Text -- 2 Peter 3:13-18 (NET)

3:13 But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides.

Exhortation to the Faithful

3:14 Therefore, dear friends, since you are waiting for these things, strive to be found at peace, without spot or blemish, when you come into his presence. 3:15 And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him, 3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. 3:17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on that eternal day.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 2Pe 3:13

Promise ( epaggelma ).

As in 2Pe 1:4. The reference is to Isa 65:17.; Isa 66:22. See also Rev 21:1. For kainos (new) see note on Mat 26:29. For the expectant attitude in prosdokōmen (we look for) repeated from 2Pe 3:12 and again in 2Pe 3:14, see apekdechometha (we eagerly look for) in Phi 3:20.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:13

Wherein ( en hois ).

The new heavens and earth.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:13

Dwelleth ( katoikei ).

Has its home (oikos ). Certainly "righteousness"(dikaiosunē ) is not at home in this present world either in individuals, families, or nations.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:14

Wherefore ( dio ).

As in 2Pe 1:10, 2Pe 1:12.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:14

Give diligence ( spoudasate ).

As in 2Pe 1:10.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:14

That ye may be found ( heurethēnai ).

First aorist passive infinitive (cf. heurethēsetai in 2Pe 3:10). For this use of heuriskō about the end see 2Co 5:3; Phi 3:9; 1Pe 1:7.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:14

Without spot and blameless ( aspiloi kai amōmētoi ).

Predicate nominative after heurethēnai . See 2Pe 2:13 for position words spiloi kai mōmoi and 1Pe 1:19 for amōmos (so Jud 1:24) kai aspilos (so Jam 1:27). Amōmētos (old verbal of mōmaomai ) only here in N.T. save some MSS. in Phi 2:15.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:15

In his sight ( autōi ).

Ethical dative. Referring to Christ.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:15

Is salvation ( sōtērian ).

Predicate accusative after hēgeisthe in apposition with makrothumian (long-suffering), an opportunity for repentance (cf. 1Pe 3:20). The Lord here is Christ.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:15

Our beloved brother Paul ( ho agapētos adelphos Paulos ).

Paul applies the verbal agapētos (beloved) to Epaphras (Col 1:7), Onesimus (Col 4:9; Phm 1:16), to Tychicus (Col 4:7; Eph 6:21), and to four brethren in Rom 16 (Epainetus Rom 16:5, Ampliatus Rom 16:8, Stachys Rom 16:9, Persis Rom 16:12). It is not surprising for Peter to use it of Paul in view of Gal 2:9., in spite of Gal 2:11-14.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:15

Given to him ( dotheisan autōi ).

First aorist passive participle of didōmi with dative case. Peter claimed wisdom for himself, but recognises that Paul had the gift also. His language here may have caution in it as well as commendation. "St. Peter speaks of him with affection and respect, yet maintains the right to criticise"(Bigg).

Robertson: 2Pe 3:16

As also in all his epistles ( hōs kai en pasais epistolais ).

We do not know to how many Peter here refers. There is no difficulty in supposing that Peter "received every one of St. Paul’ s Epistles within a month or two of its publication"(Bigg). And yet Peter does not here assert the formation of a canon of Paul’ s Epistles.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:16

Speaking in them of these things ( lalōn en autais peri toutōn ).

Present active participle of laleō . That is to say, Paul also wrote about the second coming of Christ, as is obviously true.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:16

Hard to be understood ( dusnoēta ).

Late verbal from dus and noeō (in Aristotle, Lucian, Diog. Laert.), here only in N.T. We know that the Thessalonians persisted in misrepresenting Paul on this very subject of the second coming as Hymenaeus and Philetus did about the resurrection (2Ti 2:17) and Spitta holds that Paul’ s teaching about grace was twisted to mean moral laxity like Gal 3:10; Rom 3:20, Rom 3:28; Rom 5:20 (with which cf. Rom 6:1 as a case in point), etc. Peter does not say that he himself did not understand Paul on the subject of faith and freedom.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:16

Unlearned ( amatheis ).

Old word (alpha privative and manthanō to learn), ignorant, here only in N.T.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:16

Unsteadfast ( astēriktoi ).

See note on 2Pe 2:14.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:16

Wrest ( streblousin ).

Present active indicative of strebloō , old verb (from streblos twisted, strephō , to turn), here only in N.T.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:16

The other scriptures ( tas loipas graphas ).

There is no doubt that the apostles claimed to speak by the help of the Holy Spirit (1Th 5:27; Col 4:16) just as the prophets of old did (2Pe 1:20.). Note loipas (rest) here rather than allas (other). Peter thus puts Paul’ s Epistles on the same plane with the O.T., which was also misused (Matt 5:21-44; Mat 15:3-6; Mat 19:3-10).

Robertson: 2Pe 3:17

Knowing these things beforehand ( proginōskontes ).

Present active participle of proginōskō as in 1Pe 1:20. Cf. prōton ginōskō (2Pe 1:20; 2Pe 3:1). Hence they are without excuse for misunderstanding Peter or Paul on this subject.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:17

Beware ( phulassesthe ).

Present middle imperative of phulassō , common verb, to guard.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:17

Lest ( hina mē ).

Negative purpose, "that not."

Robertson: 2Pe 3:17

Being carried away ( sunapachthentes ).

First aorist passive participle of sunapagō , old verb double compound, to carry away together with, in N.T. only here and Gal 2:13.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:17

With the error ( tēi planēi ).

Instrumental case, "by the error"(the wandering).

Robertson: 2Pe 3:17

Of the wicked ( tōn athesmōn ).

See note on 2Pe 2:7.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:17

Ye fall from ( ekpesēte ).

Second aorist active subjunctive with hina mē of ekpiptō , old verb, to fall out of, with the ablative here (stērigmou , steadfastness, late word from stērizō , here alone in N.T.) as in Gal 5:4 (tēs charitos exepesate , ye fell out of grace).

Robertson: 2Pe 3:18

But grow ( auxanete de ).

Present active imperative of auxanō , in contrast with such a fate pictured in 2Pe 3:17, "but keep on growing."

Robertson: 2Pe 3:18

In the grace and knowledge ( en chariti kai gnōsei ).

Locative case with en . Grow in both. Keep it up. See note on 2Pe 1:1 for the idiomatic use of the single article (tou ) here, "of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Robertson: 2Pe 3:18

To him ( autōi ).

To Christ.

Robertson: 2Pe 3:18

For ever ( eis hēmeran aiōnos ).

"Unto the day of eternity."So Sirach 18:9f. One of the various ways of expressing eternity by the use of aiōn . So eis ton aiōna in Joh 6:5; Joh 12:34.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:13

We look for

The same verb as in 2Pe 3:12. It occurs three times in 2Pe 3:12-14.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:13

New ( καινοὺς )

See on Mat 26:29.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:14

Without spot and blameless

See on 2Pe 2:13.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:16

Hard to be understood ( δυσνόητα )

Only here in New Testament.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:16

They that are unlearned and unstable ( οἱ ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἀστήρικτοι )

Both words are peculiar to Peter. On the latter, see on 2Pe 2:14.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:16

Wrest ( στρεβλοῦσιν )

Only here in New Testament. Meaning, originally, to hoist with a windlass or screw; to twist or dislocate the limbs on a rack. It is a singularly graphic word applied to the perversion of scripture.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:16

The other scriptures ( τὰς λοιπὰς γραφὰς )

Showing that Paul's epistles were ranked as scripture. See on Mar 12:10.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:17

Being led away ( συναπαχθέντες )

Better, Rev., carried away. It is the word used by Paul of Barnabas, when he dissembled with Peter at Antioch. " Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation" (Gal 2:13).

Vincent: 2Pe 3:17

Of the wicked ( ἀθέσμων )

See on 2Pe 2:7.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:17

Fall from ( ἐκπέσητε )

Lit., " fall out of ." Compare Gal 5:4.

Vincent: 2Pe 3:17

Steadfastness ( στηριγμοῦ )

Only here in New Testament. See on 2Pe 1:12.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:13

Raised as it were out of the ashes of the old; we look for an entire new state of things.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:13

Only righteous spirits. How great a mystery!

