Paragraph 3:11–13

Peter told the people to whom he wrote this letter that they should live in a manner that would please God because God would destroy the present earth and everything that is in it and there would be a new earth where only good people would live.

3:11–12

In the Greek, verses 11 and 12 are one sentence, but you may need to use shorter sentences in your translation as the Display has done.

3:11b

Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), and Good News Translation interpret this part of the verse as a question: “what kind of people ought you to be?” This is a rhetorical question. Peter was not asking for information. He was telling the people to whom he wrote to consider how they should behave now that they knew that God would judge the world in the way that Peter had described. Peter was advising them that it was necessary to live in a holy and godly manner if they did not want God to judge them and to condemn them.

Other translations do not have a question. For example:

think what sort of people you ought to be (New English Bible)
-or-
you should be living holy and saintly lives (The Jerusalem Bible)

3:11c

holiness: Here this means “pure, upright, dedicated to God.”

godliness: See note on “godliness” in 1:3a; also the note in 2:9a.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.