4 For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence, ungodly [persons], turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
and [it was] on account of the false brethren brought in surreptitiously, who came in surreptitiously to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage;
But there were false prophets also among the people, as there shall be also among you false teachers, who shall bring in by the bye destructive heresies, and deny the master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction; and many shall follow their dissolute ways, through whom the way of the truth shall be blasphemed. And through covetousness, with well-turned words, will they make merchandise of you: for whom judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction slumbers not.
and specially those who walk after the flesh in [the] lust of uncleanness, and despise lordship. Bold [are they], self-willed; they do not fear speaking injuriously of dignities:
and a stone of stumbling and rock of offence; [who] stumble at the word, being disobedient to which also they have been appointed.
But the present heavens and the earth by his word are laid up in store, kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
For [while] speaking great highflown words of vanity, they allure with [the] lusts of [the] flesh, by dissoluteness, those who have just fled those who walk in error, promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a man is subdued, by him is he also brought into slavery. For if after having escaped the pollutions of the world through [the] knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, again entangled, they are subdued by these, their last state is worse than the first. For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known [it] to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. But that [word] of the true proverb has happened to them: [The] dog [has] turned back to his own vomit; and, [The] washed sow to [her] rolling in mud.
and spared not [the] old world, but preserved Noe, [the] eighth, a preacher of righteousness, having brought in [the] flood upon [the] world of [the] ungodly; and having reduced [the] cities of Sodom and Gomorrha to ashes, condemned [them] with an overthrow, setting [them as] an example to those that should [afterwards] live an ungodly life;
as free, and not as having liberty as a cloak of malice, but as God's bondmen.
watching lest [there be] any one who lacks the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and many be defiled by it; lest [there be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright;
All things [are] pure to the pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing [is] pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works deny [him], being abominable, and disobedient, and found worthless as to every good work.
For *ye* have been called to liberty, brethren; only [do] not [turn] liberty into an opportunity to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
And if the righteous is difficultly saved, where shall the impious and [the] sinner appear?
For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared, teaching us that, having denied impiety and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and justly, and piously in the present course of things,
which in its own time the blessed and only Ruler shall shew, the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship; who only has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom [be] honour and eternal might. Amen.
Or has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour? And if God, minded to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction;
What then shall we say? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Far be the thought. We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?
who, having arrived and seeing the grace of God, rejoiced, and exhorted all with purpose of heart to abide with the Lord;
And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
He only is my rock and my salvation; my high fortress: I shall not be greatly moved.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, and standeth not in the way of sinners, and sitteth not in the seat of scorners;