Synoptic: Judah & 2 Peter

Judah

2 Peter

Judah, a servant of Jesus the Messiah and brother of James,

1.1a Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus the Messiah,

To those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus the Messiah:

May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

1.2 May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all passed on to the holy ones.

2.21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from what was passed on to them, the holy commandment.

For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus the Messiah.

2.1–3ab But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle,

Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe.

2.3c and their destruction is not asleep.

And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgement of the great day.

2.4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into Tartarus and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgement;

Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

2.6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement

Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones.

2.10 especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,

But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a judgement of slander against him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’

2.11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgement from the Lord.

These people, however, slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct.

2.12–13a These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they are ignorant of, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed, suffering the penalty for doing wrong.

Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of wages, and perish in Korah’s rebellion.

2.15 They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong,

These are blemishes on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.

2.13cd They are blemishes and flaws, revelling in their dissipation while they feast with you.

They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved for ever.

2.17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved.

It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘See, the Lord is coming with myriads of his holy ones, to execute judgement on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’

3.7–13 But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the godless. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; and their mouth speaks arrogantly, flattering people to their own advantage.

2.18–19 For they utter arrogant nonsense, and with lusts of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them.

But you, beloved, remember the words forespoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus the Messiah;

3.2 remember the words forespoken by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour spoken through your apostles.

for they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.’

3.3 First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffing scoffers will come, indulging their own lusts

It is these worldly people, devoid of the spirit, who are causing divisions. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the holy spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus the Messiah that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on some who are wavering; save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.

3.18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Messiah. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.