I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge;

For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing this you will never stumble into sin.

For thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you.

For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return of our Lord Jesus Christ; no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur.

For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: "This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted."

When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment,

(for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)

-- if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment,

suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, they are stains and blemishes, indulging in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

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

yet was rebuked for his own transgression (a dumb donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet's madness).

These men are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness have been reserved.

For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error.

Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved.

For if after they have escaped the filthy things of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again get entangled in them and succumb to them, their last state has become worse for them than their first.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

and saying, "Where is his promised return? For ever since our ancestors died, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation."

For they deliberately suppress this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water.

But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, by being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Because of this day, the heavens will be burned up and dissolve, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze!

But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides.

Therefore, dear friends, since you are waiting for these things, strive to be found at peace, without spot or blemish, when you come into his presence.