Simon Peter, a bondservant and Apostle of Jesus Christ: To those to whom there has been allotted the same precious faith as that which is ours through the righteousness of our God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue;

by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

For whoever lacks these qualities is blind or near-sighted, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his former sins.

For this reason, brethren, be all the more in earnest to make sure that God has called you and chosen you; for it is certain that so long as you practise these things, you will never stumble.

for I know that I must soon put it away, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.

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

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

In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered.

For if God spared not the angels who had sinned, but having cast them down to the deepest pit of gloom has delivered them to chains of darkness to be kept for judgment;

having eyes full of an adulteress, and unable to cease from sin; beguiling unestablished souls: having a heart which has been made fat with covetousness; children of the curse:

These are wells without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved.

promising them liberty, they themselves are the slaves of corruption. For by whom anyone has been overcome, even to this one he has been enslaved.

For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it was better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment which has been delivered unto them.

It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns to his own vomit again," and "the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire."

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

It is new heavens and a new earth that we expect, as He has promised, and in them dwells righteousness.

And be certain that the long waiting of the Lord is for salvation; even as our brother Paul has said in his letters to you, from the wisdom which was given to him;

speaking of this as he has done in all his letters ??letters containing some knotty points, which ignorant and unsteady souls twist (as they do the rest of the scriptures) to their own destruction.