1 1 I, Simon Peter, am writing this letter to you. I serve Jesus Christ, and am an apostle appointed by him. I am sending this letter to you whom God has caused to believe in Christ just like he caused us(exc) apostles to believe in Christ. You and we have ◄equally been given the/both been given the same► privilege of believing in Jesus Christ. He is God, he is righteous, he is the one whom we worship, and he is our Savior. 2 I pray that God will continue to act very kindly towards you, and give you ◄a deep/very much► inner peace, because you truly know God and Jesus, who is our Lord.
3 God [PRS] has given us everything that we need in order that we might receive eternal life and in order that we might live ◄in a godly way/in a way that pleases him►. He gives us that by the power that he has because he is God, and he has also given it to us as a result of our knowing him. He is the wonderful and perfect one who chose us to be his people. 4 Being glorious and perfect, he has promised us that he will do very great and ◄priceless/very precious► things for us. He has also promised you that by believing what he has promised you will be able to act righteously, just like God acts righteously, and that you will be free from being morally depraved/corrupted, and that you will not be like those who do not believe in Christ and are morally depraved because of their desire to do things that are evil.
5 Because God has done all that, by trying very hard, make sure that you not only believe in Christ, but that you are also living morally good lives. And make sure that you are not only living morally good lives, but that you also know what God desires (OR, behave wisely). 6 And make sure that you not only know what God desires (OR, behave wisely), but that you also control what you say and do. And make sure that you not only control what you say and do, but that you are also steadfast/patient. And make sure that you are not only ◄steadfast/patient when you suffer►, but that you are also godly. 7 And make sure that you not only ◄are godly/live in a way that pleases God►, but that you also have a concern for your fellow believers, as brothers and sisters ought to have for each other. And make sure that you not only have a concern for your fellow believers, but that you also love others. 8 If you do these things, and if you do them more and more, that demonstrates that knowing our Lord Jesus Christ ◄is very effective/produces good results► [LIT] in your lives. 9 If these qualities are not present in people, it means they are not aware that these things are important, just like a blind person is not aware of what is around him. They think only about earthly matters, just like [MET] a shortsighted person sees clearly only things that are near. It seems that they have forgotten that God has forgiven them for their former sinful lives. 10 Instead of acting like those people, try to confirm/prove by the way you conduct your lives that you are among those whom God has chosen [DOU] to be his people. If you do that, you will certainly never become separated from God, 11 and God will very wholeheartedly welcome you into the place where our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will rule his people forever.
12 I intend to keep on reminding you very frequently [HYP] about these matters, even though you already know them and are firmly convinced that they are true. 13 I consider it right that I should help you to continually think about these matters by reminding you about them as long as I am alive [EUP], 14 because I know that I shall die [EUP] soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ clearly has revealed to me. 15 Moreover, I will ◄make every effort/try hard► by writing these things down to enable you to remember them at all times after I have died [EUP].
16 We apostles told you that our Lord Jesus Christ acts powerfully and that he is coming back some day. We were not basing what we told you on stories that we had cleverly ◄invented/made up►. Instead, we told you what we ourselves saw with our own eyes, that the Lord Jesus is supremely great. 17 God, our Father, greatly honored him when God’s great glory/brightness surrounded him, and God [MTY] said, “This is my Son, whom I love very much; I am very pleased with him.” 18 We (exc) ourselves heard God [MTY] say that from heaven, when we were with Christ on that holy/sacred mountain. 19 We also have the Scriptures that the prophets wrote about Christ long ago, which are completely reliable/trustworthy. You should ◄pay attention to/think carefully about► what they wrote, because what they wrote enables you to know whether what is taught to you is true or whether it is false [SIM], like a lamp that is shining in a dark place enables people to see where they are going [SIM]. You should ◄pay attention to/think carefully about► what they wrote until our Lord Jesus Christ comes back and enables you [SYN] to know God fully, which will be like when [MET] ◄a day dawns/daylight comes► and the morning star rises and we can see it clearly. 20 It is important that you realize that no one can interpret/explain by himself the meaning of what the prophets wrote in the Scriptures without the help of God’s Spirit (OR, no part of the Scriptures originated with the prophet himself), 21 because no human beings decided to make those prophecies. On the contrary, those who spoke messages from God did that because it was the Holy Spirit who caused them to do it, and therefore the Spirit must help us to interpret/understand their meaning.
