Remember What the Prophets Foretold
Mockers ask where the promised coming is, since everything carries on as always. Peter answers that the world was once flooded by the same word that now keeps it for fire, and that our Father is not slow but patient, wanting no one to perish.
3 1Beloved, this is now the second letter I write you; in both I stir up your sincere mind by reminder. 2Remember the words the holy prophets spoke beforehand, and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles. 3Know this first: mockers will come in the last days, mocking, following their own lusts. 4They will ask, "Where is his promised coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has since creation's beginning." 5They willfully ignore this: long ago, by our Father's word, heavens existed, and earth formed out of water and through water, 6and through these the world of that time was deluged with water and perished. 7By the same word, today's heavens and earth are stored up for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the wicked.
8Don't overlook this, loved ones: with our Father, one day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years like one day. 9Our Father isn't slow to keep his promise, as some think; he's patient with you, wanting no one to perish, but all to reach repentance. a a v9 The reason for the delay is love: our Father is patient, holding open the door so that everyone has room to come home. 10But the day of our Lord Jesus will come like a thief: the heavens will vanish with a rushing sound, the elements will burn and melt, and the earth with all its works will be exposed. 11Since all this will dissolve, what sort of people should you be? You should live holy lives, devoted to God, 12as you wait for and hasten the coming of our Father's day, when the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements melt in the heat. 13But as he promised, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness lives.
14So, beloved, awaiting these things, strive to be found by him in peace, spotless and without defect. 15Regard our Lord's patience as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul wrote you, with the wisdom given him, 16as in all his letters, where he speaks about these things. Some parts are hard to understand, and the ignorant and unstable twist them—as they do the other Scriptures—to their own destruction. 17So then, loved ones, knowing this in advance, guard yourselves, so you aren't swept away by the error of lawless people and lose your own firm standing. 18Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, now and to the day of eternity. Amen. b b v18 The letter closes by giving glory to Jesus himself — the honor due to God — confessing that the Son shares fully in our Father's glory.
