Peter pauses from his rant about the false teachers at the beginning of chapter 3 to remind his audience why is he is writing – “to stimulate…wholesome thing.” He wants his audience to remember God’s word. And then he returns to the Jude-like revelation that scoffers will deny the truth of God, and that the entire earth will be burned up in judgment. Nevertheless, Peter encourages his audience by reminding them of God’s patience, a theme, Peter says, even Paul writes about repeatedly, though it is often distorted because of its difficulty to understand. After restating his warning about the damage false teachers can do from within the church, Peter urges growth in grace and knowledge – to the glory of God through Jesus Christ. Let’s take a look.
1) V1-2 – 1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
If the words of 2 Peter 2 were a challenge, here at the beginning of chapter 3, we learn why. Peter wants his audience to think about it! He doesn’t want Christians to simply know the gospel and either coast through life idly waiting for death or see how much sin we can accumulate to further magnify God’s grace (a human argument from Romans 3 and Romans 6). No Peter, like Paul in Romans 12:1-2, wants Christians to be transformed by the renewing of our minds; he wants to “stimulate…wholesome thinking.” And what better way to do that than to challenge his audience with a difficult discussion about the application of theological doctrine! Peter wants believers to compare the Old Testament law and prophecy with the New Testament commands and instructions. (Of course, the New Testament wasn’t compiled at the time of Peter’s writing, so, though he does mention Paul’s works as authoritative (v16-17), he refers to what would become New Testament teaching as being that which his audience learned from Jesus “through [their] apostles.”) As we study God’s word and search it like a treasure (Proverbs 2:3-5), we cannot help but be stimulated to wholesome thinking, to a Biblical worldview.
2) V3-10 – 3Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, ‘Where is this ‘coming’ He promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare [be burned up].
As we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (v18), which comes from the study of God’s word, we develop a Biblical worldview and have our minds transformed, stimulated and renewed by wholesome thinking. But in that process, Peter draws our attention to one thing that we must recognize “above all” (v3): there will be scoffers. In other words, there is one thing that should not surprise us about the time period between Christ’s ascension and second coming, and that one thing is the fact that unbelievers will scoff at Christianity and mock believers who cling to Jesus as their hope for eternal life, who, as the former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jessie Ventura jabbed, claim that religion (faith) is a crutch for the weak-minded. Notice that the term “scoffers” describes who they are. And guess what these “scoffers” will be doing? “Scoffing!” But scoffers won’t only be scoffing; they’ll also be “following their own evil desires,” which is a portrayal Jude uses of the false teachers he describes (Jude 16).
In v4, Peter offers the hypothetical and sarcastic, mocking question that the scoffers will use to embarrass believers. Paraphrased, it would be, “Why hasn’t Jesus come back yet?” And they would answer the rhetorical question this way: “He’s not coming back, so you Christians are foolish to think He is.” But Peter also gives us the logic that the scoffers use to reason their mockery. He says that they think, “Everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation” (v4). And when they use the word “creation” – if they actually do – they don’t mean “God’s creation;” they simply mean since the “big bang,” or since this go round of our multi-billion-year-old oscillating universe began. This is a mindset called uniformitarianism, which considers that everything has always been the same. In other words, the scoffers of Christianity – usually evolutionist atheists in the westernized world and culture of our day – make a huge and even illogical assumption, that whatever they observe today (things like weather patterns, astrological patterns, geological plate tectonics, etc.) is what has always been. For example, if a 60 year old scientist, who happens to also be an evolutionist atheist “scoffer,” has observed the distance between North America and Europe widening by 1 inch per year for the past 40 years, he might make a uniformitarian assumption that the rate of 1 inch per year is and has always been a constant, going to back to whenever the continents separated, however many hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago. He doesn’t take into account catastrophes of Biblical proportions! And that’s exactly what Peter says next.
In v5-6, Peter debunks the uniformitarian perspective by appealing to God’s creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) and the flood of Noah’s day. Things God created originally, like weather patterns and plate tectonics, presumed by uniformitarians to have gone on forever without change, changed immensely with the flood. And Peter goes farther than merely disproving their theory; he claims that they “deliberately forget.” In other words, scoffers aren’t just mistaken about the truth; they know the truth and forget it on purpose, in order to maintain their sinful lifestyle and seemingly keep themselves safe from judgment, though judgment will in fact come (v7). Paul says the exact same thing: judgment is coming on the ungodly, because “they suppress the truth by their wickedness.” In full, Romans 1:18-23 says,
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”
In v7, Peter brings his whole argument from chapter 2 full circle. Judgment is coming; there won’t be another flood, but this time everything will be destroyed by fire. Everyone will face the Day of Judgment, but only the ungodly will face destruction. V8 returns to the scoffers original argument, that Jesus’ second coming is late! Peter tells his dear friends not to forget that the Lord’s timing is perfect. What seems like a thousand years to us is only like a day to God. We might be longing for Jesus to return, and we might be getting impatient. We might even start yielding to the scoffers’ arguments and find ourselves doubting the truth of the gospel, simply because Christ has not returned yet. But remember, believers, God’s timing is perfect.
