unfoldingWord_en_BP_Paratext/UST/622PEust.SFM

\id 2PE EN_UST en_English_ltr Fri Nov 19 2021 14:15:39 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) tc
\usfm 3.0
\ide UTF-8
\h 2 Peter
\toc1 The Second Letter of Peter
\toc2 Second Peter
\toc3 2Pe
\mt1 2 Peter
\c 1
\p 
\v 1 \add I,\add* Simon Peter, serve Jesus the Messiah, and I am an apostle \add whom he appointed\add*. \add I am writing this letter\add* to you whom God has caused to believe \add in the Messiah\add* just like he caused us \add apostles\add* to believe \add in the Messiah\add*. \add Jesus has done this\add* by his righteous acts. Jesus the Messiah is our God, and he is the one who saves us.
\v 2 I pray that God will increase his kind acts toward you and make you more peaceful because you know God and Jesus, \add who is\add* our Lord.
\p 
\v 3 God has given us everything that we need in order to live a life that honors him. \add He does this\add* by his power as God. \add He does this\add* by what we know about him. God is the one who chose us \add to be his people\add* by his glorious and excellent character.
\v 4 \add By his glorious and excellent character,\add* God has promised that he will do priceless and great things for us. \add He has done this\add* so that by \add believing in\add* what he has promised, you will be able to act like God, \add and\add* you will no longer suffer the moral corruption that is in the world through the desire to do sinful things.
\p 
\v 5 Because God has done all that, do your best to not only believe in the Messiah, \add but also\add* to do good things. \add And make sure that you not only\add* do good things, \add but that you also\add* learn more about God.
\v 6 \add And make sure that you do not only\add* learn more about God, \add but that you also\add* control yourself \add in what you do and say\add*. \add And make sure that you do not only\add* control yourself \add in what you do and say\add*, \add but that you also\add* remain faithful to God in hardship. \add And make sure that you do not only\add* remain faithful to God in hardship, \add but that you also\add* honor him.
\v 7 \add And make sure that you do not only\add* honor God, \add but that you also\add* show affection to each other as family members. \add And make sure that you do not only\add* show affection to each other as family members, \add but that you also\add* love others.
\v 8 \add Do these things,\add* because if you do all these things more and more, then they will make you productive with respect to your knowing our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
\v 9 \add Do these things,\add* because a person who does not do these things \add is not aware that these things are important.\add* \add This person is like\add* a blind person \add who cannot see what is around him,\add* \add or like\add* a nearsighted person \add who can only see things that are close to him.\add* \add This person has even\add* forgotten that God has forgiven him for the sinful things \add he did\add* in the past.
\v 10 Consequently, you fellow believers, make even more effort to make sure that God has chosen you to be his people. If you do these things I have just told you about, then you will absolutely never become separated from God.
\v 11 \add This is true\add* because, \add by your doing\add* thus, God will wholeheartedly allow you to enter into the place where our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah will rule \add his people\add* forever.
\p 
\v 12 Consequently, \add because these things are so important,\add* I am always prepared to keep on reminding you about these things. \add I will remind you\add* even though you already know \add them\add* and are firmly convinced of the true teaching that you now have.
\v 13 Nevertheless, I consider it to be right for me to keep reminding you \add about these things\add* as long as I am alive.
\v 14 \add I want to remind you of these things,\add* because I know that I shall die soon. \add I shall die\add* just like our Lord Jesus the Messiah has made clear to me \add previously\add*.
\v 15 In addition, I will make every effort \add by writing these things down\add* to cause you to keep on remembering these things after I have died.
\p 
\v 16 \add I will do this\add* because, when we apostles told you that our Lord Jesus the Messiah is coming back in power \add some day\add*, we were not basing \add what we told you\add* on stories that we had cleverly made up. On the contrary, \add we told you\add* what we saw with our own eyes, the divinely majestic Jesus.
\v 17 \add I can say we were eyewitnesses\add* because \add we were there when\add* God the Father honored him and glorified him, \add when Jesus heard\add* a voice from the majestically glorious God. \add And the voice said,\add* “This is my Son, whom I love very much. I am very pleased with him.”
\v 18 We ourselves also heard this voice of God that came from heaven when we were with Jesus on that sacred mountain.
\v 19 And we have what the prophets wrote \add previously\add*, \add which is\add* absolutely reliable. Pay attention to what they wrote, because it is like a lamp that is shining in a dark place \add that helps people see where they are going\add*. \add That light\add* will shine until the day \add of the return of the Messiah\add* dawns and \add Jesus\add*, the star that appears before the morning, gives your minds greater understanding.
