2But there were also false prophets among the people. In the same way there will be false teachers among you. In secret they will bring in teachings that will destroy you. They will even turn against the Lord and Master who died to save them. His death paid for their sins. They will quickly destroy themselves. ²Many people will follow their shameful ways. They will give the way of truth a bad name.

³Those teachers are never satisfied. They want to get something out of you. So they make up stories to take advantage of you. They have been under a sentence of death for a long time. The One who will destroy them has not been sleeping.

⁴God did not spare angels when they sinned. Instead, he sent them to hell. He put them in dark prisons. He will keep them there until he judges them. ⁵God did not spare the world’s ungodly people long ago. He brought the flood on them. But Noah preached about the right way to live. God kept him safe. He also saved seven others. ⁶God judged the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burned them to ashes. He made them an example of what is going to happen to ungodly people.

⁷God saved Lot. He was a man who did what was right. He was shocked by the dirty, sinful lives of people who didn’t obey God’s laws. ⁸That good man lived among them day after day. He saw and heard the evil things they were doing. They were breaking God’s laws. And his godly spirit was deeply troubled.

⁹So the Lord knows how to keep godly people safe in times of testing. He also knows how to keep ungodly people under guard until the day they will be judged. In the meantime, he continues to punish them. ¹⁰Most of all, this is true of people who follow the evil longings of their sinful natures. They hate to be under authority.

Those false prophets are bold and proud. They aren’t afraid to speak evil things against heavenly beings. ¹¹Angels are stronger and more powerful than those people. But even angels don’t bring to the Lord evil charges against heavenly beings.

¹²Those people speak evil about things they don’t understand. They are like wild animals. They do what comes naturally to them. They are born only to be caught and destroyed. Just like animals, they too will die.

¹³They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to have wild parties in the middle of the day. They are like spots and stains. They enjoy their sinful pleasures while they eat with you. ¹⁴They stare at women who are not their wives. They want to have sex with them. They never stop sinning. They trap those who are not firm in their faith. They have mastered the art of getting what they want. God has placed them under his curse.

¹⁵They have left God’s way. They have wandered off. They follow the way of Balaam, son of Beor. He loved to get paid for doing his evil work. ¹⁶But a donkey corrected him for the wrong he did. Animals don’t speak. But the donkey spoke with a human voice. It tried to stop the prophet from doing a very dumb thing.

¹⁷Those false prophets are like springs without water. They are like mists driven by a storm. The blackest darkness is reserved for them.

¹⁸They speak empty, bragging words. They make their appeal to the earthly longings of people’s sinful nature. They tempt new believers who are just escaping from the company of sinful people. ¹⁹They promise to give freedom to the new believers. But they themselves are slaves to sinful living. A person is a slave to anything that controls him.

²⁰They may have escaped the sin of the world. They may have come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But what if they are once again caught up in sin? And what if it has become their master? Then they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

²¹What if they had not known the way of godliness? That would have been better than to have known it and then to have turned their backs on it. The way of godliness is the sacred command that was passed on to them.

²²What the proverbs say about them is true. “A dog returns to where it has thrown up.” And, “A pig that is washed goes back to rolling in the mud.”

The Day of the Lord

3Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders. I want to stir you up to think in a way that is pure. ²I want you to remember the words the holy prophets spoke in the past. Remember the command our Lord and Savior gave through your apostles.

³First of all, here is what you must understand. In the last days people will make fun of the truth. They will laugh at it. They will follow their own evil longings. ⁴They will say, “Where is this ‘return’ he promised? Everything goes on in the same way it has since our people of long ago died. In fact, it has continued that way since God first created everything.”

⁵Long ago, God’s word brought the heavens into being. His word separated the earth from the waters. And the waters surrounded it. But those people forget things like that on purpose. ⁶The waters also flooded the world of that time. It was destroyed.

⁷By God’s word the heavens and earth of today are being reserved for fire. They are being kept for the day when God will judge. Then ungodly people will be destroyed.

⁸Dear friends, here is one thing you must not forget. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years. And a thousand years are like a day. ⁹The Lord is not slow to keep his promise. He is not slow in the way some people understand it. He is patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed. Instead, he wants all people to turn away from their sins.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. Fire will destroy everything in them. God will judge the earth and everything in it.

¹¹So everything will be destroyed. And what kind of people should you be? You should lead holy and godly lives. ¹²Live like that as you look forward to the day of God. It will make the day come more quickly. On that day fire will destroy the heavens. Its heat will melt everything in them.

¹³But we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth. Godliness will make its home there. All of this is in keeping with God’s promise.

¹⁴Dear friends, I know you are looking forward to that. So try your best to be found pure and without blame. Be at peace with God. ¹⁵Remember that while our Lord is waiting patiently to return, people are being saved.

Our dear brother Paul also wrote to you about that. God made him wise to write as he did. ¹⁶He writes the same way in all his letters. He speaks about what I have just told you. His letters include some things that are hard to understand. People who don’t know better and aren’t firm in the faith twist what he says. They twist the other Scriptures too. So they will be destroyed.

¹⁷Dear friends, you already know that. So be on your guard. Then you won’t be led down the wrong path by the mistakes of people who don’t obey the law. You won’t fall from your safe position.

¹⁸Grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Get to know him better.

Give him glory both now and forever. Amen.

Read in Logos