2 Peter

Goodspeed(i) 1 Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the uprightness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have been given a faith as privileged as ours; 2 God bless you and give you perfect peace through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 For his divine power has given us every requisite for life and piety, through our coming to know him who through his glory and excellence called us to him. 4 Thus he has given us his precious and splendid promises so that through them you may escape the corrupting influences that exist in the world through passion, and come to share in the divine nature. 5 For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with piety, 7 piety with a spirit of brotherhood, and the spirit of brotherhood with love. 8 For if you have these qualities in their fulness, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive when it comes to the understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is blind or near-sighted, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, make all the greater efforts to make God's call and choice of you certain. For if you have these qualities, you will never stumble, 11 for then you will be triumphantly admitted to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 Therefore I will always remind you of this, although you know it and are firmly grounded in the truth that you have. 13 Yet I think it right, as long as I live in my present tent, to arouse you by a reminder, 14 for I know that I must soon put it away, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. 15 I will also take care that after I am gone you will be able at any time to call these things to mind. 16 For they were no fictitious stories that we followed when we informed you of the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his coming, but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he was so honored and glorified by God the Father and from the supreme glory there were borne to him such words as these: "This is my Son, my Beloved! He is my Chosen!"— 18 we heard these words borne from heaven when we were with him on that sacred mountain. 19 So we have the message of the prophets more fully guaranteed. Please pay attention to that message as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 You must understand this in the first place, that no prophecy in Scripture can be understood through one's own powers, 21 for no prophecy ever originated in the human will, but under the influence of the holy Spirit men spoke for God.