Wesley: 2Pe 3:14

May meet him without terror, being sprinkled with his blood, and sanctified by his Spirit, so as to be without spot and blameless. Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:15

Not only designed to lead men to repentance, but actually conducing thereto: a precious means of saving many more souls.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:15

This refers not only to the single sentence preceding, but to all that went before. St. Paul had written to the same effect concerning the end of the world, in several parts of his epistles, and particularly in his Epistle to the Hebrews. Rom 2:4.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:16

St. Peter wrote this a little before his own and St. Paul's martyrdom. St. Paul therefore had now written all his epistles; and even from this expression we may learn that St. Peter had read them all, perhaps sent to him by St. Paul himself. Nor was he at all disgusted by what St. Paul had written concerning him in the Epistle to the Galatians.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:16

Namely, of the coming of our Lord, delayed through his longsuffering, and of the circumstances preceding and accompanying it.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:16

They who are not taught of God.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:16

Wavering, double - minded, unsettled men.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:16

As though Christ would not come.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:16

Therefore St Paul's writings were now part of the scriptures.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:16

But that some use the scriptures ill, is no reason why others should not use them at all.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:18

That is, in every Christian temper. There may be, for a time, grace without growth; as there may be natural life without growth. But such sickly life, of soul or body, will end in death, and every day draw nigher to it. Health is the means of both natural and spiritual growth. If the remaining evil of our fallen nature be not daily mortified, it will, like an evil humour in the body, destroy the whole man. But "if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body," (only so far as we do this,) "ye shall live" the life of faith, holiness, happiness. The end and design of grace being purchased and bestowed on us, is to destroy the image of the earthy, and restore us to that of the heavenly. And so far as it does this, it truly profits us; and also makes way for more of the heavenly gift, that we may at last be filled with all the fulness of God.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:18

being of a Christian depend on what his soul feeds on, as the health of the body depends on whatever we make our daily food. If we feed on what is according to our nature, we grow; if not, we pine away and die. The soul is of the nature of God, and nothing but what is according to his holiness can agree with it. Sin, of every kind, starves the soul, and makes it consume away. Let us not try to invert the order of God in his new creation: we shall only deceive ourselves. It is easy to forsake the will of God, and follow our own; but this will bring leanness into the soul. It is easy to satisfy ourselves without being possessed of the holiness and happiness of the gospel. It is easy to call these frames and feelings, and then to oppose faith to one and Christ to the other. Frames (allowing the expression) are no other than heavenly tempers, "the mind that was in Christ." Feelings are the divine consolations of the Holy Ghost shed abroad in the heart of him that truly believes. And wherever faith is, and wherever Christ is, there are these blessed frames and feelings. If they are not in us, it is a sure sign that though the wilderness became a pool, the pool is become a wilderness again.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:18

That is, in faith, the root of all.

Wesley: 2Pe 3:18

An expression naturally flowing from that sense which the apostle had felt in his soul throughout this whole chapter. Eternity is a day without night, without interruption, without end.

JFB: 2Pe 3:13

"But": in contrast to the destructive effects of the day of God stand its constructive effects. As the flood was the baptism of the earth, eventuating in a renovated earth, partially delivered from "the curse," so the baptism with fire shall purify the earth so as to be the renovated abode of regenerated man, wholly freed from the curse.

JFB: 2Pe 3:13

(Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22). The "we" is not emphatical as in English Version.

JFB: 2Pe 3:13

New atmospheric heavens surrounding the renovated earth.

JFB: 2Pe 3:13

Dwelleth in that coming world as its essential feature, all pollutions having been removed.

JFB: 2Pe 3:14

"in His sight" [ALFORD], at His coming; plainly implying a personal coming.

JFB: 2Pe 3:14

At the coming marriage feast of the Lamb, in contrast to 2Pe 2:13, "Spots they are and blemishes while they feast," not having on the King's pure wedding garment.

JFB: 2Pe 3:14

(1Co 1:8; Phi 1:10; 1Th 3:13; 1Th 5:23).

JFB: 2Pe 3:14

In all its aspects, towards God, your own consciences, and your fellow men, and as its consequence eternal blessedness: "the God of peace" will effect this for you.

JFB: 2Pe 3:15

Is designed for the salvation of those yet to be gathered into the Church: whereas those scoffers "count it (to be the result of) slackness" on the Lord's part (2Pe 3:9).

JFB: 2Pe 3:15

A beautiful instance of love and humility. Peter praises the very Epistles which contain his condemnation.

JFB: 2Pe 3:15

Adopting Paul's own language, 1Co 3:10, "According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master-builder." Supernatural and inspired wisdom "GIVEN" him, not acquired in human schools of learning.

JFB: 2Pe 3:15

Greek aorist, "wrote," as a thing wholly past: Paul was by this time either dead, or had ceased to minister to them.

JFB: 2Pe 3:15

Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, the same region as Peter addresses. Compare "in peace," 2Pe 3:14, a practical exhibition of which Peter now gives in showing how perfectly agreeing Paul (who wrote the Epistle to the Galatians) and he are, notwithstanding the event recorded (Gal 2:11-14). Col 3:4 refers to Christ's second coming. The Epistle to the Hebrews, too (addressed not only to the Palestinian, but also secondarily to the Hebrew Christians everywhere), may be referred to, as Peter primarily (though not exclusively) addresses in both Epistles the Hebrew Christians of the dispersion (see on 1Pe 1:1). Heb 9:27-28; Heb 10:25, Heb 10:37, "speak of these things" (2Pe 3:16) which Peter has been handling, namely, the coming of the day of the Lord, delayed through His "long-suffering," yet near and sudden.

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Rom 2:4 is very similar to 2Pe 3:15, beginning. The Pauline Epistles were by this time become the common property of all the churches. The "all" seems to imply they were now completed. The subject of the Lord's coming is handled in 1Th 4:13; 1Th 5:11; compare 2Pe 3:10 with 1Th 5:2. Still Peter distinguishes Paul's Epistle, or Epistles, "TO YOU," from "all his (other) Epistles," showing that certain definite churches, or particular classes of believers, are meant by "you."

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Epistles. The oldest manuscripts read the feminine relative (hais); not as Received Text (hois), "in which things."

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Namely, in reference to Christ's coming, for example, the statements as to the man of sin and the apostasy, before Christ's coming. "Paul seemed thereby to delay Christ's coming to a longer period than the other apostles, whence some doubted altogether His coming" [BENGEL]. Though there be some things hard to be understood, there are enough besides, plain, easy, and sufficient for perfecting the man of God. "There is scarce anything drawn from the obscure places, but the same in other places may be found most plain" [AUGUSTINE]. It is our own prejudice, foolish expectations, and carnal fancies, that make Scripture difficult [JEREMY TAYLOR].

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Not those wanting human learning are meant, but those lacking the learning imparted by the Spirit. The humanly learned have been often most deficient in spiritual learning, and have originated many heresies. Compare 2Ti 2:23, a different Greek word, "unlearned," literally, "untutored." When religion is studied as a science, nothing is more abstruse; when studied in order to know our duty and practice it, nothing is easier.

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Not yet established in what they have learned; shaken by every seeming difficulty; who, in perplexing texts, instead of waiting until God by His Spirit makes them plain in comparing them with other Scriptures, hastily adopt distorted views.

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Strain and twist (properly with a hand screw) what is straight in itself (for example, 2Ti 2:18).

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Paul's Epistles were, therefore, by this time, recognized in the Church, as "Scripture": a term never applied in any of the fifty places where it occurs, save to the Old and New Testament sacred writings. Men in each Church having miraculous discernment of spirits would have prevented any uninspired writing from being put on a par with the Old Testament word of God; the apostles' lives also were providentially prolonged, Paul's and Peter's at least to thirty-four years after Christ's resurrection, John's to thirty years later, so that fraud in the canon is out of question. The three first Gospels and Acts are included in "the other Scriptures," and perhaps all the New Testament books, save John and Revelation, written later.

JFB: 2Pe 3:16

Not through Paul's fault (2Pe 2:1).

JFB: 2Pe 3:17

Warned by the case of those "unlearned and unstable" persons (2Pe 3:16).

JFB: 2Pe 3:17

The event.

JFB: 2Pe 3:17

The very term, as Peter remembers, used by Paul of Barnabas' being "carried," Greek, "led away with" Peter and the other Jews in their hypocrisy.

JFB: 2Pe 3:17

"lawless," as in 2Pe 2:7.

JFB: 2Pe 3:17

(grace, Gal 5:4 : the true source of) "steadfastness" or stability in contrast with the "unstable" (2Pe 3:16): "established" (2Pe 1:12): all kindred Greek terms. Compare Jud 1:20-21.

JFB: 2Pe 3:18

Not only do not "fall from" (2Pe 3:17), but grow onward: the true secret of not going backward. Eph 4:15, "Grow up into Him, the Head, Christ."

JFB: 2Pe 3:18

"the grace and knowledge of Christ" [ALFORD rightly]: the grace of which Christ is the author, and the knowledge of which Christ is the object.

JFB: 2Pe 3:18

Greek, "to the day of eternity": the day that has no end: "the day of the Lord," beginning with the Lord's coming.

Clarke: 2Pe 3:13

We, according to his promise, look for new heavens - The promise to which it is supposed the apostle alludes, is found Isa 65:17 : Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind; and Isa 66:22 : For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed, etc. Now, although these may be interpreted of the glory of the Gospel dispensation, yet, if St. Peter refer to them, they must have a more extended meaning

It does appear, from these promises, that the apostle says here, and what is said Rev 21:27; Rev 22:14, Rev 22:15, that the present earth, though destined to be burned up, will not be destroyed, but be renewed and refined, purged from all moral and natural imperfection, and made the endless abode of blessed spirits. But this state is certainly to be expected after the day of judgment; for on this the apostle is very express, who says the conflagration and renovation are to take place at the judgment of the great day; see 2Pe 3:7, 2Pe 3:8, 2Pe 3:10, 2Pe 3:12. That such an event may take place is very possible; and, from the terms used by St. Peter, is very probable. And, indeed, it is more reasonable and philosophical to conclude that the earth shall be refined and restored, than finally destroyed. But this has nothing to do with what some call the millennium state; as this shall take place when time, with the present state and order of things, shall be no more.

Clarke: 2Pe 3:14

Seeing that ye look for such things - As ye profess that such a state of things shall take place, and have the expectation of enjoying the blessedness of it, be diligent in the use of every means and influence of grace, that ye may be found of him - the Lord Jesus, the Judge of quick and dead, without spot - any contagion of sin in your souls, and blameless - being not only holy and innocent, but useful in your lives.

Clarke: 2Pe 3:15

And account that the long-suffering of our Lord - Conclude that God’ s long-suffering with the world is a proof that he designs men to be saved; even as our beloved brother Paul. "This epistle being written to those to whom the first epistle was sent, the persons to whom the Apostle Paul wrote concerning the long-suffering of God were the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Accordingly, we know he wrote to the Ephesians, (Eph 2:3-5), to the Colossians, (Col 1:21), and to Timothy, (1Ti 2:3, 1Ti 2:4), things which imply that God’ s bearing with sinners is intended for their salvation. The persons to whom Peter’ s epistles were sent were, for the most part, Paul’ s converts."- Macknight

Clarke: 2Pe 3:15

According to the wisdom given unto him - That is, according to the measure of the Divine inspiration, by which he was qualified for the Divine work, and by which he was so capable of entering into the deep things of God. It is worthy of remark that Paul’ s epistles are ranked among the Scriptures; a term applied to those writings which are divinely inspired, and to those only.

Clarke: 2Pe 3:16

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things - Paul, in all his epistles, says Dr. Macknight, has spoken of the things written by Peter in this letter. For example, he has spoken of Christ’ s coming to judgment; 1Th 3:13; 1Th 4:14-18; 2Th 1:7-10; Tit 2:13. And of the resurrection of the dead, 1Co 15:22; Phi 3:20, Phi 3:21. And of the burning of the earth; 2Th 1:8. And of the heavenly country; 2Co 5:1-10. And of the introduction of the righteous into that country; 1Th 4:17; Heb 4:9; Heb 12:14, Heb 12:18, Heb 12:24. And of the judgment of all mankind by Christ; Rom 14:10

Clarke: 2Pe 3:16

In which are some things hard to be understood - Δυσνοητα τινα· That is, if we retain the common reading εν οἱς, in or among which things, viz., what he says of the day of judgment, the resurrection of the body etc., etc., there are some things difficult to be comprehended, and from which a wrong or false meaning may be taken. But if we take the reading of AB, twelve others, with both the Syriac, all the Arabic, and Theophylact, εν αἱς, the meaning is more general, as εν αἱς must refer to επιστολαις, epistles, for this would intimate that there were difficulties in all the epistles of St. Paul; and indeed in what ancient writings are there not difficulties? But the papists say that the decision of all matters relative to the faith is not to be expected from the Scriptures on this very account, but must be received from the Church; i.e. the Popish or Romish Church

But what evidence have we that that Church can infallibly solve any of those difficulties? We have none! And till we have an express, unequivocal revelation from heaven that an unerring spirit is given to that Church, I say, for example, to the present Church of Rome, with the pope called Pius VII. at its head, we are not to receive its pretensions. Any Church may pretend the same, or any number of equally learned men as there are of cardinals and pope in the conclave; and, after all, it would be but the opinion of so many men, to which no absolute certainty or infallibility could be attached

This verse is also made a pretext to deprive the common people of reading the word of God; because the unlearned and unstable have sometimes wrested this word to their own destruction: but if it be human learning, and stability in any system of doctrine, that qualifies men to judge of these difficult things, then we can find many thousands, even in Europe, that have as much learning and stability as the whole college of cardinals, and perhaps ten thousand times more; for that conclave was never very reputable for the learning of its members: and to other learned bodies we may, with as much propriety, look up as infallible guides, as to this conclave

Besides, as it is only the unlearned and the unestablished (that is, young Christian converts) that are in danger of wresting such portions; the learned, that is, the experienced and the established in the knowledge and life of God, are in no such danger; and to such we may safely go for information: and these abound everywhere, especially in Protestant countries; and by the labors of learned and pious men on the sacred writings there is not one difficulty relative to the things which concern our salvation left unexplained. If the members of the Romish Church have not these advantages, let them go to those who have them; and if their teachers are afraid to trust them to the instruction of the Protestants, then let them who pretend to have infallibly written their exposition of these difficult places, also put them, with a wholesome text in the vulgar language, into the hands of their people, and then the appeal will not lie to Rome, but to the Bible, and those interpretations will be considered according to their worth, being weighed with other scriptures, and the expositions of equally learned and equally infallible men

We find, lastly, that those who wrest such portions, are those who wrest the other scriptures to their destruction; therefore they are no patterns, nor can such form any precedent for withholding the Scriptures from the common people, most of whom, instead of wresting them to their destruction, would become wise unto salvation by reading them. We may defy the Romish Church to adduce a single instance of any soul that was perverted, destroyed, or damned, by reading of the Bible; and the insinuation that they may is blasphemous. I may just add that the verb στρεβλοω, which the apostle uses here, signifies to distort, to put to the rack, to torture, to overstretch and dislocate the limbs; and hence the persons here intended are those who proceed according to no fair plan of interpretation, but force unnatural and sophistical meanings on the word of God: a practice which the common simple Christian is in no danger of following. I could illustrate this by a multitude of interpretations from popish writers.

Clarke: 2Pe 3:17

Seeing ye know - before - Seeing that by prophets and apostles you have been thus forewarned, beware, φυλασσεσθε, keep watch, be on your guard; cleave to God and the word of his grace, lest ye be led away from the truth delivered by the prophets and apostles, by the error of the wicked, αθεσμων, of the lawless - those who wrest the Scriptures to make them countenance their lusts, exorbitant exactions, and lawless practices

Clarke: 2Pe 3:17

Fall from your own steadfastness - From that faith in Christ which has put you in possession of that grace which establishes the heart.

Clarke: 2Pe 3:18

But grow in grace - Increase in the image and favor of God; every grace and Divine influence which ye have received is a seed, a heavenly seed, which, if it be watered with the dew of heaven from above, will endlessly increase and multiply itself. He who continues to believe, love, and obey, will grow in grace, and continually increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, as his sacrifice, sanctifier, counsellor, preserver, and final Savior. The life of a Christian is a growth; he is at first born of God, and is a little child; becomes a young man, and a father in Christ. Every father was once an infant; and had he not grown, he would have never been a man. Those who content themselves with the grace they received when converted to God, are, at best, in a continual state of infancy: but we find, in the order of nature, that the infant that does not grow, and grow daily, too, is sickly and soon dies; so, in the order of grace, those who do not grow up into Jesus Christ are sickly, and will soon die, die to all sense and influence of heavenly things

There are many who boast of the grace of their conversion; persons who were never more than babes, and have long since lost even that grace, because they did not grow in it. Let him that readeth understand

Clarke: 2Pe 3:18

To him - The Lord Jesus, be glory - all honor and excellency attributed, both now - in this present state, and for ever, εις ἡμεραν αιωνος, to the day of eternity - that in which death, and misery, and trial, and darkness, and change, and time itself, are to the righteous for ever at an end: it is eternity; and this eternity is one unalterable, interminable, unclouded, and unchangeable Day

Clarke: 2Pe 3:18

Amen - So let it be! and so it shall be! Though this word is wanting in some reputable MSS., get it should be retained, as it has here more than usual authority in its support

Subscriptions to this epistle in the Versions

The end of the Second Epistle of Peter the apostle. - Syriac

The Second Epistle of Peter the apostle is ended. - Syriac Philoxenian

Nothing in the printed Vulgate

The end of the epistles of blessed Peter the apostle, the rock of the faith. - Arabic

The Second Epistle of Peter is ended; and glory be to God for ever and ever! - Aethiopic

Nothing in the Coptic

The end of the Second catholic Epistle of St. Peter. - Complutensian Polyglot

The end of the Second Epistle of St. Peter. - Bib. Lat., edit. antiq

Subscriptions in the Manuscripts

Of the second of Peter. - Codex Alexandrius, and Codex Vaticanus

Of the catholic epistle of Peter. - Codex Ephrem

The Second Epistle of the holy Apostle Peter. - Other MSS

We have now passed over all the canonical writings of Peter that are extant; and it is worthy of remark that, in no place of the two epistles already examined, nor in any of this apostle’ s sayings in any other parts of the sacred writings do we find any of the peculiar tenets of the Romish Church: not one word of his or the pope’ s supremacy; not one word of those who affect to be his successors; nothing of the infallibility claimed by those pretended successors; nothing of purgatory, penances, pilgrimages, auricular confession, power of the keys, indulgences, extreme unction, masses, and prayers for the dead; and not one word on the most essential doctrine of the Romish Church, transubstantiation. Now, as all these things have been considered by themselves most essential to the being of that Church; is it not strange that he, from whom they profess to derive all their power, authority, and influence, in spiritual and secular matters, should have said nothing of these most necessary things? Is it not a proof that they are all false and forged; that the holy apostle knew nothing of them; that they are no part of the doctrine of God; and, although they distinguish the Church of Rome, do not belong to the Church of Christ? It is no wonder that the rulers of this Church endeavor to keep the Scriptures from the common people; for, were they permitted to consult these, the imposture would be detected, and the solemn, destructive cheat at once exposed

Calvin: 2Pe 3:14

14.Wherefore He justly reasons from hope to its effect, or the practice of a godly life; for hope is living and efficacious; therefore it cannot be but that it will attract us to itself. He, then, who waits for new heavens, must begin with renewal as to himself, and diligently aspire after it; but they who cleave to their own filth, think nothing, it is certain, of God's kingdom, and have no taste for anything but for this corrupt world.

But we must notice that he says, that we ought to be found blameless by Christ; for by these words he intimates, that while the world engages and engrosses the minds of others, we must cast our eyes on the Lord, and he shews at the same time what is real integrity, even that which is approved by his judgment, and not that which gains the Praise of men. ¹⁸³

The word peace seems to be taken for a quiet state of conscience, founded on hope and patient waiting. ¹⁸⁴ For as so few turn their attention to the judgment of Christ, hence it is, that while they are carried headlong by their importunate lusts, they are at the same time in a state of disquietude. This peace, then, is the quietness of a peaceable soul, which acquiesces in the word of God.

It may be asked, how any one can be found blameless by Christ, when we all labor under so many deficiencies. But Peter here only points out the mark at which the faithful ought all to aim, though they cannot reach it, until having put off their flesh they become wholly united to Christ.

Calvin: 2Pe 3:15

15.The long-suffering of our Lord He takes it as granted that Christ defers the day of his coming, because he has a regard for our salvation. He hence animates the faithful, because in a longer delay they have an evidence as to their own salvation. Thus, what usually disheartens others through weariness, he wisely turns to a contrary purpose.

Even as our beloved brother Paul We may easily gather from the Epistle to the Galatians, as well as from other places, that unprincipled men, who went about everywhere to disturb the churches, in order to discredit Paul, made use of this pretense, that he did not well agree with the other Apostles. It is then probable that Peter referred to Paul in order to shew their consent; for it was very necessary to take away the occasion for such a calumny. And yet, when I examine all things more narrowly, it seems to me more probable that this Epistle was composed by another according to what Peter communicated, than that it was written by himself, for Peter himself would have never spoken thus. But it is enough for me that we have a witness of his doctrine and of his goodwill, who brought forward nothing contrary to what he would have himself said.

Calvin: 2Pe 3:16

16.In which are some things The relative which does not refer to epistles, for it is in the neuter gender. ¹⁸⁵ The meaning is, that in the things which he wrote there was sometimes an obscurity, which gave occasion to the unlearned to go astray to their own ruin. We are reminded by these words, to reason soberly on things so high and obscure; and further, we are here strengthened against this kind of offense, lest the foolish or absurd speculations of men should disturb us, by which they entangle and distort simple truth, which ought to serve for edification.

But we must observe, that we are not forbidden to read Paul's Epistles, because they contain some things hard and difficult to be understood, but that, on the contrary, they are commended to us, provided we bring a calm and teachable mind. For Peter condemns men who are trifling and volatile, who strangely turn to their own ruin what is useful to all. Nay, he says that this is commonly done as to all the Scripture: and yet he does not hence conclude, that we are not to read it, but only shews, that those vices ought to be corrected which prevent improvement, and not only so, but render deadly to us what God has appointed for our salvation.

It may, however, be asked, Whence is this obscurity, for the Scripture shines to us like a lamp, and guides our steps? To this I reply, that it is nothing to be wondered at, if Peter ascribed obscurity to the mysteries of Christ's kingdom, and especially if we consider how hidden they are to the perception of the flesh. However the mode of teaching which God has adopted, has been so regulated, that all who refuse not to follow the Holy Spirit as their guide, find in the Scripture a clear light. At the same time, many are blind who stumble at mid-day; others are proud, who, wandering through devious paths, and flying over the roughest places, rush headlong into ruin.

Calvin: 2Pe 3:17

17.Ye, therefore, beloved After having shewn to the faithful the dangers of which they were to beware, he now concludes by admonishing them to be wise. But he shews that there was need of being watchful, lest they should be overwhelmed. And, doubtless, the craft of our enemy, the many and various treacheries which he employs against us, the cavils of ungodly men, leave no place for security. Hence, vigilance must be exercised, lest the devices of Satan and of the wicked should succeed in circumventing us. It, however seems that we stand on slippery ground, and the certainty of our salvation is suspended, as it were, on a thread, since he declares to the faithful, that they ought to take heed lest they should fall from their own steadfastness.

What, then, will become of us, if we are exposed to the danger of falling? To this I answer, that 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. If any one wishes to see more on this subject, let him read what has been said on the tenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians.

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.

Calvin: 2Pe 3:18

18.But grow in grace He also exhorts us to make progress; for it is the only way of persevering, to make continual advances, and not to stand still in the middle of our journey; as though he had said, that they only would be safe who labored to make progress daily.

The word grace, I take in a general sense, as meaning those spiritual gifts we obtain through Christ. But as we become partakers of these blessings according to the measure of our faith, knowledge is added to grace; as though he had said, that as faith increases, so would follow the increase of grace. ¹⁸⁶

To him be glory This is a remarkable passage to prove the divinity of Christ; for what is said cannot belong to any but to God alone. The adverb of the present time, now, is designed for this end, that we may not rob Christ of his glory, during our warfare in the world. He then adds, for ever, that we may now form some idea of his eternal kingdom, which will make known to us his full and perfect glory.

END OF THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER

Defender: 2Pe 3:13

All the promises of God, especially including His promise to return and complete His great work of redemption, will be fulfilled, though it seems to us to be long delayed (2Pe 3:4). The old cosmos will have been dissolved, its material elements having been converted temporarily into energy (light, heat, sound, etc.) but will then be made over again as a "new" (Greek kainos, meaning "fresh" rather than "young in age") cosmos, with all the age-long effects of sin and the curse forever removed (with the one exception of the lake of fire and its inhabitants - see note on Rev 20:10).

Defender: 2Pe 3:13

The new heavens and new earth will no longer harbor any remnants of sin and its effects, so will "remain" forever (Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22; Rev 21:1-5)."

Defender: 2Pe 3:14

Even though Peter knew He would soon die, he still wrote to his "beloved" friends as though they might still be living when Christ returned (compare 1Jo 2:28), urging them to live in the light of His expected, imminent return. This admonition surely applies even more to us today. Incidentally, Peter interjects this appellation of endearment, "beloved," no less than six times in this short epistle, more than in any other New Testament book except Romans."

