2 Peter 3
1 Dear friends, this is already the second letter I am writing to you. In both, I try to awaken your sincere minds with reminders.
2 I write so that you may remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets, and the command of the Lord and Savior given through your apostles.
3 First of all, know this: in the last days, scoffers will come, mocking and following their own desires.
4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, everything has continued as it was from the beginning of creation.”
5 For they deliberately overlook this: long ago there were heavens, and an earth formed out of water and through water by the word of God.
6 Through these, the world of that time was destroyed, flooded with water.
7 But by the same word, the present heavens and earth are kept for fire, reserved for the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly people.
8 But do not overlook this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
9 The Lord is not delaying his promise, as some consider delay. Instead, he is patient with you. He does not want some to perish, but wants all to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a great roar, the elements will be dissolved in flames, and the earth and the works in it will be exposed.
11 Since all these things will be dissolved in this way, what kind of people you ought to be, in holy conduct and devotion to God!
12 You should wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in fire and the elements will melt in flames.
13 But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless.
15 And consider the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him.
16 He speaks of these things in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not swept away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own firm ground.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, now and until the day of eternity.
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