Shepherd the Flock of God
5 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a ywitness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the zflock of God that is among you, exercising oversight,1 anot under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you;2 not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 bnot domineering over those in your charge, but being cexamples to the flock. 4 And dwhen the chief eShepherd appears, you will receive the unfading fcrown of glory. 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. gClothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for h“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 icasting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 jBe sober-minded; kbe watchful. Your adversary the devil lprowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 mResist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your nbrotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have osuffered a little while, the God of all grace, pwho has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 qTo him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Final Greetings
12 By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. 13 rShe who is at sBabylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. 14 Greet one another with the kiss of love.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
2 Peter
Greeting
1 aSimeon1 Peter, a servant2 and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of bour God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 cMay grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Confirm Your Calling and Election
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him dwho called us to3 his own glory and eexcellence,4 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and fvery great promises, so that through them you may become gpartakers of the divine nature, having hescaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with ivirtue,5 and jvirtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with klove. 8 For if these qualities6 are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or lunfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is mblind, having forgotten that he was ncleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers,7 obe all the more diligent to pconfirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never qfall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an rentrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are sestablished tin the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this ubody,8 vto stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, was our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Christ’s Glory and the Prophetic Word
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised xmyths when ywe made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, zbut we were eyewitnesses of his amajesty. 17 For when he received honor and bglory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, c“This is my beloved Son,9 with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a dlamp eshining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the fmorning star grises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 hFor no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but imen spoke from God as they were carried along jby the Holy Spirit.
False Prophets and Teachers
2 But kfalse prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will lsecretly bring in destructive heresies, even mdenying the Master who nbought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their osensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their pgreed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation qfrom long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 rFor if sGod did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell1 and committed them to chains2 of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, twhen he brought a uflood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by vturning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;3 7 and if he wrescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the xsensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to yrescue the godly from trials,4 and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge5 in the lust of defiling passion and zdespise authority.
Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 awhereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 bBut these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, cblaspheming about dmatters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. eThey are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,6 while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,7 insatiable for sin. They entice funsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed gthe way of hBalaam, the son of Beor, who loved igain from wrongdoing, 16 but was jrebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are kwaterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, lspeaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely mescaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are nslaves8 of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, othe last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 pFor it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: q“The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after rwashing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
The Day of the Lord Will Come
3 This is now the ssecond letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am tstirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 uthat you should remember the vpredictions wof the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, xthat scoffers will come yin the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, z“Where is the promise of his acoming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, bthat the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water cby the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was ddeluged with water and eperished. 7 But by the same word fthe heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, gand a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is hpatient toward you,1 inot wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come jlike a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies2 will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.3
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for knew heavens and a new earth lin which righteousness dwells.
Final Words
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, mbe diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as nour beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, otake care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
1 John
The Word of Life
1 aThat which was from the beginning, bwhich we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning cthe word1 of life— 2 the dlife was made emanifest, and we have seen it, and ftestify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was gwith the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our hfellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And iwe are writing these things so that jour2 joy may be complete.
Walking in the Light
5 kThis is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 lIf we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we mlie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and nthe blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 oIf we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and pthe truth is not in us. 9 qIf we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we rmake him a liar, and his word is not in us.
