For this very reason, ¹  make every effort ²  to add to your faith excellence, ³  to excellence, knowledge;

to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; ¹  to perseverance, godliness;

May grace and peace be lavished on you ¹  as you grow ²  in the rich knowledge ³  of God and of Jesus our Lord! ⁴ 

But grow in the grace and knowledge ¹  of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on ²  that eternal day. ³ 

I can pray this because his divine power ¹  has bestowed on us everything necessary ²  for life and godliness through the rich knowledge ³  of the one who called ⁴  us by ⁵  his own glory and excellence.

For if after they have escaped the filthy things ¹  of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ²  they ³  again get entangled in them and succumb to them, ⁴  their last state has become worse for them than their first.

For if ¹  these things are really yours ²  and are continually increasing, ³  they will keep you from becoming ⁴  ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of ⁵  knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately. ⁶ 

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.

But ¹  these men, ²  like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed ³  – do not understand whom ⁴  they are insulting, and consequently ⁵  in their destruction they will be destroyed, ⁶ 

Above all, understand this: ¹  In the last days blatant scoffers ²  will come, being propelled by their own evil urges ³ 

Therefore, I intend to remind you constantly ¹  of these things even though you know them and are well established in the truth that you now have.

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, ¹  be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men ²  and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. ³ 

speaking of these things in all his letters. ¹  Some things in these letters ²  are hard to understand, things ³  the ignorant and unstable twist ⁴  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ⁵