Chapter I

THE PURSUIT OF THE VIRTUES, THE GLORY OF CHRIST, FALSE TEACHERS, ETC.

1 [1:1]SIMEON Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. [1:2]Grace and peace be multiplied to you by a knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

2 [1:3]As his divine power has given us all things which pertain to life and piety, through the knowledge of him that has called us to his own glory and virtue, [1:4]through which have been given us very great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption which is in the world by inordinate desire, [1:5]and for the same purpose also, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, [1:6]and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience piety, [1:7]and to piety brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. [1:8]For if these are in you and abound, they will make you not inactive nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; [1:9]for a man that is without these is blind, not seeing to a distance, and has forgotten the purification from his former errors. [1:10]Wherefore, brothers, use the greater diligence to make your calling and election sure; for doing these things you shall never fall. [1:11]For thus shall you have an abundant entrance given you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

3 [1:12]Wherefore I will not neglect always to remind you of these things, although you have known them, and have been established in the present truth. [1:13]I think it right as long as I am in this tabernacle, to excite you by remembrance, [1:14]knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is at hand, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. [1:15]But I will also be diligent and especially that you may be able to make mention of these things after my departure. [1:16]For we did not follow skilfully constructed myths in making known to you the power and appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his majesty. [1:17]For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when this voice was brought to him from the magnificent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. [1:18]And this voice we heard brought from heaven when we were with him on the holy mount. [1:19]And we have the more sure prophetic word, to which you will do well to attend, as to a light shining in a dark place, till the day dawns and the day-star arises in your hearts, [1:20]knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of its own solution. [1:21]For prophecy was never brought by the will of man, but moved by the Holy Spirit men spoke from God.

4 [2:1]But there were also false prophets among the people, as there shall also be false teachers among you, who shall bring in by stealth destructive heresies, even denying the master that bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction; [2:2]and many shall follow their lewdness, on account of whom the way of truth shall be reviled, [2:3]and with covetousness they will make a gain of you with feigned words, whose judgment a long time lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not. [2:4]For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but plunging them into Tartarus delivered them up in chains to be kept in darkness till the judgment, [2:5]and spared not the old world, but preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, bringing the flood on the world of the ungodly, [2:6]and condemned Sodom and Gomorrah to be overthrown, reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those who should afterwards be wicked, [2:7]and delivered righteous Lot, vexed by the lewd conduct of the wicked;-- [2:8]for that righteous man living among them vexed his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their wicked deeds;-- [2:9]the Lord knows how to deliver the pious from trial, and to keep the wicked to the day of judgment to be punished, [2:10]but especially those who walk after the flesh, in corrupt desires, and despise government. Presumptuous, self-complacent, they fear not to revile glories, [2:11]where the angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring against them a reproachful judgment; [2:12]but these, like irrational animals, brutes made to be taken and destroyed, reviling things which they do not understand, will also be destroyed in their depravity, [2:13] receiving the wages of wickedness, accounting luxury in the day-time a pleasure, spots and blemishes, revelling in their deceptions while feasting with you, [2:14]having eyes full of an adulteress, and unable to cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart exercised in covetousness, cursed children, [2:15]having left the right way they have gone astray, following in the way of Balaam the son of Beor who loved the wages of wickedness, [2:16]but had a rebuke of his transgression; the dumb ass, speaking with a man's voice, forbade the madness of the prophet.

5 [2:17]These are fountains without water, clouds driven by a tempest, to which is reserved the blackness of darkness. [2:18]For speaking extravagant words of vanity, they entice with carnal desires of lewdness those scarcely escaped from them, those living in error, [2:19]promising them liberty, when they themselves are servants of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, to this is he made a servant. [2:20]For if having escaped the defilements of the world by a knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and overcome by them, the last state of those persons is worse than the first. [2:21]For it is better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. [2:22] But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog returned to his vomit, and the swine that was washed to wallowing in filth.