2 1 Just like there were false prophets among the Israeli people long ago, so there will also be teachers who teach false things among you. They will enter your congregations without you realizing what/who they are, and they will spiritually injure some people by what they teach. Specifically, these teachers will even deny that the Lord Jesus died to pay for the guilt of our sins. As a result, they will soon destroy themselves spiritually, and God will also punish them. 2 And many people will behave in an extremely immoral manner, imitating the extremely immoral way these teachers who teach false things behave. As a result, unbelievers will ◄discredit the true message/say the true message is false►. 3 Because the teachers of false teaching want a lot of things that other people have, they think that by telling you stories that they themselves have ◄made up/invented►, they will get money from you. God decided long ago that he would punish them, and he has not fallen asleep [LIT]! He will certainly destroy them!
4 God destroyed [LIT] the angels who sinned. He threw them into the worst place in hell and imprisoned them there in darkness in order to keep them there until he judges and punishes them. 5 He also got rid of [LIT] the people who lived in [MTY] the world long ago. He saved only eight of them, including Noah, who was a righteous preacher. God saved them when he destroyed in a flood all ◄the ungodly people/the people whose lives were not pleasing to him► who were living then. 6 He also condemned Sodom and Gomorrah cities; that is, he destroyed them by burning them completely to ashes. By doing that he gave a warning to those who afterwards would live in ◄an ungodly way/a way that is displeasing to him►. 7 But he rescued Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who was a righteous man. Lot was ◄greatly distressed/very sad► because the people in Sodom were doing very immoral things. 8 That righteous man’s soul ◄was tormented/suffered great agony► day after day because he saw and heard those wicked people behave in a very lawless/wicked manner when he was living among them. 9 And since the Lord God rescued Lot, you can be sure that he knows how to rescue ◄other godly people/people whose lives please him► from their sufferings, and he is able to preserve ◄ungodly people/people whose lives do not please him►, whom he has started to punish even now, until the time when he will finish judging them and punish them. 10 He will punish especially severely those ungodly teachers who teach false things who do the things that their self-directed nature desires, things that ◄defile them/cause them to be completely impure►. Those teachers of false teachings despise all beings who rule over them.
Because those teachers of false doctrines are extremely arrogant/proud [DOU], they ◄are not afraid to insult/boldly speak evil about► glorious beings in heaven (OR, glorious/wonderful beings who rule over people). 11 In contrast, angels do not insult those teachers when those teachers accuse the angels of blasphemy while the Lord God is watching, even though the angels are much more powerful [DOU] than the teachers of false doctrines. 12 Because those teachers of false doctrines are like animals that cannot think as humans do [DOU], they say evil things about spiritual things which they know nothing about. As a result, God will destroy them like people destroy animals, animals that are born only in order to be hunted and killed {in order that people should hunt and kill them}. 13 God will punish those teachers in return for the unrighteous actions/things that they have done. They even like ◄to carouse/to drink and revel noisily► in the daytime as well as at night. And as they indulge/enjoy themselves just like they want to while they are feasting with you, they cause you to become impure, as [MET] stains and blotches [DOU] ruin a clean garment. 14 They want to commit [MTY] adultery with every woman whom they look at. They never stop seeking opportunities to sin. They entice/persuade those who are spiritually unstable to join them in doing the sinful things that they do. Because of their ever-increasing ◄greed/desire to have more and more things►, they are doomed to eternal punishment. 15 They have ◄rejected good moral standards/quit doing what everyone knows is right►. They have imitated what the prophet Balaam, the son of Bosor, did long ago. He, acting very unrighteously, wanted the enemies of the Jews to pay him if he asked God ◄to curse/to do bad thing to► the Jews. 16 But God rebuked him for having done that which was wrong and for behaving very foolishly. And even though donkeys do not speak, God used a donkey to hinder Balaam by enabling it to speak to him with a human voice.
17 These teachers who each false things mislead/deceive people by promising what they cannot do, as [MET] dried-up springs mislead/deceive people by causing them to expect to get water from them. They mislead/deceive people [MET] just like clouds that are blown along by strong winds mislead/deceive people by causing them to expect rain, but no rain falls. Therefore, God has reserved the darkness of hell for those teachers of false doctrines. 18 By boasting proudly as they make speeches that are worthless, they entice people who have recently become believers and have stopped doing the things that wicked people do. Urged on by their self-directed nature, they entice them into sin by encouraging them to do evil things. 19 The false teachers tell people that they are free to do whatever they want to do, even though they themselves are like slaves [MET] because their own self-directed nature forces them to do sinful things. Think about these well-known words: “Whenever a person is controlled by something {something controls a person}, it is as though that person has become a slave of what controls him.” 20 Those who teach false truths learned about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As a result, they stopped doing those things that ◄defile people/cause people to become impure► spiritually. Since they have begun to do those evil things again, with the result that they are unable to stop doing them, they are in a worse condition than they were in before they knew Jesus Christ. 21 Because God will severely punish them, it would have been better for them if they had never known what it means to live in a righteous way. It is too bad that although they knew how to live in a righteous way, they stopped doing the things that God commanded people to do, the things that were taught to them ◄by us apostles/by Christ► {that ◄we apostles/Christ► taught to them}. 22 The way they are behaving again is just like ◄the proverbs/what people often say►: They are like dogs that return to eat their vomit, and they are like pigs that have been washed and then roll again in the mud.
