UST 2PET Chapter 1

1 I, Simon Peter, serve Jesus the Messiah, and I am an apostle whom he appointed. I am writing this letter to you whom God has caused to believe in the Messiah just like he caused us apostles to believe in the Messiah. Jesus has done this by his righteous acts. Jesus the Messiah is our God, and he is the one who saves us. 2 I pray that God will increase his kind acts toward you and make you more peaceful because you know God and Jesus, who is our Lord.

3 God has given us everything that we need in order to live a life that honors him. He does this by his power as God. He does this by what we know about him. God is the one who chose us to be his people by his glorious and excellent character. 4 By his glorious and excellent character, God has promised that he will do priceless and great things for us. He has done this so that by believing in what he has promised, you will be able to act like God, and you will no longer suffer the moral corruption that is in the world through the desire to do sinful things.

5 Because God has done all that, do your best to not only believe in the Messiah, but also to do good things. And make sure that you not only do good things, but that you also learn more about God. 6 And make sure that you do not only learn more about God, but that you also control yourself in what you do and say. And make sure that you do not only control yourself in what you do and say, but that you also remain faithful to God in hardship. And make sure that you do not only remain faithful to God in hardship, but that you also honor him. 7 And make sure that you do not only honor God, but that you also show affection to each other as family members. And make sure that you do not only show affection to each other as family members, but that you also love others. 8 Do these things, 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. 9 Do these things, because a person who does not do these things is not aware that these things are important. This person is like a blind person who cannot see what is around him, or like a nearsighted person who can only see things that are close to him. This person has even forgotten that God has forgiven him for the sinful things he did in the past. 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. 11 This is true because, by your doing thus, God will wholeheartedly allow you to enter into the place where our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah will rule his people forever.

12 Consequently, because these things are so important, I am always prepared to keep on reminding you about these things. I will remind you even though you already know them and are firmly convinced of the true teaching that you now have. 13 Nevertheless, I consider it to be right for me to keep reminding you about these things as long as I am alive. 14 I want to remind you of these things, because I know that I shall die soon. I shall die just like our Lord Jesus the Messiah has made clear to me previously. 15 In addition, I will make every effort by writing these things down to cause you to keep on remembering these things after I have died.

16 I will do this because, when we apostles told you that our Lord Jesus the Messiah is coming back in power some day, we were not basing what we told you on stories that we had cleverly made up. On the contrary, we told you what we saw with our own eyes, the divinely majestic Jesus. 17 I can say we were eyewitnesses because we were there when God the Father honored him and glorified him, when Jesus heard a voice from the majestically glorious God. And the voice said, “This is my Son, whom I love very much. I am very pleased with him.” 18 We ourselves also heard this voice of God that came from heaven when we were with Jesus on that sacred mountain. 19 And we have what the prophets wrote previously, which is absolutely reliable. Pay attention to what they wrote, because it is like a lamp that is shining in a dark place that helps people see where they are going. That light will shine until the day of the return of the Messiah dawns and Jesus, the star that appears before the morning, gives your minds greater understanding. 20 Above all, you should know that no prophet could interpret his prophecy by his own imagination. 21 This is true because no one ever prophesied a true prophecy according to what a human wanted. On the contrary, those who spoke prophecies from God did so by the Holy Spirit guiding them.

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