Day 290 of 365

¹Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

²Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

³seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue;

⁴by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

⁵Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;

⁶and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience godliness;

⁷and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love.

⁸For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.

¹⁰Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

¹¹For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

¹²Therefore I will be ready always to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth.

¹³I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you;

¹⁴knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

¹⁵Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure.

¹⁶For we did not follow cunningly devised tales, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

¹⁷For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

¹⁸We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts:

²⁰knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation.

²¹For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

¹But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.

²Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.

³In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old does not linger, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to the lower parts of hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

⁵and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a proclaimer of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

⁶and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;

⁷and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked

⁸(for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds):

⁹the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;

¹⁰but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;

¹¹whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord.

¹²But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,

¹³suffering the penalty as the wages of evil; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;

¹⁴having eyes full of adultery, and who cannot cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;

¹⁵forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing;

¹⁶but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷These are wells without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved.

¹⁸For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who barely escape from those who live in error;

¹⁹promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.

²⁰For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

²¹For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

²²It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns to his own vomit again," and "the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire."

¹This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you;

²that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles:

³knowing this first, that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking and walking after their own lusts,

⁴and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

⁵For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;

⁶by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

⁷But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸But do not forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be disclosed.

¹¹Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness,

¹²looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

¹³But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without blemish and blameless in his sight.

¹⁵Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you;

¹⁶as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

¹⁷You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.

¹⁸But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of Jacob, to those who are called, loved by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:

²Mercy to you and peace and love be multiplied.

³Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

⁴For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

⁶Angels who did not keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

⁷Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸Yet in like manner these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings.

⁹But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!"

¹⁰But these speak evil of whatever things they do not know. What they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason, they are destroyed in these things.

¹¹Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah's rebellion.

¹²These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

¹³wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,

¹⁵to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

¹⁶These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage.

¹⁷But you, beloved, remember the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁸They said to you that "In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts."

¹⁹These are they who cause divisions, and are sensual, not having the Spirit.

²⁰But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

²¹Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

²²On some have compassion, who are in doubt,

²³and some save, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear; hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

²⁴Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,

²⁵to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.