2 Peter 1

₁I, Simon-Peter, am a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing this letter to you who also believe in Jesus Christ like we do. This faith is precious to us. He is our God and Saviour. He made us believe in Him. He did it when He made us righteous. ₂We pray that God will be merciful to you and that He will give you more and more of his peace. He will do it because you came to know God and Jesus our Lord in the right way.

₃God is strong and He has given us everything that we need to live so that we can serve Him because we know Him. He chose us to belong to Him because He is the King who does great things. ₄Why did God promise to give us these wonderful and precious things? He did it because He is so great and strong. He wanted us to be free and stop doing the bad things that the people of the world always want to do, things that bring death. God wants you to be good like He is so that you can do the things that He likes.

₅God has done a lot of things for you. Your faith must grow, you must help other people and become more wise. ₆Don't become angry, but believe in God more and more and serve Him. ₇You must love each other and love all people. ₈If you do these things more and more, it will help others and you will succeed in everything you do because you know our Lord Jesus Christ very well. ₉If someone does not do these things, then he is like a person whose eyes are bad and who can not see well. He is spiritually blind. Yes, someone who does not do these things has forgotten that God has forgiven him and purified him from the sins that he has done.

₁₀My friends, God has chosen you and called you to belong to Him. That is why you must try very hard to live like real Christians so that everyone can see that you belong to Him. Keep on living like that because then your faith will grow strong and you will not be unfaithful. ₁₁If you live like God wants, He will welcome you where our Lord Jesus Christ and our Saviour is King and will rule forever.

₁₂You know these things and you are very sure that what they have told about Christ is true. But I will keep on telling you to remember the things that I have written. ₁₃I think it is right for me to tell you to remember these things while I am still_alive, ₁₄because I know that I will die soon. Our Lord Jesus Christ has told me this. ₁₅That is why I will try hard to make sure that you will always remember these things even after I have died.

₁₆We have told you that our Lord Jesus Christ is great and that He will come again. These were not clever stories that other people told us and that we believed. No, we are witnesses of the glory of Jesus Christ. ₁₇God the Father gave honour and glory to Jesus when God, the Great_King, said: ‘This is my Son. I love Him, and I am very happy with Him.’ ₁₈And we heard God speaking from heaven when we were with Jesus on the holy_mountain.

₁₉So we are now more sure that the messages that the prophets preached are the truth. It will help you if you listen to the prophets' messages because those messages are like a lamp shining in the dark until the day when Christ comes again. Then He will shine like the morning star and put his message in your hearts.

₂₀It is important to know that the prophets of the Old_Testament did not think out their messages themselves. ₂₁The prophets preached and wrote down their messages, but they did not do it because they themselves wanted to say those things. No, it was the Holy_Spirit who made them say what God told them.