Promising, freedom to them, they themselves, being all the while, slaves of corruption, - for, by whom one hath been defeated, by the same, hath he become enslaved, -

For, if, having escaped from the defilements of the world by a personal knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but, by the same having again become entangled, they are defeated, the, last, state hath become, for them, worse than, the first;

While, the heavens and the earth that now are, by the same word, have been stored with fire, being kept unto the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly men.

The Lord is, not slack, concerning his promise, as some count, slackness; but is long-suffering with regard to you, not being minded that any should perish, but that, all, unto repentance, should come.

As also, in all letters, speaking in them concerning these things, - in which letters are some things, hard to be understood, which, the uninstructed and unstable, wrest, - as also the other scriptures, - unto their own destruction.