will be disclosed," or "will be laid bare"].