Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

so, even for this very purpose, uniting to these things all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

But I consider it the right thing to do, as long as I am in this "tent" [Note: This is an allusion to his still being alive], to stir up your memory [of these things],

Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

He received honour and glory from God the Father, and out of the wondrous glory words such as these were spoken to Him, "This is My dearly-loved Son, in whom I take delight."

And we ourselves heard these words come from Heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

For these words did not ever come through the impulse of men: but the prophets had them from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves.

And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.

and, with delusive words, they will, through covetousness, make gain of you: the condemnation, long ago denounced against these, delays not, and their destruction does not slumber.

then [in light of the fact that all this is true, be sure that] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

whereas even angels, superior in might and power, lay no scoffing charge against these before the Lord.

But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

receiving the due reward of unrighteousness. These delight to spend the day in luxurious festivity: they are spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceits when they feast with you;

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 greed. They are fore-doomed to God's curse!

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved.

For if after having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, again entangled, they are subdued by these, their last state is worse than the first.

This, already, beloved, is the second letter I am writing unto you; and, in these letters, I am stirring up - by way of calling to remembrance - your uncorrupted mind,

Above all things you are to know, that in these last times, impostors will appear, who will abandon themselves to their own sensual passions, whose cry will be,

But, these people intentionally forget that the heavens, which existed long ago, and the earth, which was formed out of water and by water, [were created] by the word of God.

Through these waters the world of that time perished when it was flooded.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

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.

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.