\v 20 Above all, you should know that no prophet could interpret \add his prophecy\add* by his own imagination.
\v 21 \add This is true\add* because no one ever prophesied a \add true\add* prophecy according to what a human wanted. On the contrary, those who spoke \add prophecies\add* from God did so by the Holy Spirit guiding them.
\c 2
\p 
\v 1 But people who falsely proclaimed \add messages from God\add* were also amidst the Israelites. In the same way there will also be people who teach false \add messages\add* amidst you. They will introduce opinions \add that will result in\add* eternal condemnation. They will even reject their owner, \add Jesus,\add* who redeemed them. \add As a result of this,\add* God will soon condemn them \add for eternity\add*.
\v 2 And many \add people\add* will do the same unrestrained immoral acts \add as these false teachers\add*. Because of these false teachers, \add unbelievers\add* will speak evil of Christianity.
\v 3 And due to their greedy hearts, \add these false teachers\add* will make a profit off of you by telling you lies. God condemned them a long time ago, and God will certainly destroy them.
\p 
\v 4 \add This judgment is certain\add* because God did not let the angels who acted sinfully remain unpunished. On the contrary, he threw them into hell \add where they are\add* chained in darkness. God imprisoned \add these sinful angels\add* there and is holding them there in order to judge them.
\v 5 And God did not let \add the people who lived in\add* the world long ago remain unpunished. However, he preserved eight people, including Noah, who was a righteous herald, when he destroyed by a flood the ungodly \add people who lived in the\add* world \add at that time\add*.
\v 6 And God condemned the cities \add called\add* Sodom and Gomorrah to be destroyed by burning them completely to ashes. \add This resulted in God\add* making \add those cities\add* an example of what will happen to people who dishonor God.
\v 7 And God rescued Lot, who was a righteous man. Lot was greatly distressed because of the unrestrained immoral acts of the people who acted lawlessly \add in Sodom\add*.
\v 8 (When he lived with those wicked people \add in Sodom\add*, that righteous man Lot distressed himself every day by what he saw and heard. \add He did so\add* because of the things people did that were against God’s law.)
\v 9 \add Since these things are all true, then you can be sure that\add* the Lord knows how to rescue people who honor him from being tried. And \add the Lord also knows how\add* to keep those who do unrighteous deeds \add ready\add* \add in order\add* to punish them at the time when he judges.
\v 10 And \add he will punish\add* especially those who keep on doing what their sinful hearts want to do, \add which are things that make them\add* displeasing to God. \add These people\add* also scorn divine authority. How bold \add they are\add*! They do whatever they wish! They are not even afraid to insult God’s glorious angels.
\v 11 But \add God’s\add* angels, \add even though\add* they are much more powerful than these people, do not accuse glorious beings in an insulting manner in front of God!
\v 12 However, these \add false teachers\add* are like animals that cannot think rationally. According to the way they naturally behave, they were born so that others may capture and destroy them. They say bad things about things they do not even know. God will surely destroy them when it is time for their destruction.
\v 13 \add These false teachers\add* suffer harm as the proper punishment for their harmful deeds. \add They are\add* pleased to party in an immoral manner \add even\add* during the daytime. \add Like\add* ugly stains \add on one’s clothing,\add* \add they are disgraceful to your gatherings\add*! \add They even\add* celebrate their deceptive deeds while eating \add a meal\add* with you!
\v 14 They constantly want to have immoral sexual relations with \add every\add* woman \add they see\add*. They cannot stop sinning. They lure spiritually weak people \add into sin\add*. \add As athletes train for sports, these false teachers\add* train themselves to be greedy. \add God\add* has cursed them!
\v 15 They refuse to live the way God wants them to. They are acting wickedly. They are imitating what Balaam, the son of Bosor, did \add long ago\add*. He loved \add to receive money as\add* payment for wicked deeds.
\v 16 However, God rebuked him for his wicked deed \add against Israel\add*. \add And even though donkeys do not speak\add*, God used \add Balaam’s\add* donkey to speak to him with a human voice and stop his foolish action.
\p 
\v 17 These \add false teachers\add* are \add useless\add*, \add like\add* springs that do not give water. \add They are like\add* clouds that the storm pushes away \add before they can give rain\add*. \add God\add* has reserved the darkness \add of hell\add* for them.
\v 18 \add This is true\add* because they persuade people to sin who have recently \add become believers and\add* stopped doing what wicked unbelievers do. \add These false teachers do this\add* by speaking proud words that are not worth anything. \add They persuade these people to sin\add* by doing whatever their sinful natures want to do.
