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            2 Peter Contemporary English Version (CEV)

chapter 1

     1From Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

     To everyone who shares with us in the privilege of believing that our God and Savior Jesus Christ will do what

     is just and fair. 2I pray that God will be kind to you and will let you live in perfect peace! May you keep

     learning more and more about God and our Lord Jesus.

     Living as the Lord's Followers

     3We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God's own power, when

     we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. 4God made great and marvelous

     promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt

     influences of this world.

     5Do your best to improve your faith. You can do this by adding goodness, understanding, 6self-control,

     patience, devotion to God, 7concern for others, and love. 8If you keep growing in this way, it will show that

     what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful. 9But if you don't grow,

     you are like someone who is nearsighted or blind, and you have forgotten that your past sins are forgiven.

     10My friends, you must do all you can to show that God has really chosen and selected you. If you keep on

     doing this, you won't stumble and fall. 11Then our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will give you a glorious

     welcome into his kingdom that will last forever.

     12You are holding firmly to the truth that you were given. But I am still going to remind you of these things.

     13In fact, I think I should keep on reminding you until I leave this body. 14And our Lord Jesus Christ has

     already told me that I will soon leave it behind. 15That is why I am doing my best to make sure that each of

     you remembers all of this after I am gone.

     The Message about the Glory of Christ

     16When we told you about the power and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were not telling clever

     stories that someone had made up. But with our own eyes we saw his true greatness. 17God, our great and

     wonderful Father, truly honored him by saying, "This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him." 18We

     were there with Jesus on the holy mountain and heard this voice speak from heaven.

     19All of this makes us even more certain that what the prophets said is true. So you should pay close

     attention to their message, as you would to a lamp shining in some dark place. You must keep on paying

     attention until daylight comes and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20But you need to realize that no

     one alone can understand any of the prophecies in the Scriptures. 21The prophets did not think these things

     up on their own, but they were guided by the Spirit of God.

chapter 2

     False Prophets and Teachers

     1Sometimes false prophets spoke to the people of Israel. False teachers will also sneak in and speak harmful

     lies to you. But these teachers don't really belong to the Master who paid a great price for them, and they

     will quickly destroy themselves. 2Many people will follow their evil ways and cause others to tell lies about the

     true way. 3They will be greedy and cheat you with smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them,

     and God doesn't sleep.

     4God did not have pity on the angels that sinned. He had them tied up and thrown into the dark pits of hell

     until the time of judgment. 5And during Noah's time, God did not have pity on the ungodly people of the

     world. He destroyed them with a flood, though he did save eight people, including Noah, who preached the

     truth.

     6God punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and this is a warning to anyone

     else who wants to sin. 7-8Lot lived right and was greatly troubled by the terrible way those wicked people

     were living. He was a good man, and day after day he suffered because of the evil things he saw and heard.

     So the Lord rescued him. 9This shows that the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their sufferings

     and to punish evil people while they wait for the day of judgment.

     10The Lord is especially hard on people who disobey him and don't think of anything except their own filthy

     desires. They are reckless and proud and are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven. 11Although

     angels are more powerful than these evil beings, even the angels don't dare to accuse them to the Lord.

     12These people are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and

     killed. They speak evil of things they don't know anything about. But their own corrupt deeds will destroy

     them. 13They have done evil, and they will be rewarded with evil.

     They think it is fun to have wild parties during the day. They are immoral, and the meals they eat with you

     are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on. 14All they think about is having sex with someone

     else's husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds. They trick people who are easily fooled, and

     their minds are filled with greedy thoughts. But they are headed for trouble! 15They have left the true road

     and have gone down the wrong path by following the example of the prophet Balaam. He was the son of Beor

     and loved what he got from being a crook. 16But a donkey corrected him for this evil deed. It spoke to him

     with a human voice and made him stop his foolishness.

     17These people are like dried up water holes and clouds blown by a windstorm. The darkest part of hell is

     waiting for them. 18They brag out loud about their stupid nonsense. And by being vulgar and crude, they trap

     people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life. 19They promise freedom to everyone. But

     they are merely slaves of filthy living, because people are slaves of whatever controls them.

     20When they learned about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they escaped from the filthy things of this

     world. But they are again caught up and controlled by these filthy things, and now they are in worse shape

     than they were at first. 21They would have been better off if they had never known about the right way.

     Even after they knew what was right, they turned their backs on the holy commandments that they were

     given. 22What happened to them is just like the true saying,

     "A dog will come back

     to lick up its own vomit.

     A pig that has been washed

     will roll in the mud."

chapter 3

     The Lord Will Return

     1My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to encourage you to do some honest thinking. I

     don't want you to forget 2what God's prophets said would happen. You must never forget what the holy

     prophets taught in the past. And you must remember what the apostles told you our Lord and Savior has

     commanded us to do.

     3But first you must realize that in the last days some people won't think about anything except their own

     selfish desires. They will make fun of you 4and say, "Didn't your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first

     leaders have already died, and the world hasn't changed a bit."

     5They will say this because they want to forget that long ago the heavens and the earth were made at God's

     command. The earth came out of water and was made from water. 6Later it was destroyed by the waters of

     a mighty flood. 7But God has commanded the present heavens and earth to remain until the day of judgment.

     Then they will be set on fire, and ungodly people will be destroyed.

     8Dear friends, don't forget that for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years

     is the same as one day. 9The Lord isn't slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact,

     God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.

     10The day of the Lord's return will surprise us like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and

     the heat will melt the whole universe. Then the earth and everything on it will be seen for what they are.

     11Everything will be destroyed. So you should serve and honor God by the way you live. 12You should look

     forward to the day when God judges everyone, and you should try to make it come soon. On that day the

     heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat. 13But God has promised us a new

     heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that! 14My friends, while you

     are waiting, you should make certain that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace. 15Don't

     forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved. This is also what our dear friend Paul

     said when he wrote you with the wisdom that God had given him. 16Paul talks about these same things in all

     his letters, but part of what he says is hard to understand. Some ignorant and unsteady people even destroy

     themselves by twisting what he said. They do the same thing with other Scriptures too.

     17My dear friends, you have been warned ahead of time! So don't let the errors of evil people lead you down

     the wrong path and make you lose your balance. 18Let the wonderful kindness and the understanding that

     come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help you to keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever! Amen.