3 1 This letter that I am now writing to you whom I love, is the second letter that I have written to you. In both these letters I have reminded you about the things you already know, in order that I may stimulate/cause you to think sincerely about those things. 2 I want you to remember the words that were spoken by the holy prophets {that the holy prophets spoke} long ago, and also to remember what our Lord and Savior commanded, things that we, your apostles, told you about.
3 It is important for you to understand that in the time immediately before Christ comes back, there will be people who will ridicule the idea of his coming back. Those people will do whatever evil things they wish to do. 4 They will say, “Although it was promised that Christ will come back, ◄nothing has happened that would indicate that he is coming back./what happened to the promise that he is coming back?► [RHQ] We say that because ever since the Christian leaders who lived long ago died [EUP], everything has remained the same. Things are as they always have been since God created the world!” 5 They will say that because they ◄deliberately overlook the fact/have decided to ignore what they know► that God, by commanding long ago that it should be so, caused the heavens to exist, and he caused the earth to appear out of water and to be separate from the water. 6 And God, by commanding that it should be so, later destroyed the world that existed at that time, by causing the earth to be flooded with water {water to flood the earth}. 7 Furthermore, God, commanded that the heavens and the earth that exist now remain until the time when he will judge ◄ungodly people/people whose lives are not pleasing to him►. And at that time he will destroy the heavens and the earth by burning them. 8 Dear friends, I want you to understand well that the Lord God is willing to wait a long time to judge the people in the world! How much time passes before the Lord God judges the people in the world does not matter to him! He considers that one day passes no more quickly than 1,000 years, and he also considers that 1,000 years pass as quickly as one day passes to us! 9 Therefore, you should not think that because Christ has not yet come back to judge people, the Lord God is ◄delaying/slow to do► what he promised. Some people think that this is so, and they say that Christ will never come back. But you should understand that the reason why Christ has not yet come back to judge people is that God is being patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be lost eternally. Instead, he wants everyone to turn away from their sinful behavior. 10 Although God is being patient, at the time [MTY] that he has chosen, the Lord Jesus Christ will certainly come back to judge people. He will come back unexpectedly, like a thief [SIM] comes unexpectedly. At that time there will be a great roaring sound. The heavens will cease to exist. ◄The elements/The parts of which the universe consists► will be destroyed by fire, and the earth that God made and everything on it that people have made will disappear (OR, will be burned up).
11 Because God will certainly destroy all these things like I just said, you certainly know how you should behave. [RHQ] You should behave ◄in a godly manner/in a manner that pleases God► 12 while you eagerly/expectantly wait for Christ to return on the day that God has chosen [MTY], and you should try to make that day come soon. Because of what God [PRS] will do on that day, the heavens will be destroyed. ◄The elements/The parts of which the universe consist► will melt and burn up. 13 Although all those events/things will happen, we rejoice because we are waiting for the new heavens and new earth that God has promised. The only people who will be in the new heavens and on this new earth will be people who are [PRS] righteous.
14 Therefore, dear friends, because you are waiting for these things to happen, do all that you can live ◄in a godly manner/in a manner that pleases God►, in order that Christ will see that you are completely pure [DOU] and that you are living peacefully with each other. 15 And think about this: Our Lord Jesus Christ is patient because he wants people to be saved. Our dear ◄brother/fellow believer► Paul also wrote wise words to you about these same matters, because God enabled him to understand these ◄events/things that will happen►. 16 In the letters that Paul wrote there are certain things that are difficult for people to understand. People who are spiritually ignorant and ◄unstable/do not believe firmly in Christ► interpret these things wrongly, as they also ◄interpret/explain the meaning of► the other parts of the Scriptures wrongly. The result is that they will destroy themselves spiritually, and God will punish them. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know about those who teach what is false, ◄guard against them/beware►. Do not let those wicked people deceive you by telling you things that are wrong, with the result that you yourselves begin to doubt what you now firmly believe. 18 Instead, live in such a manner that you experience more and more our Savior Jesus Christ being kind to you, and that you get to know him better and better.
I pray/desire that Jesus Christ will be honored both now and forever![fn]
3:18 Amen./So be it. At the end.