2 Peter 2

₁There were also false_prophets among the people of God and so there will be false_teachers among you. They will teach people these false things but people will not know that they are wrong, and these false things that they believe will make them turn away from God and they will be lost. These false_teachers will say they do not believe in the Lord, the God who has paid to save them too. That is why it will be their own fault that they are lost. Their end will come suddenly. ₂And many people who say that they are believers will also do what they want to do, like those false_teachers. That is why the people who are not believers will say bad things about the lives of the people who believe that the Good_News is true. ₃These false_teachers want only your money and more and more things for themselves, so they will tell you stories to deceive you. But God decided long ago to punish them and He will do it. He will destroy them.

₄God will punish them. He did not feel sorry for the angels who sinned. No, He sent them to hell. He tied them with chains in the dark and He left them there in prison until the day of judgement.

₅And God did not feel sorry for the sinful world, long ago, when He sent the water flood over the earth and over all the sinners. But He saved Noah and 7 other people with him. Noah was the man who told the people to live in the right way before God.

₆God punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burnt and destroyed them. He did that to warn other people that He would punish sinners. ₇But God saved Lot. Lot lived in the right way and he was shocked when he saw the sinful lives of the people who did not obey the laws of God. Those people did what they wanted to do. ₈Lot lived in the right way, but he lived among people who did not listen to the laws of God and he saw and heard what they did every day. The things they did shocked Lot because he lived in the right way. ₉This shows that the Lord knows how to save the people who serve Him. He will save them when they suffer, but He will punish those who live in the wrong way until the day of judgement comes. ₁₀Who will be punished the most? It will be those people who love doing immoral things that other people are ashamed of and that make people impure. They hate the laws of the Lord and they do not listen to Him.

These false_teachers tell people things that are wrong, but they are not worried about it. They think that they are better than other people and they are not afraid to say bad things about the strong living_beings that live in heaven. ₁₁God's angels are stronger and have more power than the false_teachers. But God's angels do not accuse the strong living_beings that live in heaven.

₁₂These false_teachers are like animals that can not think, and that are born so that people can catch and kill them. That is why these false_teachers say bad things against anything that they do not understand. The Lord will also destroy them like people destroy animals. ₁₃They will suffer because they will get the punishment for the bad things that they have done. They enjoy celebrating even in day time, eating and drinking too much. They are like dirty spots on clothes. While they celebrate with you, they keep on deceiving people and so they bring shame to you. ₁₄They always look for women who want to have sex with them, and they always want to sin more and more. They seduce people who do not have strong faith. They always want more money and things. But the Lord will curse these false_teachers.

₁₅The false_teachers do these things because they have stopped living like God wants. They do the same as Balaam, son of Beor, did. Balaam wanted money so much that he did wrong things to get a reward. ₁₆But God said Balaam was doing something wrong. A donkey stopped the prophet Balaam so that he did not do anything foolish. A donkey is an animal that can not talk, but this donkey talked to Balaam with the voice of a man.

₁₇These false_teachers are like water-wells that are dry, so no water comes out of them. They are like clouds that a storm wind blows away. That is why God prepared a place for them in the darkest place in hell. ₁₈They think that they say things that are important, but their words are worthless. They want to seduce people to do bad things, even when those people try to get away from those people who live sinful lives. ₁₉The false_teachers promise to free people, but they themselves are slaves to everything bad and sinful, because if something controls you, then you are its slave.

₂₀The false_teachers had done the sinful things of this world but left them because they started to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But then they started doing those sinful things again and they became slaves to them and they became worse than they had been before. ₂₁If they had not known what the Lord says and how they should live, then it would have been better for them. But now they know it, because the apostles have told them. But they have stopped doing what the Lord wants. ₂₂They have done what the proverbs say, and these proverbs are true:

And: