2 Peter
2
- But there were also false prophets among
the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly
introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought
them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
- Many will follow their shameful ways and
will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
- In their greed these teachers will exploit
you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging
over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
- For if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held
for judgment;
- if he did not spare the ancient world when
he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of
righteousness, and seven others;
- if he condemned the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going
to happen to the ungodly;
- and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who
was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men
- (for that righteous man, living among them
day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw
and heard) --
- if this is so, then the Lord knows how to
rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of
judgment, while continuing their punishment.
- This is especially true of those who follow
the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and
arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
- yet even angels, although they are stronger
and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in
the presence of the Lord.
- But these men blaspheme in matters they do
not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only
to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
- They will be paid back with harm for the
harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight.
They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast
with you.
- With eyes full of adultery, they never stop
sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed--an accursed
brood !
- They have left the straight way and
wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
- But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a
donkey--a beast without speech--who spoke with a man's voice and restrained
the prophet's madness.
- These men are springs without water and
mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
- For they mouth empty, boastful words and,
by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people
who are just escaping from those who live in error.
- They promise them freedom, while they
themselves are slaves of depravity -- for a man is a slave to whatever has
mastered him.
- If they have escaped the corruption of the
world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in
it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the
beginning.
- It would have been better for them not to
have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn
their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
- Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog
returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing
in the mud."
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