Coming to v9, a often quoted and familiar, but often misinterpreted, verse, Peter says again in different words that the Lord’s timing is perfect; He is not slow or late, running behind schedule. Rather, “He is patient with you.” With whom is God patient? You! God’s people! The elect! Who does He want not to perish? Anyone? Everyone? No! Anyone of you… any of the elect. For whom is God waiting to repent and believe? Everyone? No, for in that case, the end would never come, and the scoffers would be right! God is waiting for His people. God is patient with His people; He doesn’t want any of them to perish. So He waits for all of them to repent and believe. And you’d better believe that when the last of God’s elect repents and believes the gospel, at that very moment, Christ will be sent in Judgment. That last believer will bring with him or her the trumpet sound of the archangels, coming with Jesus. Maranatha!
Do we really want that day to come? Peter gives us the gut check in v10. That day will come like a thief in the night. It will happen in surprising fashion, unannounced beyond what God’s word tells us. Jesus said, “No one knows the day or hour… Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him” (Matthew 24:36, 42-44). But we should want that day to come, even though the specific details elude us, For Paul teaches us a great truth in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. We don’t have to be surprised! Paul says,
“Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
3) V11-14 – 11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming [Or as you wait eagerly for the day of God to come]. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him.
Peter asks a great question in v11. Francis Schaeffer asked the same one in a classic book he wrote in 1983: “How should we then live?” Chuck Colson repeated the question in his book, “How now shall we live?” I can’t help but think of my passion for remodeling when taking into consideration the context of this question. Since everything will be destroyed in a fire, why should I bother building and remodeling and renovating my house? But that’s not what Peter is getting at. He, like Schaeffer and Colson, is asking about our morality, our character, and our Christian witness in a world full of scoffers, skeptics, and apathetics.
The answer is simple to say and by no means surprising, but it is extremely challenging to apply to reality. Peter says, “You ought to live holy and godly lives” (v11). “Why?” and “How?” might be appropriate follow up questions to this simple, yet difficult-to-apply instruction. Peter answers both of those follow ups in v12. We live holy lives to speed the coming of the day of God, and we do so by looking forward in hope to the coming day of God. The motive – to speed the coming of Christ – is impressive; to think that the increasing holiness of believers is bringing Christ closer, perhaps due to the fact that our holiness is meant to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, is awe-inspiring. When unbelievers experience the godliness of believers, they either prove their reprobate status by rejecting and scoffing and mocking, or they humble themselves, repent, and come to believe the gospel as well. So the more godly believers become, the more quickly this process of winnowing will take place. The means – by hoping for the Day of the Lord to come – is explained further and better by the apostle Paul in Romans 5:1-5. He says:
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”
As believers, Paul says we rejoice in hope. And in this hope we, as Peter told us very descriptively in his first epistle, endure suffering. Suffering in hope produces perseverance, which builds character, which brings an overflow of hope. And this final mention of hope does not disappoint because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. So the means by which we live holy lives is hope, thanks to the indwelling Holy Spirit. Peter continues this passage by encouraging our hope, which in turn encourages our holiness. There will be “a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” What a glorious thought! Therefore, says Peter, because of that hope and the peace I now have with God, I ought to strive for holy living.
4) V15-18 – 15Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
In the final passage of his second epistle, Peter ties the validity of his teaching to Paul’s, which he says is authoritative Scripture. He reminds his audience that God’s “patience means salvation” (for the elect), and claims that Paul, according to the wisdom God gave him, teaches the same thing. Peter says that all of Paul’s letters speak of the same matters that he writes about, even though Paul’s teaching is challenging. Peter claims that “ignorant and unstable people distort” Paul’s message, just as they do “other Scriptures,” clearly making the claim that Paul wrote infallibly and inerrantly, as “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).
Peter concludes with a final command, a reminder, in v17: “Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow…” Instead of being lazy and sleepy and stagnant in your faith, which would leave you susceptible to false teaching – even if merely subliminal messages from television commercials – grow! Grow in the grace of Jesus, and grow in the knowledge of Jesus. They go hand in hand. As your knowledge of Him increases, so does your realization of the depths of His grace toward you. When you understand that grace, you’ll come to despise sin, guard against it constantly, and thereby cherish holiness and godliness.
By guarding against false doctrine, you’ll avoid the possibility – whether real or simply warned against – of falling “from your secure position.” Calvin concludes, “This exhortation, and those like it, are by no means intended to shake the firmness of that faith which recumbs on God, but to correct the sloth of our flesh… The meaning is this, that as long as we are in the flesh, our tardiness must be roused, and that this is fitly done by having our weakness, and the variety of dangers which surround us, placed before our eyes; but that the confidence which rests on God's promises ought not to be thereby shaken.”
Just as Peter ends with a doxology that glorifies the deity of Jesus (by ascribing the glory reserved for God alone to Him not only now but also forever, speaking of His eternal kingdom reign), so we end this commentary on 2 Peter, with the words of v18 and with the mindset to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever. Amen.”
Footnotes
- 3:10 Some manuscripts be burned up
- 3:12 Or as you wait eagerly for the day of God to come
Bible text from Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.