2 Peter 1; 2 Peter 2; 2 Peter 3; Jude 1

2 Peter 1

1 From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To you who have received a faith as valuable as ours, because our God and Savior Jesus Christ does what is right.

2 Grace and peace be given to you more and more, because you truly know God and Jesus our Lord.

3 Jesus has the power of God, by which he has given us everything we need to live and to serve God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus called us by his glory and goodness.

4 Through these he gave us the very great and precious promises. With these gifts you can share in being like God, and the world will not ruin you with its evil desires.

5 Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge;

6 and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God;

7 and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love.

8 If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful and productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 But anyone who does not have these things cannot see clearly. He is blind and has forgotten that he was made clean from his past sins.

10 My brothers and sisters, try hard to be certain that you really are called and chosen by God. If you do all these things, you will never fall.

11 And you will be given a very great welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

12 You know these things, and you are very strong in the truth, but I will always help you remember them.

13 I think it is right for me to help you remember as long as I am in this body.

14 I know I must soon leave this body, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.

15 I will try my best so that you may be able to remember these things even after I am gone.

16 When we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were not telling just smart stories that someone invented. But we saw the greatness of Jesus with our own eyes.

17 Jesus heard the voice of God, the Greatest Glory, when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice said, "This is my Son, whom I love, and I am very pleased with him."

18 We heard that voice from heaven while we were with Jesus on the holy mountain.

19 This makes us more sure about the message the prophets gave. It is good for you to follow closely what they said as you would follow a light shining in a dark place, until the day begins and the morning star rises in your hearts.

20 Most of all, you must understand this: No prophecy in the Scriptures ever comes from the prophet's own interpretation.

21 No prophecy ever came from what a person wanted to say, but people led by the Holy Spirit spoke words from God.

2 Peter 2

1 There used to be false prophets among God's people, just as you will have some false teachers in your group. They will secretly teach things that are wrong -- teachings that will cause people to be lost. They will even refuse to accept the Master, Jesus, who bought their freedom. So they will bring quick ruin on themselves.

2 Many will follow their evil ways and say evil things about the way of truth.

3 Those false teachers only want your money, so they will use you by telling you lies. Their judgment spoken against them long ago is still coming, and their ruin is certain.

4 When angels sinned, God did not let them go free without punishment. He sent them to hell and put them in caves of darkness where they are being held for judgment.

5 And God punished the world long ago when he brought a flood to the world that was full of people who were against him. But God saved Noah, who preached about being right with God, and seven other people with him.

6 And God also destroyed the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrahn by burning them until they were ashes. He made those cities an example of what will happen to those who are against God.

7 But he saved Lot from those cities. Lot, a good man, was troubled because of the filthy lives of evil people.

8 (Lot was a good man, but because he lived with evil people every day, his good heart was hurt by the evil things he saw and heard.)

9 So the Lord knows how to save those who serve him when troubles come. He will hold evil people and punish them, while waiting for the Judgment Day.

10 That punishment is especially for those who live by doing the evil things their sinful selves want and who hate authority. These false teachers are bold and do anything they want. They are not afraid to speak against the angels.

11 But even the angels, who are much stronger and more powerful than false teachers, do not accuse them with insults before the Lord.

12 But these people speak against things they do not understand. They are like animals that act without thinking, animals born to be caught and killed. And, like animals, these false teachers will be destroyed.

13 They have caused many people to suffer, so they themselves will suffer. That is their pay for what they have done. They take pleasure in openly doing evil, so they are like dirty spots and stains among you. They delight in trickery while eating meals with you.

14 Every time they look at a woman they want her, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lead weak people into the trap of sin, and they have taught their hearts to be greedy. God will punish them!

15 These false teachers left the right road and lost their way, following the way Balaam went. Balaam was the son of Beor, who loved being paid for doing wrong.

16 But a donkey, which cannot talk, told Balaam he was sinning. It spoke with a man's voice and stopped the prophet's crazy thinking.

17 Those false teachers are like springs without water and clouds blown by a storm. A place in the blackest darkness has been kept for them.

18 They brag with words that mean nothing. By their evil desires they lead people into the trap of sin -- people who are just beginning to escape from others who live in error.

19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are not free. They are slaves of things that will be destroyed. For people are slaves of anything that controls them.

20 They were made free from the evil in the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they return to evil things and those things control them, then it is worse for them than it was before.

21 Yes, it would be better for them to have never known the right way than to know it and to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them.

22 What they did is like this true saying: "A dog goes back to what it has thrown up," and, "After a pig is washed, it goes back and rolls in the mud."