\v 19 \add They also do this\add* by telling their listeners that they are free to do whatever they want while, at the same time, they themselves are controlled \add by their sinful desires\add* that will destroy them. \add This is true\add* because the thing that overpowers a person’s will takes control of that person.
\v 20 And if they have stopped doing the things that defile sinful human society by knowing the one who rules over us and saves us, Jesus the Messiah, but those \add defiling things\add* \add began to\add* control them again, \add then\add* their situation is worse now than \add it was\add* at first.
\v 21 \add This is because\add* it would have been better for them if they had never learned how to live in the way that pleases God than to learn \add this way\add* and reject \add God’s\add* holy commands that \add the apostles\add* taught them.
\v 22 This is a true proverb \add that describes\add* what has happened to \add these false teachers\add*: “They are like dogs that return to eat their own vomit,” and, “They are like pigs that have washed themselves and then roll again in the mud.”
\c 3
\p 
\v 1 Fellow believers whom I love, this \add letter\add* that I am now writing to you is the second letter \add that I have written to you\add*. \add I have written\add* both \add of these letters to you\add* to remind you of the things that your sincere minds already know.
\v 2 \add I have written these letters\add* in order to remind you of the prophecies that the holy prophets spoke a long time ago. \add I also want you\add* to remember what the one who rules over us and saves us has commanded you through the teaching of the apostles \add whom we sent to\add* you.
\p 
\v 3 It is important for you to understand that people who mock will come and mock \add the return of Jesus\add* during the time shortly before Jesus returns. \add Those people\add* will do whatever they want to do.
\v 4 \add These mockers\add* will say, “Jesus’ promise to return is not true! \add We know this\add* because since Israel’s ancestors died, everything has remained the same. It has been the same way since God created everything!”
\v 5 \add They will say this\add* because they deliberately ignore that God caused the heavens to exist a long time ago by commanding it to be so, and he caused the earth to come out from water and up through water \add by commanding it to be so\add*.
\v 6 And God, by his command and by water, destroyed the world that existed at that time. \add He did so\add* by flooding the earth with water.
\v 7 However, God, by the same command, has set apart the heavens and the earth that exist now for fire. God is keeping them for the time when he will judge and destroy people who act wickedly.
\v 8 Fellow believers whom I love, do not ignore this one truth: from God’s perspective a short period of time is no different from a long period of time!
\v 9 The Lord is not acting slowly to fulfill his promise of Jesus’ return. Some people think \add that this is so\add*. On the contrary, God is being patient with you, because he does not want any of you to be punished eternally. Rather, he wants everyone to repent.
\v 10 In contrast \add to what those mockers say\add*, the time when the Lord returns will come unexpectedly. At that time there will be a great roaring sound and the heavens will cease to exist. God will also destroy the basic elements of nature by fire. Then God will reveal the earth and everything that has been done in it.
\p 
\v 11 Since God will destroy all these things \add I have just mentioned\add* in the way \add I have described\add*, you must certainly behave in a holy manner and do what pleases God.
\v 12 \add Do these things\add* while expecting and trying to speed up the time of Jesus’ return. On account of that day, God will destroy the heavens with fire and melt the basic elements of nature with heat.
\v 13 \add Although all those events will happen,\add* we are expecting the new heavens and new earth that God has promised to create. Everyone will be righteous in that new universe.
\p 
\v 14 Because this is true, fellow believers whom I love, while you are waiting for these things \add to happen\add*, do your best to make sure that Jesus will see that you are not living sinfully \add and that you are\add* at peace \add with God\add*.
\v 15 And think about this: Our Lord Jesus is patient so that more people can be saved. Paul, a fellow believer whom we love, has also said this when he wrote to you. He wrote using the wisdom that God gave him.
\v 16 In all the letters that Paul wrote, he also writes about these things \add that I have just mentioned\add*. In his letters are also some \add teachings\add* that are difficult to understand. People who lack knowledge and stability misinterpret those difficult teachings, as well as the rest of the scriptures. \add God\add* will punish them as a result.
\v 17 Because all these things are true, fellow believers whom I love, and because you already know about these things, keep yourselves from ceasing to live faithfully because you let the wrong teaching of those who live like there is no law deceive you into sinning.
\v 18 Rather, live in such a manner that you experience more and more of the kind acts of the one who rules over us and saves us, Jesus the Messiah. And live in such a manner that you know more and more about him. \p I pray that everyone will glorify Jesus both at this time and forever. May this truly be so!