The adverb Peter quotes from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) means “with difficulty.” In the context of Peter’s paragraph, the thought is that the road that Christians (“the righteous”) need to travel to the New Jerusalem is—we might say—strewn with potholes hard to navigate, as evidenced specifically by the suffering that inevitably comes upon the followers of Jesus Christ. Those potholes can shake up the vehicle of your faith badly, even causing some to give up the gospel. But the glory that awaits those who endure the road far outweighs the discomfort and trauma of the journey.
18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”