2 Peter 3

1 My friends, this is the second letter I have written you to help your honest minds remember.

2 I want you to think about the words the holy prophets spoke in the past, and remember the command our Lord and Savior gave us through your apostles.

3 It is most important for you to understand what will happen in the last days. People will laugh at you. They will live doing the evil things they want to do.

4 They will say, "Jesus promised to come again. Where is he? Our fathers have died, but the world continues the way it has been since it was made."

5 But they do not want to remember what happened long ago. By the word of God heaven was made, and the earth was made from water and with water.

6 Then the world was flooded and destroyed with water.

7 And that same word of God is keeping heaven and earth that we now have in order to be destroyed by fire. They are being kept for the Judgment Day and the destruction of all who are against God.

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: To the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.

9 The Lord is not slow in doing what he promised -- the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to be lost, but he wants all people to change their hearts and lives.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The skies will disappear with a loud noise. Everything in them will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.

11 In that way everything will be destroyed. So what kind of people should you be? You should live holy lives and serve God,

12 as you wait for and look forward to the coming of the day of God. When that day comes, the skies will be destroyed with fire, and everything in them will melt with heat.

13 But God made a promise to us, and we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth where goodness lives.

14 Dear friends, since you are waiting for this to happen, do your best to be without sin and without fault. Try to be at peace with God.

15 Remember that we are saved because our Lord is patient. Our dear brother Paul told you the same thing when he wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him.

16 He writes about this in all his letters. Some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand, and people who are ignorant and weak in faith explain these things falsely. They also falsely explain the other Scriptures, but they are destroying themselves by doing this.

17 Dear friends, since you already know about this, be careful. Do not let those evil people lead you away by the wrong they do. Be careful so you will not fall from your strong faith.

18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory be to him now and forever! Amen.

Jude 1

1 From Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. To all who have been called by God. God the Father loves you, and you have been kept safe in Jesus Christ:

2 Mercy, peace, and love be yours richly.

3 Dear friends, I wanted very much to write you about the salvation we all share. But I felt the need to write you about something else: I want to encourage you to fight hard for the faith that was given the holy people of God once and for all time.

4 Some people have secretly entered your group. Long ago the prophets wrote about these people who will be judged guilty. They are against God and have changed the grace of our God into a reason for sexual sin. They also refuse to accept Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

5 I want to remind you of some things you already know: Remember that the Lord saved his people by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. But later he destroyed all those who did not believe.

6 And remember the angels who did not keep their place of power but left their proper home. The Lord has kept these angels in darkness, bound with everlasting chains, to be judged on the great day.

7 Also remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrahn and the other towns around them. In the same way they were full of sexual sin and people who desired sexual relations that God does not allow. They suffer the punishment of eternal fire, as an example for all to see.

8 It is the same with these people who have entered your group. They are guided by dreams and make themselves filthy with sin. They reject God's authority and speak against the angels.

9 Not even the archangeln Michael, when he argued with the devil about who would have the body of Moses, dared to judge the devil guilty. Instead, he said, "The Lord punish you."

10 But these people speak against things they do not understand. And what they do know, by feeling, as dumb animals know things, are the very things that destroy them.

11 It will be terrible for them. They have followed the way of Cain, and for money they have given themselves to doing the wrong that Balaam did. They have fought against God as Korah did, and like Korah, they surely will be destroyed.

12 They are like dirty spots in your special Christian meals you share. They eat with you and have no fear, caring only for themselves. They are clouds without rain, which the wind blows around. They are autumn trees without fruit that are pulled out of the ground. So they are twice dead.

13 They are like wild waves of the sea, tossing up their own shameful actions like foam. They are like stars that wander in the sky. A place in the blackest darkness has been kept for them forever.

14 Enoch, the seventh descendant from Adam, said about these people: "Look, the Lord is coming with many thousands of his holy angels to

15 judge every person. He is coming to punish all who are against God for all the evil they have done against him. And he will punish the sinners who are against God for all the evil they have said against him."

16 These people complain and blame others, doing the evil things they want to do. They brag about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want.

17 Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said before.

18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be people who laugh about God, following their own evil desires which are against God."

19 These are the people who divide you, people whose thoughts are only of this world, who do not have the Spirit.

20 But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit.

21 Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ with his mercy to give you life forever.

22 Show mercy to some people who have doubts.

23 Take others out of the fire, and save them. Show mercy mixed with fear to others, hating even their clothes which are dirty from sin.

24 God is strong and can help you not to fall. He can bring you before his glory without any wrong in you and can give you great joy.

25 He is the only God, the One who saves us. To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now, and forever. Amen.