whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in that world by lust.

so, even for this very purpose, uniting to these things all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;

For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.

Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble:

Wherefore I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and are established in the truth which is with you .

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],

Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be able after my decease to call these things to remembrance.

for he received this honourable and glorious testimony from his father, when the voice broke out from the magnificent splendor, in these words, "this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."

And we ourselves heard these words come from Heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

For these words did not ever come through the impulse of men: but the prophets had them from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

But there were false prophets, too, among the people, just as among you also there will be false teachers. These will secretly bring in destructive sects, denying even the Master who bought them, and bringing swift ruin upon themselves.

And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.

and, with delusive words, they will, through covetousness, make gain of you: the condemnation, long ago denounced against these, delays not, and their destruction does not slumber.

then [in light of the fact that all this is true, be sure that] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

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

But these, as creatures without reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed, railing in matters whereof they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely be destroyed,

suffering wrong as the wage of wrong which they have done. These are men who count it pleasure to carouse in open daylight; they are spots and blemishes reveling in their deceit, even while they are feasting with you.

Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!

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

[Although] these people promise "liberty," they themselves are slaves to corrupting influences, for people are slaves to whatever controls them.

For if, having escaped the defilements of the world by knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and, having been again entangled in these, they are overcome, the last things have become worse for them than the first.

This, already, beloved, is the second letter I am writing unto you; and, in these letters, I am stirring up - by way of calling to remembrance - your uncorrupted mind,

Above all things you are to know, that in these last times, impostors will appear, who will abandon themselves to their own sensual passions, whose cry will be,

But, these people intentionally forget that the heavens, which existed long ago, and the earth, which was formed out of water and by water, [were created] by the word of God.

Through these waters the world of that time perished when it was flooded.

Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness,

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight.

as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness.