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2ND
PETER
CHAPTER
1
1
¶ Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have
obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and
Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord;
3 seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory
and virtue;
4 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 the world by lust.
5 ¶ Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your
faith supply virtue; and in [your] virtue knowledge;
6 and in [your] knowledge temperance; and in [your] temperance patience; and in
[your] patience godliness;
7 and in [your] godliness love of the brethren; and in [your] love of the
brethren love.
8 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.
9 For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having
forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
10 Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and
election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble:
11 for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
12 ¶ 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].
13 And I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by
putting you in remembrance;
14 knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our
Lord Jesus Christ signified unto me.
15 Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be able after my decease
to call these things to remembrance.
16 ¶ For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto
you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we 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 we [ourselves] heard come out of heaven, when we were with him
in the holy mount.
19 ¶ And we have the word of prophecy [made] more sure; whereunto ye do well
that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn,
and the day–star arise in your hearts:
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private
interpretation.
21 For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being
moved by the Holy Ghost.
CHAPTER
2
1 ¶ But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also
there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies,
denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift
destruction.
2 And many shall follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of
the truth shall be evil spoken of.
3 ¶ And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you:
whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth
not.
4 For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and
committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a
preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the
ungodly;
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an
overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly;
7 ¶ and delivered righteous Lot, sore distressed by the lascivious life 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] lawless deeds):
9 the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the
unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment;
10 ¶ but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and
despise dominion. Daring, selfwilled, they tremble not to rail at dignities:
11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railing
judgment against them before the Lord.
12 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,
13 suffering wrong as the hire of wrong–doing; [men] that count it pleasure to
revel in the day–time, spots and blemishes, revelling in their love–feasts
while they feast with you;
14 having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing
unstedfast souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of cursing;
15 forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam
the [son] of Beor, who loved the hire of wrong–doing;
16 but he was rebuked for his own transgression: a dumb ass spake with man’s
voice and stayed the madness of the prophet.
17 These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the
blackness of darkness hath been reserved.
18 For, uttering great swelling [words] of vanity, they entice in the lusts of
the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who are just escaping from them that live in
error;
19 promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption;
for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought into bondage.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein
and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first.
21 For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than,
after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 It has happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog turning to
his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire.
CHAPTER
3
1 ¶ This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you; and in both
of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance;
2 that ye should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy
prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles:
3 ¶ knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery,
walking after their own lusts,
4 and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation.
5 For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an
earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God;
6 by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored
up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of
ungodly men.
8 ¶ But forget not this one thing, beloved, 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 count slackness; but
is longsuffering to you–ward, not wishing 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 which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent
heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 ¶ Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in [all] holy living and godliness,
12 looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of
which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat?
13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness.
14 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.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our
beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you;
16 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.
17 Ye therefore, beloved, knowing [these things] beforehand, beware lest, being
carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To
him [be] the glory both now and for ever. Amen.
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