Defender: 2Pe 3:15

Evidently, Peter's readers in the churches of Asia had already read one or more of Paul's earlier epistles and had accepted them as inspired and authoritative. In his very first (or possibly second) epistle, Paul also had written about the imminent coming of the Lord, urging his readers to live in light of that fact (1 Thessalonians 5:4-24)."

Defender: 2Pe 3:16

It is dangerous to "wrest," or distort, the Scriptures, but, even today, this is commonly done by professing Christians who seek to justify their own compromises with the evolutionary philosophy and humanistic life style of their ungodly associates.

Defender: 2Pe 3:16

It is significant that here Peter recognizes Paul's epistles as comparable to "the other Scriptures." When he notes that Paul had "written unto you" (2Pe 3:15), it seems possible, at least, that he was referring to the book of Hebrews - in particular to Heb 10:36-38. Peter's epistles, also, had been especially addressed to Jewish Christians (1Pe 1:1; 2Pe 3:1). This reference may be an incidental confirmation of the Pauline authorship of Hebrews."

Defender: 2Pe 3:17

The term "wicked" here means "unsettled" or "lawless." These men were "unlearned and unstable" (2Pe 3:16) in the Scriptures and so were leading others astray with their twisting of God's Word to fit their own opinions. There are many such teachers today as well so "beware.""

Defender: 2Pe 3:18

Peter had referred to "newborn babes" (1Pe 2:2, 1Pe 2:3) after first indicating that "we" (all believers) have been born spiritually (begotten again) by Christ and His resurrection to an eternal inheritance and are being "kept ... through faith" (1Pe 1:3-5). He concludes his two epistles by urging us not to remain babes in Christ but to "grow." Our growth should be both in doctrine and practice, each being inadequate by itself. His first epistle emphasizes "grace" (with eight occurrences) and the second, "knowledge" (with six occurrences) (Eph 4:15)."

TSK: 2Pe 3:13

according : Isa 65:17, Isa 66:22; Rev 21:1, Rev 21:27

TSK: 2Pe 3:14

seeing : Phi 3:20; Heb 9:28

be diligent : 2Pe 1:5-10; 1Jo 3:3

in peace : Mat 24:26; Luk 2:29, Luk 12:43; 1Co 1:8, 1Co 15:58; Phi 1:10; 1Th 3:13, 1Th 5:23

TSK: 2Pe 3:15

account : 2Pe 3:9; Rom 2:4; 1Ti 1:16; 1Pe 3:20

our beloved : Act 15:25

according : Exo 31:3, Exo 31:6, Exo 35:31, Exo 35:35; 1Ki 3:12, 1Ki 3:28, 1Ki 4:29; Ezr 7:25; Pro 2:6, Pro 2:7; Ecc 2:26; Dan 2:20,Dan 2:21; Luk 21:15; Act 7:10; 1Co 2:13, 1Co 12:8; Jam 1:5, Jam 3:17

TSK: 2Pe 3:16

in all : 1Pe 1:1

speaking : Rom. 8:1-39; 1Cor. 15:1-58; 1Thes. 4:1-5:28; 2Kings 1:1-18

hard : 1Ki 10:1; Heb 5:11

unstable : 2Pe 2:14; Gen 49:4; 2Ti 3:5-7; Jam 1:8

wrest : Exo 23:2, Exo 23:6; Deu 16:19; Psa 56:5; Hab 1:4

the other : Jer 23:36; Mat 15:3, Mat 15:6, Mat 22:29

unto their own : 2Pe 2:1; Phi 3:19; 1Pe 2:8; Jud 1:4

TSK: 2Pe 3:17

seeing : 2Pe 1:12; Pro 1:17; Mat 24:24, Mat 24:25; Mar 13:23; Joh 16:4

beware : Mat 7:15, Mat 16:6, Mat 16:11; Phi 3:2; Col 2:8; 2Ti 4:15

being : 2Pe 2:18-20; Mat 24:24; Mar 13:22; Rom 16:18; 2Co 11:3, 2Co 11:13-15

from : 2Pe 1:10,2Pe 1:11, 2Pe 2:18-22; Act 2:42; 1Co 15:58; Eph 4:14; Col 2:5; Heb 3:14; 1Pe 5:9

TSK: 2Pe 3:18

grow : Psa 92:12; Hos 14:5; Mal 4:2; Eph 4:15; Col 1:10; 2Th 1:3; 1Pe 2:2

knowledge : 2Pe 1:3, 2Pe 1:8, 2Pe 2:20; Joh 17:3; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:17; Phi 3:8; Col 1:10, Col 3:10

To him : Joh 5:23; 2Ti 4:18; 1Pe 5:10,1Pe 5:11; Jud 1:25; Rev 1:6, Rev 5:9-14

Amen : Mat 6:13, Mat 28:20

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 2Pe 3:13

Nevertheless we, according to his promise - The allusion here seems to be, beyond a doubt, to two passages in Isaiah, in which a promise of this kind is found. Isa 65:17; "for, behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind."Isa 66:22; "for as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord,"etc. Compare Rev 21:1, where John says he had a vision of the new heaven and the new earth which was promised: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea."See the notes at Isa 65:17.

Look for new heavens and a new earth - It may not be easy to answer many of the questions which might be asked respecting the "new heaven and earth"here mentioned. One of those which are most naturally asked is, whether the apostle meant to say that this earth, after being purified by fire, would be suited again for the home of the redeemed; but this question it is impossible to answer with certainty. The following remarks may perhaps embrace all that is known, or that can be shown to be probable, on the meaning of the passage before us.

I. The "new heavens and the new earth"referred to will be such as will exist after the world shall have been destroyed by fire; that is, after the general judgment. There is not a word expressed, and not a hint given, of any "new heaven and earth"previous to this, in which the Saviour will reign personally over his saints, in such a renovated world, through a long millennial period. The order of events, as stated by Peter, is:

\tx720 \tx1080 (a)\caps1     t\caps0 hat the heavens and earth which are now, are "kept in store, reserved unto fire "against the day of judgment,"and perdition of ungodly men,"2Pe 3:7;

(b)\caps1     t\caps0 hat the day of the Lord will come suddenly and unexpectedly, 2Pe 3:10; that then the heavens and earth will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt, and the earth with all its works be burned up, 2Pe 3:10; and,

©\caps1     t\caps0 hat after this 2Pe 3:13 we are to expect the "new heavens and new earth."

Nothing is said of a personal reign of Christ; nothing of the resurrection of the saints to dwell with him on the earth; nothing of the world’ s being fitted up for their home previous to the final judgment. If Peter had any knowledge of such events, and believed that they would occur, it is remarkable that he did not even allude to them here. The passage before us is one of the very few places in the New Testament where allusion is made to the manner in which the affairs of the world will be closed; and it cannot be explained why, if he looked for such a glorious personal reign of the Saviour, the subject should have been passed over in total silence.

II. The word "new,"applied to the heavens and the earth that are to succeed the present, might express one of the following three things - that is, either of these things would correspond with all that is fairly implied in that word:

\tx720 \tx1080 (a) If a new world was literally created out of nothing after this world is destroyed; for that would be in the strictest sense "new."That such an event is possible no one can doubt, though it is not revealed.

(b) If an inhabitant of the earth should dwell after death In any other of the worlds now existing, it would be to him a "new"abode, and everything would appear new. Let him, for instance, be removed to the planet "Saturn,"with its wonderful ring, and its seven moons, and the whole aspect of the heavens, and of the world on which he would then dwell, would be new to him. The same thing would occur if he were to dwell on any other of the heavenly bodies, or if he were to pass from world to world. See this illustrated at length in the works of Thomas Dick, LL. D. - "Celestial Scenery,"etc. Compare the notes at 1Pe 1:12.

© If the earth should be renovated, and suited for the home of man after the universal conflagration, it would then be a new abode.

III. This world, thus renovated, may be, from time to time, the temporary abode of the redeemed, after the final judgment. No one can prove that this may not be, though there is no evidence that it will be their permanent and eternal home or that even all the redeemed will at any one time find a home on this globe, for no one can suppose that the earth is spacious enough to furnish a dwelling-place for all the unnumbered millions that are to be saved. But that the earth may again be revisited from time to time by the redeemed; that in a purified and renovated form it may be one of the "many mansions"which are to be fitted up for them Joh 14:2, may not appear wholly improbable from the following suggestions:

\tx720 \tx1080 (1) It seems to have been a law of the earth that in its progress it should be "prepared"at one period for the dwelling-place of a higher order of beings at another period. Thus, according to the disclosures of geology, it existed perhaps for countless ages before it was fitted to be an abode for man; and that it was occupied by the monsters of an inferior order of existence, who have now passed away to make room for a nobler race. Who can tell but the present order of thing may pass away to make place for the manifestations of a more exalted mode of being?

