1I am Simon Peter. I am a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I send greetings to you who have believed as we have. Believing is worth just as much to you as it is to us. This is because our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, is right and good. 2May the loving kindness of God bless you and give you more and more peace because you know God and Jesus our Lord. 3Christ is God and by his own power he has given us everything that we need to live and to please God. He has given this to us because we know him, and he has called us because he is great and good. 4Because of these things, he has promised us things that are worth very much and are very great. He has promised these things to us so that by them you may become like God too. By them you will be kept free from the selfish desires of the people in the world. These desires lead to death. 5So now you believe, try to live a good life. When you live a good life, try to learn more about God. 6When you have learned more, be strong to do what is right. Then go on doing what is right, even if it is hard. As you go about doing right, keep close to God. 7As you keep close to God, love your Christian brothers. When you love your Christian brothers, love everyone! 8If you do these things and you do them more and more, you will be good Christians and you will know more and more about our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But the man who does not do these things is like a blind man. He can see only a little way. He has forgotten that he was made clean from the wrong things he used to do. 10So my brothers, try to show that God has called you and chosen you. If you do these things, you will never fall. 11That will make it easy for you to go into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His kingdom will be for ever. 12I do want always to bring these things to your minds. I will do this even though you know them, and even though you are strong in the true way that you already have. 13I think it is right, as long as I live, to keep these things in your minds. 14I know that I will not live long now. Our Lord Jesus Christ has told me about that. 15But I will try to see that you have something to bring these things to your minds, even after I am gone. 16We have told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and that he is coming again. We did not tell you stories someone told us. We ourselves saw how great he is. 17God the Father praised him and showed that he is great. A voice came from the bright cloud and said to him, This is my Son. I love him and he pleases me very much. 18We heard this voice which came from heaven. It happened when we were on the holy hill with Jesus. 19And so we are more sure about what the prophets of God said long ago. You will do well to listen to them. It is like a lamp shining in a dark place. Then the daylight will come and the morning star will shine in your hearts. 20First you must understand this. The words from the prophets in the holy writings did not come from their own minds. 21The prophets did not say what they wanted to say. But the Holy Spirit made them speak. And they spoke Gods message.