2Peter  ◦   Chapter 3

1My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to you. These letters are to motivate you to take control of your minds and engage in healthy thinking.2I want you to remember the truths recorded in the past by God's spokespersons and the instructions given you by our Lord and Savior through his ambassadors.

3First of all, understand and don't be surprised that in the last days, scoffers and doubters will arise: they will prefer the sickness of selfishness while ridiculing the cure, labeling the infection of selfishness as 'normal.'4They will say, "Survival-of-the-fittest is the way the universe runs: this is why we are here — not because of divine creation. Where is this so-called God? Where is the coming he promised? Ever since human history has been recorded, the principles of evolution have governed life, and all things continue just as they always have."5But these scoffers deliberately deny the truth and ignore the fact that long ago, by God's Word, the world was created out of water and with water.6They reject the fact that it was by these same waters that a flood destroyed the world,7and they refuse to believe that the same Word has testified that the present world, which is kept for the day of final diagnosis and the elimination of everyone and everything deviant from God’s design, will be destroyed by fire.

8But don't forget the true nature of God's kingdom of love. Understand that the Lord lives outside the constraints of time, and with him a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.9There is no delay on his part in keeping his promise to return: he is simply waiting for what he has always been waiting for–the Remedy to be taken to the entire world so that none who remain curable will be lost.

10But the Lord’s return — coming suddenly like a thief — will surprise many people: There will be a loud roar and the sky will disappear; the very elements will melt in the intense heat, and the entire planet will be laid bare.

11Since everything the world values will end in this way, what kind of people are you to be? Each person must partake of the Remedy and be healed, live a life that loves others and honors God12as you anticipate our Lord’s return, and work to speed his coming. On that day, the atmosphere of selfishness will be consumed by fire, and the very elements contaminated by sin will melt in the intense heat.13But just as promised, Jesus will make a new atmosphere and an entirely new earth–free from disease and defect, free from the infection of selfishness–the eternal home of the healed.

14So please, my dear friends: Since you long for the day our Lord returns, cooperate in every way with God's healing plan so that you will be found without any defect–totally cured and restored to complete unity with him.15Remember that our Lord's patience gives time for the Remedy to spread and healing to occur, just as our dear brother Paul explained in his letters — as God revealed it to him.16Paul writes about God's Remedy and healing plan in all his letters, but his letters contain some technical details and intricate illustrations and thus can be difficult to understand. And those who don't understand God's healing plan distort Paul's writings–as they do the other Scriptures–to misrepresent God. Sadly, without the Remedy, it results in their own destruction.

17Therefore, my dear friends, since you know all of this, stay sharp and think for yourselves so that you won't be seduced into false theologies by people who deviate from God's law of love and have your minds re-infected with distortions about God.18Instead, grow stronger every day in the grace and truth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let him be glorified now and forever! Amen.