2 Peter 2:3

Plain English Version

Those lying teachers only want your money. So they will tell you tricky lies to get you to give them money. A long time ago, God said that he will punish them, and he is ready to do that. One day, he will properly finish up those liars.

Cross References

Luke 18:8

No. I’m telling you this for sure. God will listen to you, and he will help you quickly. He will make sure you get a fair go.” Then Jesus said, “But when I, God’s special man, come back again from heaven to this earth, will I find people trusting me, or not? Maybe only a few people will be trusting me at that time.”

John 2:16

And Jesus went to the men that sold pigeons, and he shouted, “Get those birds out of here. This is my father’s house. Stop turning it into a shop.”

Romans 16:18

They don’t work for our leader, Jesus Christ, but they just work for themselves. They try to trick people. They talk really nicely to people and say good things about them. They do that to get whatever they want for themselves. They trick people that don’t think about it properly.

1 Thessalonians 2:5

And when we talked to you, we didn’t say nice things about you, so that you will like us. We didn’t make a secret plan to get you to give us things. God knows that.

1 Thessalonians 5:3

You know, people will be saying, “We are safe. There’s no trouble here.” But then that big trouble will come really quickly, and they will not be ready for it. God will use that big trouble to punish them. It will be like what happens when a woman has a baby, she suddenly gets pain, and then her baby starts to come, and nobody can stop it. That big trouble will be just like that. It will come to people suddenly, and they will not get away from it.

1 Timothy 3:3

He can’t be a drunken man, or a man that gets into fights. – He has to be a quiet man that is not hard on people. – He can’t be a man that loves money. –

1 Timothy 3:8

It is the same too for the people that are helpers in the church. – They have to be really good honest people. – They can’t be people that get drunk. – They can’t be greedy, wanting lots of money and things. –

1 Timothy 6:5

Then they keep on arguing with each other. You see, they listened to those wrong teachers and those teachers tricked them. Those wrong teachers made them think the wrong way, so they don’t really know the true message. They think that if they follow God’s way they will get a lot of money, but they are wrong.

Titus 1:11

Those people teach things that are wrong. They trick whole families. And they only do that to get money from people. So you have to stop them.

Titus 1:7

Church leaders are in charge of God’s work on earth, so they have to be really good people, and then nobody will say anything bad about them. Whenever you pick people to be church leaders, – Don’t pick people that think they are better than everyone else. – Don’t pick people that get angry too easily. – Don’t pick people that drink a lot of grog. – Don’t pick people that get into fights. – Don’t pick greedy people, that want lots of money and things.

1 Peter 2:8

God says this about Jesus too, in his book, “He will be like a stone that people trip over, so that they fall down and hurt themselves.” You see, people that don’t trust in Jesus, they go wrong and stop following God. It’s like they fall down and hurt themselves. They go wrong because they don’t listen to God’s word, and they don’t do what it says. You know, God planned all that trouble for them a long time ago.

1 Peter 5:2

You church leaders have to look after God’s people. God gave you the job to look after them, so you have to do it properly, like a man with sheep looks after them properly. God wants you leaders to be happy while you do that job. Don’t just do it because you think you have to, or because you want money. Do it because you want to help God’s people.

2 Peter 1:16

Remember the story we told you about our leader, Jesus Christ. That was the true story. We didn’t make up smart stories to tell you. We told you that Jesus is powerful, and that he will come back here to this earth again. We saw for ourselves that Jesus is very great, and we told you everything we saw.

2 Peter 2:1

In God’s book we read about his people a long time ago. Sometimes some liars started to teach God’s people things that were wrong. They reckoned they were saying God’s words, but they were lying. And the same sort of thing will happen now. There will be people among you that will teach things that are wrong. If you listen to them, you will go wrong, and it will be bad for you. Those people will even turn against Jesus. He is our leader, and he died to save them. And one day soon, God will punish them for that wrong thing they do.

2 Peter 2:9

Those stories show us that God knows how to save his people. They are the people that listen properly to him and live his way, and he saves them from trouble. But when the day comes for him to judge everyone, he will punish people that don’t live the right way.

Jude 1:11

Very bad things will happen to that mob of lying teachers. Do you know the stories about Cain, Balaam, and Korah? Cain killed his brother Abel. Balaam really wanted money and did bad things to get it. And Korah turned against God. God punished those men, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Now that liar mob are doing the same wrong things, and God will punish them too.

Jude 1:15

and he will be the judge of everybody. God will punish all the bad people that don’t respect him. They did bad things against God, so God will punish them. They said rubbish things about God, so God will punish them.” He said those things about those lying teachers a long time ago.

Jude 1:16

That mob are always complaining and saying that they aren’t happy with things. They are always saying that other people have done things wrong. But they do all the bad things they want to do. They say very good things about themselves and tell everybody they are important. But they only say good things about other people when they want to get something from them.

Jude 1:4

I talk like this because there are some bad people that secretly came into your group. That mob don’t want to do the things that God wants. Instead, they do all the bad things that they want to do. They reckon it is all right to do those bad things. They say, “God is good to us, so he lets us do these bad things.” Whenever they say that, they are really trying to change God’s true message. And they are turning away from Jesus, our only true boss. But God says in his book that he will punish those bad people.

Jude 1:7

Also, don’t forget the story about the towns called Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other towns around there. The people that lived there did bad things, like those bad angels. They always wanted to sleep with somebody, like husbands sleep with their wives, so they did that with people they were not married to, and they did it in all sorts of ways that were dirty and wrong. God is punishing those people now. He put them into the fire that doesn’t stop burning. That shows us how much he will punish people that do bad things like that.