BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibtrans/weymouth.exe/2PE.WNT

Text File | 1993-06-07 | 11KB | 201 lines

1:1 /1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and Apostle of Jesus Christ:
 To those to whom there has been allotted the same precious
 faith as that which is ours through the righteousness /2 of our
 God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
1:2 May more and more grace and peace be granted to you /3 in a
 full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
1:3 seeing that His divine power has given us all things that
 are needful for life and godliness, through our knowledge of
 Him who has appealed to us /4 by His own glorious perfections.
1:4 It is by means of these that He has granted us His precious
 and /5 wondrous promises, in order that through them you may,
 /6 one and all, become sharers in the very nature of God,
 having completely escaped the corruption which exists in the
 world through earthly cravings.
1:5 But for this very reason--adding, on your part, all
 earnestness-- /7 along with your faith, /8 manifest /9 also /10
 a noble character: along with a noble character, knowledge;

1:6 along with knowledge, /1 self-control; along with
 self-control, power of endurance;
1:7 along with power of endurance, godliness; along with
 godliness, brotherly affection; and along with brotherly
 affection, love.
1:8 If these things exist in you, and continually increase, they
 prevent your being either idle or unfruitful in advancing
 towards a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:9 For the man in whom they are lacking is blind and cannot see
 distant objects, /2 in that he has forgotten that he has been
 cleansed from his old sins.
1:10 For this reason, brethren, be all the more in earnest to /3
 make sure that God has called you and chosen you; for it is
 certain that so long as you practise these things, you will
 never stumble.
1:11 And so /4 a triumphant admission into the eternal Kingdom
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be freely granted to
 you.
1:12 For this reason I shall always persist in reminding you of
 these things, although you know them and are stedfast believers
 in truth which you already possess.
1:13 But I think it right, so long as I remain in /5 the body,
 my present dwelling-place, to arouse you by such reminders.
1:14 For I know that the time for me to lay aside /6 my body is
 now rapidly drawing near, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has
 revealed to me.
1:15 So /7 on every possible occasion I will /8 also do my best
 to enable you to recall these things after my departure.
1:16 For when we made known to you the power and Coming of our
 Lord Jesus Christ, we were not eagerly following cleverly
 devised legends, but we had been eye-witnesses of His majesty.

1:17 He received honour and glory from God the Father, and out
 of the wondrous glory words such as these were /1 spoken to
 Him, "This is My dearly-loved Son, in whom /2 I take delight."
1:18 And we ourselves heard these words /3 come from Heaven,
 when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
1:19 And in the written word of prophecy we have /4 something
 more permanent; to which /5 you do well to pay attention--as to
 a lamp shining in a dimly-lighted place--until day dawns and
 the morning star rises in your hearts.
1:20 But, above all, remember that no prophecy in Scripture will
 be found to have come from the prophet's own prompting;
1:21 for never did any prophecy come by human will, but /6 men
 sent by God spoke as they were /7 impelled by the Holy Spirit.
2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, as
 there will be teachers of falsehood among you also, who will
 cunningly introduce fatal /8 divisions, disowning even the
 Sovereign Lord who has redeemed them, /9 and bringing on
 themselves swift destruction.
2:2 And in their immoral ways they will have many eager
 disciples, through whom religion will be brought into
 disrepute.
2:3 Thirsting for riches, they will trade on you with their
 canting talk. From of old their judgement /10 has been working
 itself out, and their destruction /11 has not been slumbering.

2:4 For God did not spare angels when they had sinned, but
 hurling them down to Tartarus consigned them to /1 caves of
 darkness, keeping them in readiness for judgement.
2:5 And He did not spare the ancient world, although He
 preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others,
 when He brought a deluge on the world of the ungodly.
2:6 He reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and
 condemned them to overthrow, making them an example to people
 who might /2 in future be living godless lives.
2:7 But when righteous Lot was sore distressed by the gross
 misconduct of immoral men He rescued him.
2:8 (For their lawless deeds were torture, day after day, to the
 pure soul of that righteous man--all that he saw and heard
 whilst living in their midst.)
2:9 Since all this is so, the Lord knows how to rescue godly men
 from temptation, and on the other hand how to keep the
 unrighteous under punishment in readiness for the Day of
 Judgement,
2:10 and especially those who are abandoned to
 sensuality--craving, as they do, for polluted things, and
 scorning control. /3 Fool-hardy and self-willed, they do not
 tremble when speaking evil of glorious beings;
2:11 while angels, though greater than they in might and power,
 do not bring any insulting accusation against such /4 in the
 presence of the Lord.
2:12 But these men, like brute beasts, created (with their
 natural instincts) only to be captured /5 or destroyed, are
 abusive in matters of which they are ignorant, and in their
 corruption will perish,
2:13 being /6 doomed to receive a requital for their guilt. They
 reckon it pleasure to feast daintily in broad /7 daylight. They
 are spots and blemishes, while feeding luxuriously at their /8
 love-feasts, and banqueting with you.
2:14 /9 Their very eyes are full of adultery--being eyes which
 never cease from sin. These men set traps to catch unstedfast
 souls, their own hearts being well trained in

/1 greed. /2 They are fore-doomed to God's curse!
2:15 /3 Forsaking the straight road, they have gone astray, /4
 having eagerly followed in the steps of Balaam, the son of
 Beor, who was bent on securing the wages of unrighteousness.
2:16 But he was rebuked for his transgression: a dumb /5 ass
 spoke with a human voice and checked the madness of the
 Prophet.
2:17 These people are wells without water, mists driven along by
 a storm, men for whom the dense darkness has been reserved.
2:18 For, while they pour out their frivolous and arrogant talk,
 they use earthly cravings--every kind of immorality--as a /6
 bait to entrap men who are just escaping from the influence of
 those who live in error.
2:19 And /7 they promise them freedom, although they are
 themselves the slaves of what is corrupt. For a man is the
 slave of /8 any one by whom he has been worsted in fight.
2:20 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.
2:21 For it would have been better for them not to have fully
 known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn
 back from the holy commandments in which they were instructed.
2:22 Their case is that described in the true proverb, <"A dog
 returns to what he has vomited,"> and also in the other
 proverb, "The sow has washed itself and now goes back to roll
 /9 in its filth."
3:1 This letter which I am now writing to you, dear friends, is
 my second letter. In both my letters I seek to revive in your
 honest minds the memory of certain things,
3:2 so that you may recall the words spoken long ago by the holy
 Prophets, and the commandments of our Lord and Saviour given
 you through your Apostles.

3:3 But, above all, remember that, in /1 the last days, men will
 come who make a mock at everything--men governed only by their
 own passions,
3:4 and, asking, "What has become of His promised /2 Return? For
 from the time our forefathers fell asleep all things