2Pe 1 | EE | STEP | This letter is from me, Simon Peter. I am Jesus Christ’s servant and his apostle. I am writing to you people who believe in Jesus Christ, as we do. That is a valuable gift that God has given to us all. He has done this because Jesus is completely good and right. Jesus is the one who saves us. He is the God that we serve.

2 Peter 1

God has given to us everything that we need to be his people

1 This letter is from me, Simon Peter. I am Jesus Christ’s servant and his apostle.

I am writing to you people who believe in Jesus Christ, as we do. That is a valuable gift that God has given to us all. He has done this because Jesus is completely good and right. Jesus is the one who saves us. He is the God that we serve.

2 I pray that God will help you and give you peace in your minds more and more. You will grow as believers because you know God and you know Jesus, our Lord.

3 God is very powerful because he is God. He has used that power to help us. He has given us everything that we need to live in a good way. We can do things that make God happy. This is possible because now we know him. God has chosen us to be his people because he is very great and very good. 4 Because of this, God has promised that he will do very great and valuable things for us. As a result, you can do what is right, like God does. The people who belong to this world want to do bad things. Those bad things make them become worse and worse. But God gives you the power to be free from all that.

5 God has done all this to help you. So, now that you believe in Christ, you must grow as believers. Try very much to do always what is good. Then you should grow to know God more and more. 6 Then you should learn to rule yourselves properly. That is not all. You should learn to be patient and brave also. And you should serve God in a good way. 7 You should not only serve God, but you should be kind to other believers like your own brothers and sisters. And you should not only love other Christians, but you must love all people also.

8 You should grow as believers in all these ways, more and more. When you live in that way, it will show that you really know our Lord Jesus Christ. People will see that your life has good results. 9 But some people do not live in these good ways. They do not think that these things are important. They are like people who cannot see clearly. They cannot really see anything. They have forgotten that God has made them clean. He has forgiven them for all the wrong things that they did before. But they have forgotten that.

10 So, my friends, try very much to do these good things. Live in a good way, because God has chosen you to be his own people. Show that you really do belong to God! If you do these things, you will never turn away from God. 11 Also, God will be very happy. He will bring you into that place where Jesus Christ will rule his people for ever. Jesus Christ has saved us, and you will live with him for ever.

12 You already know these things. You know that they are completely true. But because they are important, I will continue to tell you about them again and again. 13 I want you to remember them. So, I will continue to tell you about them. I think that it is right to do that. So I will do it while I am still living here on earth. 14 I know that I will die soon. Our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that it will soon happen. 15 I want you always to remember these things after I have died. So I will try very hard to tell you about them now.

Peter himself saw how great Christ is

16 We told you that our Lord Jesus Christ is powerful. We also told you that he will return to earth again. We were not telling you false stories that came from people’s clever ideas. Instead, we were telling you what we ourselves had seen. We ourselves saw that the Lord Jesus is very great. 17 ^{▼▼This verse is empty because in this translation its contents have been moved to form part of verse 2Pe 1:18.} ^{▼▼In this translation, this verse contains text which in some other translations appears in verses 2Pe 1:17-2Pe 1:18.}18 We were with him on the mountain when his Father God spoke to him. God praised his Son, Jesus, and he said that Jesus is great. We ourselves heard God’s voice speak to Jesus from heaven above where God rules with power. He said: ‘This is my Son and I love him. He makes me very happy.’ ^{▼▼1:17-18 Peter, James and John saw Jesus when he shone brightly on the mountain. They heard God speak to Jesus. See Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36.}

God’s messages in the Bible are very important

19 As well as that, we have the prophets’ messages from long ago. They also show us very clearly that these things are true. The prophets’ words are like a light that shines in a dark place. That light continues to shine in the dark until the dawn comes. So, you need to think about those messages carefully. Then the morning star will rise and it will bring light deep inside you. ^{▼▼1:19 God’s prophets spoke messages about the Messiah who was going to come. That was like a light which shone in a dark place. But when Jesus comes to earth, that will be like the dawn. Jesus brings the light of day. The morning star appears in the sky just before the sunrise. It is very bright. It shows us that the day is coming. In Revelation 22:16, Jesus says that he is the morning star.} 20 It is very important that you should understand this: The prophets’ messages in the Bible did not come from their own ideas. That never happens. 21 None of the prophets’ messages came because a human person wanted to say something. Instead, God’s Holy Spirit caused people to speak words that came from God. ^{▼▼1:21 Peter was talking about the prophets’ messages that are written in the Old Testament.}