\caps1 (2) t\caps0 here is no certain evidence that any world has been annihilated, though some have disappeared from human view. Indeed, as observed above, (see the notes at 2Pe 3:10) there is no proof that a single particle of matter ever has been annihilated, or ever will be. It may change its form, but it may still exist.

\caps1 (3) i\caps0 t seems also to accord most with probability, that, though the earth may undergo important changes by flood or fire, it will not be annihilated. It seems difficult to suppose that, as a world, it will be wholly displaced from the system of which it is now a part, or that the system itself will disappear. The earth, as one of the worlds of God, has occupied too important a position in the history of the universe to make it to be easily believed that the place where the Son of God became incarnate and died, shall be utterly swept away It would, certainly, accord more with all the feelings which we can have on such a subject, to suppose that a world once so beautiful when it came from the hand of its Maker. should be restored to primitive loveliness; that a world which seems to have been made primarily (see the notes at 1Pe 1:12) with a view to illustrate the glory of God in redemption, should be preserved in some appropriate form to be the theater of the exhibition of the developement of that plan in far distant ages to come.

\caps1 (4) t\caps0 o the redeemed, it would be most interesting again to visit the spot where the great work of their redemption was accomplished; where the Son of God became incarnate and made atonement for sin; and where there would be so many interesting recollections and associations, even after the purification by fire, connected with the infancy of their existence, and their preparation for eternity. Piety would at least "wish"that the world where Gethsemane and Calvary are should never be blotted out from the universe.

\caps1 (5) h\caps0 owever, if, after their resurrection and reception into heaven, the redeemed shall ever revisit a world so full of interesting recollections and associations, where they began their being, where their Redeemer lived and died, where they were renewed and sanctified, and where their bodies once rested in the grave, there is no reason to suppose that this will be their permanent and unchanging home. It may be mere speculation, but it seems to accord best with the goodness of God, and with the manner in which the universe is made, to suppose that every portion of it may be visited, and become successively the home of the redeemed; that they may pass from world to world, and survey the wonders and the works of God as they are displayed in different worlds. The universe, so vast, seems to have been suited for such a purpose, and nothing else that we can conceive of will be so adapted to give employment without weariness to the minds that God has made, in the interminable duration before them.

IV. The new heavens and earth will be "holy."They will be the home of righteousness forever.

\tx720 \tx1080 (a) This fact is clearly revealed in the verse before us; "wherein dwelleth righteousness."It is also the correct statement of the Scriptures, Rev 21:27; 1Co 6:9-10; Heb 12:14.

(b) This will be in strong contrast with what has occurred on earth, The history of this world has been almost entirely a history of sin - of its nature, developements, results. There have been no perfectly holy beings on the earth, except the Saviour, and the angels who have occasionally visited it. There has been no perfectly holy place - city, village, hamlet; no perfectly holy community. But the future world, in strong contrast with this, will be perfectly pure, and will be a fair illustration of what religion in its perfect form will do.

© It is for this that the Christian desires to dwell in that world, and waits for the coming of his Saviour. It is not primarily that he may be happy, desirable as that is, but that he may be in a world where he himself will be perfectly pure, and where all around him will be pure; where every being that he meets shall be "holy as God is holy,"and every place on which his eye rests, or his foot treads, shall be uncontaminated by sin. To the eye of faith and hope, how blessed is the prospect of such a world!

Barnes: 2Pe 3:14

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent - That is, in securing your salvation. The effect of such hopes and prospects should be to lead us to an earnest inquiry whether we are prepared to dwell in a holy world, and to make us diligent in performing the duties, and patient in bearing the trials of life. He who has such hopes set before him, should seek earnestly that he may be enabled truly to avail himself of them, and should make their attainment the great object of his life. He who is so soon to come to an end of all weary toil, should be willing to labor diligently and faithfully while life lasts. He who is so soon to be relieved from all temptation and trial, should he willing to bear a little longer the sorrows of the present world. What are all these compared with the glory that awaits us? Compare the 1Co 15:58 note; Rom 8:18 note, following; 2Co 4:16-18 notes.

That ye may be found of him in peace - Found by him when he returns in such a state as to secure your eternal peace.

Without spot, and blameless - See the notes at Eph 5:27. It should be an object of earnest effort with us to have the last stain of sin and pollution removed from our souls. A deep feeling that we are soon to stand in the presence of a holy God, our final Judge, cannot but have a happy influence in making us pure.

Barnes: 2Pe 3:15

And account - that "the long-suffering of our Lord"is "salvation."Regard his delay in coming to judge the world, not as an evidence that he never will come, but as a proof of his desire that we should be saved. Many had drawn a different inference from the fact that the Saviour did not return, and had supposed that it was a proof that he would never come, and that his promises had failed. Peter says that that conclusion was not authorized, but that we should rather regard it as an evidence of his mercy, and of his desire that we should be saved. This conclusion is as proper now as it was then. Wicked men should not infer, because God does not cut them down, that therefore they never will be punished, or that God is not faithful to his threatenings. They should rather regard it as a proof that he is willing to save them; because:

(1)    He might justly cut them off for their sins;

(2)\caps1     t\caps0 he only reason of which we have knowledge why he spares the wicked is to give them space for repentance; and,

(3)\caps1     a\caps0 s long as life is prolonged a sinner has the opportunity to repent, and may turn to God. We may therefore, in our own case, look on all the delays of God to punish - on all his patience and forbearance toward us, notwithstanding our sins and provocations - on the numberless tokens of his kindness scattered along our way, as evidence that he is not willing that we should perish.

What an accumulated argument in any case would this afford of the willingness of God to save! Let any man look on his own sins, his pride, and selfishness, and sensuality; let him contemplate the fact that he has sinned through many years, and against many mercies; let him endeavor to estimate the number and magnitude of his offences, and upon God’ s patience in bearing with him while these have been committed, and who can overrate the force of such an argument in proof that God is slow to anger, and is willing to save? Compare the notes at Rom 2:4.

Even as our beloved brother Paul also - From this reference to Paul the following things are clear:

(1)\caps1     t\caps0 hat Peter was acquainted with his writings;

(2)\caps1     t\caps0 hat Peter presumed that those to whom he wrote were also acquainted with them;

(3)\caps1     t\caps0 hat Peter regarded Paul as a "beloved brother,"notwithstanding the solemn rebuke which Paul had had occasion to administer to him, Gal 2:2 ff.

(4)\caps1     t\caps0 hat Peter regarded Paul as an authority in inculcating the doctrines and duties of religion; and,

(5)\caps1     t\caps0 hat Peter regarded Paul as an inspired man, and his writings as a part of divine truth. See the notes at 2Pe 3:16.

That Peter has shown in his Epistles that he was acquainted with the writings of Paul, has been abundantly proved by Eichhorn (Einleitung in das N. Tes. viii. 606ff), and will be apparent by a comparison of the following passages: Eph 1:3, with 1Pe 3:1; Col 3:8, with 1Pe 2:1; Eph 5:22, with 1Pe 3:1; Eph 5:21, with 1Pe 5:5; 1Th 5:6, with 1Pe 5:8; 1Co 16:20, with 1Pe 5:14; Rom 8:18, with 1Pe 5:1; Rom 4:24, with 1Pe 1:21; Rom 13:1, Rom 13:3-4, with 1Pe 2:13-14; 1Ti 2:9, with 1Pe 3:3; 1Ti 5:5, with 1Pe 3:5. The writings of the apostles were doubtless extensively circulated; and one apostle, though himself inspired, could not but feel a deep interest in the writings of another. There would be cases also, as in the instance before us, in which one would wish to confirm his own sentiments by the acknowledged wisdom, experience, and authority of another.

According to the wisdom given unto him - Peter evidently did not mean to disparage that wisdom, or to express a doubt that Paul was endowed with wisdom; he meant undoubtedly that, in regard to Paul, the same thing was true which he would have affirmed of himself or of any other man, that whatever wisdom he had was to be traced to a higher than human origin. This would at the same time tend to secure more respect for the opinion of Paul than if he had said it was his own, and would keep up in the minds of those to whom he wrote a sense of the truth that all wisdom is from above. In reference to ourselves, to our friends, to our teachers, and to all men, it is proper to bear in remembrance the fact that all true wisdom is from the "Father of lights."Compare the notes at Jam 1:5, Jam 1:17.

