1 SIMON PETER, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have been allotted a faith as precious as ours:

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

3 Since his divine power has given us all things helpful to life and piety through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and virtue,

4 and thereby great and precious promises have been granted to us, that through them you may escape the corruption that is in the world through passion and become sharers in the divine nature,

5 for this very reason make it your whole endeavor to supply to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge,

6 and to your knowledge self-control, and to your self-control endurance, and to your endurance reverence,

7 and to your reverence brotherliness, and to your brotherliness love.

8 For when you have these in abundance they make you to be neither idle nor fruitless regarding the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 But he who lacks these is blind, dim-sighted, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

10 Therefore endeavor more earnestly, brethren, to make sure that you have been called and chosen. For while doing these things you will never stumble.

11 For so entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

12 For this reason I shall always keep reminding you of these things, although you know them and are steadfast in the truth that you have.

13 I think it right so long as I am in this tent to arouse you by reminding you,

14 since I know that the laying aside of my tent will come soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made plain to me.

15 I will endeavor also on every occasion to make it so that after my going you shall have these things in memory.

16 For we were not following cunningly devised myths when we told you of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty.

17 For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such words as these were borne to him from the majestic glory, "This is my Son, the Beloved; in him I delight."

18 And this voice we heard borne from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

19 Thus have we the words of the prophets confirmed, and you will do well to give attention to them as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

20 since you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from any one's private interpretation,

21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.