The Patience of God

The Day of the Lord Will Come

¹This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them gI am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, ²hthat you should remember the predictions of ithe holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, ³knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come jin the last days with scoffing, kfollowing their own sinful desires. ⁴lThey will say, “Where is the promise of mhis coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” ⁵For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth nwas formed out of water and through water oby the word of God, ⁶and that by means of these the world that then existed pwas deluged with water and qperished. ⁷But by the same word rthe heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and sdestruction of the ungodly.

⁸But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and ta thousand years as one day. ⁹uThe Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise vas some count slowness, but wis patient toward you,1 xnot wishing that any should perish, but ythat all should reach repentance. ¹⁰But zthe day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then athe heavens will pass away with a roar, and bthe heavenly bodies2 will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.3

¹¹Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, cwhat sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹²dwaiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and ethe heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! ¹³But according to his promise we are waiting for fnew heavens and a new earth gin which righteousness dwells.

Final Words

¹⁴hTherefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him iwithout spot or jblemish, and kat peace. ¹⁵And count lthe patience of our Lord as salvation, just as mour beloved brother Paul also wrote to you naccording to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. oThere are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, pas they do the other Scriptures. ¹⁷You therefore, beloved, qknowing this beforehand, rtake care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. ¹⁸But sgrow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. tTo him be the glory both now and to the day of ueternity. Amen.