1. From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.To you who have received a faith as valuable as ours. You received that faith because our God and Savior Jesus Christ is fair and does what is right.
2. Grace and peace be given to you more and more. You will have grace and peace because you truly know God and Jesus our Lord.
3. Jesus has the power of God. His power has given us everything we need to live and to serve God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus called us by his glory and goodness.
4. Through his glory and goodness, he gave us the very great and rich gifts he promised us. With those gifts you can share in God’s nature. And so the world will not ruin you with its evil desires.
5. Because you have these blessings, you should try as much as you can to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge;
6. and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add the ability to hold on; and to your ability to hold on, add service for God;
7. and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love.
8. If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you never to be useless. They will help your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ make your lives better.
9. But if anyone does not have these things, he cannot see clearly. He is blind. He has forgotten that he was made clean from his past sins.
10. My brothers, God called you and chose you to be his. Try hard to show that you really are God’s chosen people. If you do all these things, you will never fall.
11. And you will be given a very great welcome into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That kingdom continues forever.
12. You know these things, and you are very strong in the truth. But I will always help you to remember these things.