Hath written unto you - It is not necessary to suppose that Paul had written any epistles addressed specifically, and by name, to the persons to whom Peter wrote. It is rather to be supposed that the persons to whom Peter wrote 1Pe 1:1 lived in the regions to which some of Paul’ s epistles were addressed, and that they might be regarded as addressed to them. The epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians were of this description, all addressed to churches in Asia Minor, and all, therefore, having reference to the same people to whom Peter addressed his epistles.

Barnes: 2Pe 3:16

As also in all his epistles - Not only in those which he addressed to the churches in Asia Minor, but in his epistles generally. It is to be presumed that they might have had an acquaintance with some of the other epistles of Paul, as well as those sent to the churches in their immediate vicinity.

Speaking in them of these things - The things which Peter had dwelt upon in his two epistles. The great doctrines of the cross; of the depravity of man; of the divine purposes; of the new birth; of the consummation of all things; of the return of the Saviour to judge the world, and to receive his people to himself; the duty of a serious, devout and prayerful life, and of being prepared for the heavenly world. These things are constantly dwelt upon by Paul, and to his authority in these respects Peter might appeal with the utmost confidence.

In which - The common reading in this passage is ἐν οἷς en hois , and according to this the reference is to the "subjects"treated of - "in which things"- referring to what he had just spoken of - "speaking of these things."This reading is found in the common editions of the New Testament, and is supported by far the greater number of mss., and by most commentators and critics. It is found in Griesbach, Tittman, and Hahn, and has every evidence of being the genuine reading. Another reading, however, ( ἐν αἷς en hais ,) is found in some valuable mss., and is supported by the Syriac and Arabic versions, and adopted by Mill (Prolegomena 1484), and by Beza. According to this, the reference is to the "epistles"themselves - as would seem to be implied in our common version. The true construction, so far as the evidence goes, is to refer it not directly to the "epistles,"but to the "things"of which Peter says Paul wrote; that is, not to the style and language of Paul, but to the great truths and doctrines which he taught. Those doctrines were indeed contained in his epistles, but still, according to the fair construction of the passage before us, Peter should not be understood as accusing Paul of obscurity of style. He refers not to the difficulty of understanding what Paul meant, but to the difficulty of comprehending the great truths which he taught. This is, generally, the greatest difficulty in regard to the statements of Paul. The difficulty is not that the meaning of the writer is not plain, but it is either:

(a)\caps1     t\caps0 hat the mind is overpowered by the grandeur of the thought, and the incomprehensible nature of the theme, or

(b)\caps1     t\caps0 hat the truth is so unpalatable, and the mind is so prejudiced against it, that we are unwilling to receive it.

Many a man knows well enough what Paul means, and would receive his doctrines without hesitation if the heart was not opposed to it; and in this state of mind Paul is charged with obscurity, when the real difficulty lies only in the heart of him who makes the complaint. If this be the true interpretation of this passage, then it should not be adduced to prove that Paul is an obscure writer, whatever may be true on that point. There are, undoubtedly, obscure things in his writings, as there are in all other ancient compositions, but this passage should not be adduced to prove that he had not the faculty of making himself understood. An honest heart, a willingness to receive the truth, is one of the best qualifications for understanding the writings of Paul; and when this exists, no one will fail to find truth that may be comprehended, and that will be eminently adapted to sanctify and save the soul.

Are some things hard to be understood - Things pertaining to high and difficult subjects, and which are not easy to be comprehended. Peter does not call in question the truth of what Paul had written; he does not intimate that he himself would differ from him His language is rather that which a man would use who regarded the writings to which he referred as true, and what he says here is an honorable testimony to the authority of Paul. It may be added,

\caps1 (1) t\caps0 hat Peter does not say that all the doctrines of the Bible, or even all the doctrines of Paul, are hard to be understood, or that nothing is plain.

\caps1 (2) h\caps0 e says nothing about withholding the Bible, or even the writings of Paul, from the mass of Christians, on the ground of the difficulty of understanding the Scriptures; nor does he intimate that that was the design of the Author of the Bible.

\caps1 (3) i\caps0 t is perfectly manifest, from this very passage, that the writings of Paul were in fact in the hands of the people, else how could they wrest and pervert them?

(4) Peter says nothing about an infallible interpreter of any kind, nor does he intimate that either he or his "successors"were authorized to interpret them for the church.

\caps1 (5) w\caps0 ith what propriety can the pretended successor of Peter - the pope - undertake to expound those difficult doctrines in the writings of Paul, when even Peter himself did not undertake it, and when he did not profess to be able to comprehend them? Is the Pope more skilled in the knowledge of divine things than the apostle Peter? Is he better qualified to interpret the sacred writings than an inspired apostle was?

\caps1 (6) t\caps0 hose portions of the writings of Paul, for anything that appears to the contrary, are just as "hard to be understood"now, as they were before the "infallible"church undertook to explain them. The world is Little indebted to any claims of infallibility in explaining the meaning of the oracles of God. It remains yet to be seen that any portion of the Bible has been made clearer by "any"mere authoritative explanation. And,

\caps1 (7) i\caps0 t should be added, that without any such exposition, the humble inquirer after truth may find enough in the Bible to guide his feet in the paths of salvation. No one ever approached the sacred Scriptures with a teachable heart, who did not find them "able to make him wise unto salvation."Compare the notes at 2Ti 3:15.

Which they that are unlearned - The evil here adverted to is that which arises in cases where those without competent knowledge undertake to become expounders of the word of God. It is not said that it is not proper for them to attempt to become instructed by the aid of the sacred writings; but the danger is, that without proper views of interpretation, of language, and of ancient customs, they might be in danger of perverting and abusing certain portions of the writings of Paul. Intelligence among the people is everywhere in the Bible presumed to be proper in understanding the sacred Scriptures; and ignorance may produce the same effects in interpreting the Bible which it will produce in interpreting other writings. Every good thing is liable to abuse; but the proper way to correct this evil, and to remove this danger, is not to keep the people in ignorance, or to appoint some one to be an infallible interpreter; it is to remove the ignorance itself by enlightening the people, and rendering them better qualified to understand the sacred oracles. The way to remove error is not to perpetuate ignorance it is to enlighten the mind, so that it may be qualified to appreciate the truth.

And unstable - Who have no settled principles and views. The evil here adverted to is that which arises where those undertake to interpret the Bible who have no established principles. They regard nothing as settled. They have no landmarks set up to guide their inquiries. They have no stability in their character, and of course nothing can be regarded as settled in their methods of interpreting the Bible. They are under the control of feeling and emotion, and are liable to embrace one opinion to-day, and another directly opposite to-morrow. But the way to prevent This evil is not by attempting to give to a community an authoritative interpretation of the Bible; it is to diffuse abroad just principles, that men may obtain from the Bible an intelligent view of what it means.

Wrest - Pervert - στρεβλοῦσιν streblousin . The word here used occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is derived from a word meaning a windlass, winch, instrument of torture στρεβλή streblē and means to roll or wind on a windlass; then to wrench, or turn away, as by the force of a windlass; and then to wrest or pervert. It implies a turning out of the way by the application of force. Here the meaning is, that they apply those portions of the Bible to a purpose for which they were never intended. It is doubtless true that this may occur. Men may abuse and pervert anything that is good. But the way to prevent this is not to set up a pretended infallible interpreter. With all the perversities arising from ignorance in the interpretation of the Bible; in all the crude, and weak, and fanciful expositions which could be found among those who have interpreted the Scriptures for themselves - and they are many - if they were all collected together, there would not be found so many adapted to corrupt and ruin the soul, as have come from the interpretations attempted to be palmed upon the world by the one church that claims to be the infallible expounder of the word of God.

As they do also the other scriptures - This is an unequivocal declaration of Peter that he regarded the writings of Paul as a part of the holy Scriptures, and of course that he considered him as inspired. The word "Scriptures,"as used by a Jew, had a technical signification - meaning the inspired writings, and was the common word which was applied to the sacred writings of the Old Testament. As Peter uses this language, it implies that he regarded the writings of Paul as on a level with the Old Testament; and as far as the testimony of one apostle can go to confirm the claim of another to inspiration, it proves that the writings of Paul are entitled to a place in the sacred canon. It should be remarked, also, that Peter evidently speaks here of the common estimate in which the writings of Paul were held. He addresses those to whom he wrote, not in such a way as to declare to them that the writings of Paul were to be regarded as a part of the inspired volume, but as if this were already known, and were an admitted point.

