Therefore connects this verse with verses 8 and 9, meaning, in effect, “in the light of the blessing in verse 8 and the warning in verse 9….” At the same time it recalls verse 3, where God’s call is first mentioned. Brethren is a common form of address in early Christian letters and is used in a general sense to refer to all believers, including women. This general sense should be reflected in the translation; that is, whenever possible, a term that is inclusive of both men and women should be used. We may also translate this expression as “(my) fellow Christians,” or “(my) elders and youngers.”

The word for zealous is used in the New Testament for moral effort (Heb 4.11; Eph 4.3; see also 2 Peter 1.15 and 3.14). The whole expression be the more zealous means strive harder, eagerly exert greater effort (as in Good News Translation “try even harder,” and Jerusalem Bible “work all the harder”). Other ways of saying this are “You must make a greater effort than before” or “You must try even harder than before.”

The verb confirm can be understood in a legal sense as meaning “to ratify,” “to guarantee,” “to make certain of,” “to make sure,” “to make secure.”

Call and election is yet another example of Peter’s use of a pair of words of very similar meaning. If a distinction is to be made between them, we can say that election is a prior decision to select someone from a group (as, for example, God selecting Israel out of the nations to be his people), while call is the actual process of inviting the elected ones to share in the privileges and responsibilities of their election. The one who does the calling and choosing is God; this information can be included in the translation (as Good News Translation has done). These two terms stress the fact that it is through God’s initiative that people experience a new relationship with God.

But how do people confirm their call and election? We should of course avoid translating this in such a way as to make the calling and election dependent on human action rather than on divine initiative. God is the one who calls, but those who are called must show by their action that their call is real and that their election is absolutely certain. In this way they themselves, as well as people from outside the church, won’t have any doubt regarding the genuineness of God’s call. This emphasis on the importance of the human role in the Christian life serves to remind the readers that there are teachers who would like to lead them into a morally lax existence. Some translators will find even Good News Translation‘s model a difficult one. In such cases it is possible to restructure the ordering of these clauses completely and say, for example, “My brothers, God has called you to follow him and has chosen you to be his people. So, if you want to ensure that this experience lasts permanently, you must try even harder than you have up to now” or “… Therefore try even harder to act in a way that will prove to yourselves and others that God has really called you to follow him and has chosen you to be his people.”

If you do this can refer to what comes immediately before, that is, making sure of your call and election, or else to the virtues in verses 5-7, since literally this reads “if you do these things.” The word for fall is literally “stumble,” which in this context can refer to committing error or sinning, or falling away from the faith and becoming unfaithful to Christ. Some commentators take this in a future sense, taking “stumble” as referring to the inability of reaching final salvation. The Greek negative here is emphatic, with the sense of “never, never,” or “never at any time.” If the translator understands the phrase if you do this to refer to the virtues listed in verses 5-7, and fall to refer to “becoming unfaithful to Christ,” an alternative translation model is the following:
• “If you follow these qualities you will never stop trusting in Christ.”

However, if fall is understood as committing error or sinning, then one can translate
• “if you follow these qualities you will never fall into sin.”

However, if translators understand if you do this to refer to what comes immediately before this text, an alternative translation model is the following:
• “if you ensure that God has called you and chosen you, you will never stop trusting in Christ (or, never fall into sin).”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Second Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .