May more and more grace and peace be granted to you in a full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

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.

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

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

yet even angels, who are much more powerful, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.

But as for these, they have no more reason than brute beasts that are naturally made for hunting, and slaughter: so these who calumniate what they do not understand, shall receive the reward of their iniquity by perishing in their own corruption.

For if, after escaping from the pollutions of the world through a full knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, people are once more entangled in these pollutions and are overcome, their last state has become worse than their first.

But, my loved ones, keep in mind this one thing, that with the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years are no more than one day.