Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles

1This second Epistle, beloved, I now write to you; in both which I stir up your pure mind by admonition,

2That ye may remember the words which have been foretold by the holy Prophets and the commandment of us who are the apostles of the Lord and Savior;

3Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,

4And saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers have slept, all things remain as from the beginning of the creation."

5For of this they are wilfully ignorant, that by the word of God the heavens were formerly, and the earth, subsisting by water and through water;

6Through which the world, which then was, perished, being overflowed with water.

7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, are reserved by the word of the same, and are kept for fire against the day of judgment and of the perdition of the ungodly.

8But of this one thing, beloved, be ye not ignorant, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9The Lord does not delay as to his promise, as some count delay, but is patient towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens with a tempest shall pass away, and the elements shall melt with heat, and the earth and all its works shall be burnt up.

11Since then all these things shall be dissolved, what ought we to be in all holy conduct and all godliness;

12Waiting in haste for the coming of the day of God; on account of which the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall be consumed with heat.

13But according to his promise we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

14Therefore, beloved, since ye look for these things, labor to be found by him in peace, unpolluted and blameless;

15And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him; as also in all his Epistles, speaking of these things; in which there are some things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and the unstable pervert,

16As also other scriptures, to their own ruin.

17Do ye then, beloved, being forewarned, take heed, lest ye, being led away by the error of the wicked, should fall from your own steadfastness.

18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: to him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.