Study Desk

For it is the time when judgment will commence with the house of God: and if it commence with us, what will be the end of those who obey not the gospel of God?

Wherefore, let them who suffer according to the pleasure of God, commend their souls to him in well doing, as to a faithful Creator.

2 Feed ye the flock of God which is committed to you: have care [fn] , spiritually; not from compulsion, but voluntarily; not for base gain, but with all your heart;

And ye juniors submit yourselves to your seniors; and clothe yourselves, stringently, with lowliness of mind one towards another; because God resisteth them who exalt themselves, and giveth grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the powerful hand of God: and it will exalt you in due time.

And cast all your solicitude upon God; for he careth for you.

Now it is the God of grace, who hath called us to his eternal glory by Jesus the Messiah, that hath given us, while we sustain these light afflictions, to be strengthened, and confirmed, and established by him for ever:

12 These as I account [fn] few [fn] , I have written to you by Sylvanus, a faithful brother. And I would persuade, and would testify, that this is the true grace of God, this in which ye stand.

as the giver to us of all things that be of the power of God, unto life and the fear of God, through the recognition of him who hath called us unto his own glory and moral excellence:

wherein he hath given you very great and precious promises; that by them ye might become partakers of the nature of God, while ye flee from the corruptions of the lusts that are in the world.

and to knowledge, perseverance; and to perseverance, patience; and to patience, the fear of God;

and to the fear of God, sympathy with the brotherhood; and to sympathy with the brotherhood, love.

For, when he received from God the Father honor and glory, and, after the splendid glory of his majesty, a voice came to him thus: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;

For at no time was it by the pleasure of man, that the prophecy came; but holy men of God spoke, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

For, if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to the infernal regions in chains of darkness, and delivered them up to be kept unto the judgment of torture,

For this they willingly forget, that the heavens were of old; and the earth rose up from the waters, and by means of water, by the word of God.

As therefore all these things are to be dissolved, what persons ought ye to be, in holy conduct, and in the fear of God,

expecting and desiring the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens being tried by fire will be dissolved, and the elements being ignited will melt?

But be ye growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus the Messiah, and of God the Father: whose is the glory, now, and always, and to the days of eternity. Amen.

And this is the announcement, which we have heard from him and declare to you, that God is light, and no darkness at all is in him.