For what credit is it if you sin and are mistreated and endure it? But if you do good and suffer and so endure, this finds favor with God.

For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps.

For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit.

For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries.

For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.

But concerning the one who lacks such things – he is blind. That is to say, he is nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing this you will never stumble into sin.

For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return of our Lord Jesus Christ; no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment,

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

and saying, “Where is his promised return? For ever since our ancestors died, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.”

For they deliberately suppress this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water.

For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down,

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy aloud, and blessed are those who hear and obey the things written in it, because the time is near!

Wake up then, and strengthen what remains that was about to die, because I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more.

Now I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God – the All-Powerful – and the Lamb are its temple.

Then he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near.

‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are in no way least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.”