CHAPTER 11 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto
you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as
his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And
to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But
he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath
forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather,
brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in
remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the
present truth.
13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle,
to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
14 Knowing that shortly I
must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed
me.
15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to
have these things always in remembrance.
16 For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received
from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him
from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him
in the holy mount.
19 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:
20 Knowing this
first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
CHAPTER 2
1 But there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among
you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord
that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many
shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not,
and their damnation slumbereth not.
4 For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of
darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world,
but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in
the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 And turning the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an
ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
7 And delivered just
Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous
man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul
from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment
to be punished:
10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust
of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled,
they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
11 Whereas angels, which
are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them
before the Lord.
12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken
and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall
utterly perish in their own corruption;
13 And shall receive the reward
of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time.
Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings
while they feast with you;
14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot
cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with
covetous practices; cursed children:
15 Which have forsaken the right way,
and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved
the wages of unrighteousness;
16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb
ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
17 These
are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom
the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
18 For when they speak great
swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through
much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of
corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered
unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb,
The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to
her wallowing in the mire.
CHAPTER 3
1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write
unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2
That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy
prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
3
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking
after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from
the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of,
that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out
of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which
are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and
a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for
such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot,
and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;
even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto
him hath written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them
of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures,
unto their own destruction.
17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these
things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the
wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now
and for ever. Amen.
