2 Peter
Chapter 3
1 My dear friends, I am writing to you again to awaken your clean thoughts by helping you remember.
2 So you will remember the words spoken before by the holy prophets and the command given by us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior.
3 First, know that in the last days, people who mock others will come, following their own desires.
4 They ask, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on just as it has since the world was created.”
5 They willingly ignore that long ago, by God’s command, the heavens came to be and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
6 The world at that time was flooded with water and destroyed.
7 The heavens and earth that exist today are maintained by God’s command, saved for fire when the time comes for judging and destroying sinful people.
8 Dear friends, don’t forget this one thing: with God, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.
9 God is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with us, not wanting anyone to die, but for everyone to turn from their sins.
10 God’s day will come like a thief at night. Then the sky will disappear with a loud bang, and the basic parts of the world will dissolve from extreme heat. The earth and everything on it will be burned up.
11 Since everything will be destroyed, how should you live? Live a holy and godly life.
12 Waiting for and hurrying the arrival of God’s day when the skies will burn and vanish and everything will melt from intense heat.
13 We expect new heavens and a new earth, as God promised, where goodness lives.
14 So, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, try hard to be found by God in peace, clean, and without fault.
15 Understand that our God’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom given to him.
16 In all his letters, he talks about these topics. Some ideas are hard to grasp. The uneducated and unsure people distort them, like they do with other parts of the Bible, and this leads to their ruin.
17 So, dear friends, since you already know this, be careful not to be led astray by the wrong of wicked people and lose your strong position.
18 Keep growing in kindness and in understanding our leader and rescuer, Jesus Christ. May he be honored now and always. Amen.