IV. The Delay of the Second Coming
Chapter 3
Denial of the Parousia. 1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; through them by way of reminder I am trying to stir up your sincere disposition, 2 to recall the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and savior through your apostles.(A) 3 Know this first of all, that in the last days scoffers will come [to] scoff, living according to their own desires(B) 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? From the time when our ancestors fell asleep, everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation.”(C) 5 They deliberately ignore the fact that the heavens existed of old and earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God;(D) 6 through these the world that then existed was destroyed,(E) deluged with water. 7 The present heavens and earth have been reserved by the same word for fire, kept for the day of judgment and of destruction of the godless.(F)
8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.(G) 9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.(H) 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.(I)
Exhortation to Preparedness. 11 Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought [you] to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,(J) 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,(K) because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. 13 But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.(L)
14 Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace. 15 And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you,(M) 16 speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.
V. Final Exhortation and Doxology
17 Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.(N) 18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. [Amen.](O)
Footnotes
- 3:1–4
- 3:3
- 3:4–7
- 3:5
- 3:6
- 3:8–10
- 3:8
- 3:10
- 3:11–16
- 3:12
- 3:13
- 3:16
- 3:17–18
Cross references
- 3:2 : Jude 17.
- 3:3 : 1 Tm 4:1; 2 Tm 3:1; Jude 18.
- 3:4 : Is 5:19.
- 3:5 : Gn 1:2, 6, 8; Ps 24:2.
- 3:6 : Gn 7:21.
- 3:7 : Is 51:6; Mt 3:12.
- 3:8 : Ps 90:4.
- 3:9 : Ez 18:23; 1 Tm 2:4.
- 3:10 : Is 66:15–16; Mt 24:29.
- 3:11 : Acts 3:19–21.
- 3:12 : Is 34:4; Hb 10:27.
- 3:13 : Is 65:17; 66:22; Rom 8:21; Rev 21:1, 27.
- 3:15 : Rom 8:19; Jude 24.
- 3:17 : Mk 13:5; Hb 2:1.
- 3:18 : Rom 16:27.