Unto their own destruction - By embracing false doctrines. Error destroys the soul; and it is very possible for a man so to read the Bible as only to confirm himself in error. He may find passages which, by a perverted interpretation, shall seem to sustain his own views; and, instead of embracing the truth, may live always under delusion, and perish at last. It is not to be inferred that every man who reads the Bible, or even every one who undertakes to be its public expounder, will certainly be saved.

Barnes: 2Pe 3:17

Seeing that ye know these things before - Being aware of this danger, and knowing that such results may follow. People should read the Bible with the feeling that it is possible that they may fall into error, and be deceived at last. This apprehension will do much to make them diligent, and candid, and prayerful, in studying the Word of God.

With the error of the wicked - Wicked men. Such as he had referred to in 2 Pet. 2, who became public teachers of religion.

Fall from your own steadfastness - Your firm adherence to the truth. The particular danger here referred to is not that of falling from grace, or from true religion, but from the firm and settled principles of religious truth into error.

Barnes: 2Pe 3:18

But grow in grace - Compare Col 1:10. Religion in general is often represented as "grace,"since every part of it is the result of grace, or of unmerited favor; and to "grow in grace"is to increase in that which constitutes true religion. Religion is as susceptible of cultivation and of growth as any other virtue of the soul. It is feeble in its beginnings, like the grain of mustard seed, or like the germ or blade of the plant, and it increases as it is cultivated. There is no piety in the world which is not the result of cultivation, and which cannot be measured by the degree of care and attention bestowed upon it. No one becomes eminently pious, any more than one becomes eminently learned or rich, who does not intend to; and ordinarily men in religion are what they design to be. They have about as much religion as they wish, and possess about the character which they intend to possess. When men reach extraordinary elevations in religion, like Baxter, Payson, and Edwards, they have gained only what they meant to gain; and the gay and worldly professors of religion who have little comfort and peace, have in fact the characters which they designed to have. If these things are so, then we may see the propriety of the injunction "to grow in grace;"and then too we may see the reason why so feeble attainments are made in piety by the great mass of those who profess religion.

And in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - See the notes at Joh 17:3. Compare the notes at Col 1:10. To know the Lord Jesus Christ - to possess just views of his person, character, and work - is the sum and essence of the Christian religion; and with this injunction, therefore, the apostle appropriately closes this epistle. He who has a saving knowledge of Christ, has in tact all that is essential to his welfare in the life that is, and in that which is to come; he who has not this knowledge, though he may be distinguished in the learning of the schools, and may be profoundly skilled in the sciences, has in reality no knowledge that will avail him in the great matters pertaining to his eternal welfare.

To him be glory ... - Compare the Rom 16:27 note; 2Ti 4:18 note. With the desire that honor and glory should be rendered to the Redeemer, all the aspirations of true Christians appropriately close. There is no wish more deeply cherished in their hearts than this; there is nothing that will enter more into their worship in heaven. Compare Rev 1:5-6; Rev 5:12-13.

Poole: 2Pe 3:13

Nevertheless we, according to his promise: see Isa 65:17 Isa 66:22 Rev 21:1,27 , to which this text seems to refer, speak of a new state of the church here in the world, yet by way of allusion to the renovation of the world, which is ultimately there promised, and the perpetuity of the gospel church till then is thereby assured.

Look for new heavens and a new earth instead of the present world, which is to be consumed by fire, 2Pe 3:10,12 , or the first heaven and earth, which pass away, Rev 21:1 . These will be new heavens and a new earth, either as to their substance, or as to their qualities, refined and purified from all defilement, and free from all that vanity to which the creature was made subject by the sin of man, Rom 8:20,21 .

Wherein dwelleth i.e. perpetually abideth, and not only for a time, Rom 8:11 2Co 6:16 2Ti 1:14 .

Righteousness either this may be understood of righteousness in the abstract, that together with the destruction of the world the kingdom of sin shall be destroyed, and God’ s elect, the inhabitants of the new world, shall be filled with righteousness, whereas before sin had dwelt in them: or else the abstract may be put for the concrete, and by righteousness may be meant righteous persons, who only shall be the inhabitants of the new world, the wicked being turned into hell, Rev 21:27 ; and by this way of expressing it may be implied the perfection of the righteousness of such. Not only the new heaven is mentioned, but the new earth, because the whole world will then be the possession and kingdom of the saints, who follow Christ wherever he goes.

Poole: 2Pe 3:14

Such things Christ’ s coming to judgment; the destruction of this world; a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.

Of him Christ the Judge.

In peace at peace with God, from whence proceeds peace of conscience, and an amicable, peaceable disposition toward others; all which may here be comprehended.

Without spot, and blameless: either:

1. By these words he means absolute perfection; and then he shows what we are to design and aim at in this life, though we attain it not till we come into the other: or:

2. A thorough sanctification through faith in Christ, a being got above fleshly lusts, and the pollutions of the world, and any such carriage as our hearts may reproach us for, 1Ti 6:14 . If it be objected, that such, having sin still in them, cannot be said to be without spot, and blameless, in the sight of God; it may be answered, that though they have sin in them, yet being, through the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, justified in the sight of God, and accepted in the Beloved, Eph 1:6 , he overlooks their infirmities, and imputes no sin to them, sees no spot in them, so as to condemn them for it. The apostle seems here to reflect on the seducers before mentioned, whom, 2Pe 2:13 , he had called spots and blemishes; and he persuades these saints to look to themselves, that they might be found of Christ (not such as the other were, but) without spot, and blameless; or, as it is translated, Eph 5:27 , without blemish, i.e. in a state of sanctification, as well as justification.

Poole: 2Pe 3:15

And account reckon with yourselves, and be confidently persuaded; or take for granted.

The longsuffering of our Lord viz. in his not yet coming to judgment, and bearing with so much sin in the world without presently punishing it.

Is salvation i.e. tends or conduceth to salvation, in that hereby he gives space for repentance to the elect unconverted, and alloweth time for the building up and perfecting those that are converted, 2Pe 3:9 .

Even as our beloved brother Paul not only brother in Christ, as a saint, but in office, as an apostle.

According to the wisdom given unto him that eminent and profound knowledge in the mysteries of the gospel in which Paul did excel, 1Co 2:6,7 Eph 3:3,4 . Peter makes such honourable mention of Paul:

1. That he might commend to the Jewish Christians the doctrine Paul had preached, though a minister of the uncircumcision;

2. To show that he had nothing the worse thoughts of him for being so sharply reproved by him, Gal 2:1-21 ; and:

3. That he might arm the saints against those heretics that abused Paul’ s writings, and wrested them to their own meaning, probably, to patronize their errors.

Hath written unto you unto you Jewish believers, viz. either:

1. In his Epistle to the Romans, Rom 2:4 , where is a passage very like this: or:

2. In his Epistle to the Hebrews, which, though it were not entitled to the Jews of the dispersion, yet was written to their nation; and in that Epistle several places there are of the same purport with this here; see Heb 9:28 10:23,25,36,37and other Epistle of Paul to the Jews we have none: and in this he shows much of that wisdom God gave him in the mystery of the gospel; and in this likewise are many things hard to be understood.

Poole: 2Pe 3:16

As also in all his epistles to make the sense complete, we must supply here from the former verse, he hath written.

Speaking in them of these things viz. concerning the second coming of Christ, and end of the world, the patience that should be exercised in waiting for it; about avoiding scoffers that deny these truths, and the other instructions contained in these two Epistles, but especially in the two latter chapters of this Second Epistle.

In which are some things hard to be understood in which Epistles, or rather, in which things contained in Paul’ s Epistles, for the Greek relative is of a different gender, and cannot agree with Epistles: q.d. Some of the doctrines delivered by Paul in his Epistles are hard to be understood. And so this doth not prove Paul’ s Epistles, much less the whole Scripture, to be obscure and dark: the style and expression may be as clear as the nature of the things will bear, and yet the things themselves so expressed may be hard to be understood, either by reason of their own obscurity, as prophecies, the excellency and sublimeness of them, as some mysterious doctrines, or the weakness of men’ s minds, and their incapacity of apprehending spiritual things, 1Co 2:14 , compared with 1Co 13:9,10 .

Which they that are unlearned they that are ignorant of the Scripture, unskilful in the word of righteouness, Heb 5:13 ; or indocible, that will not be instructed.

And unstable such as are ill grounded, and therefore unstedfast, and easily deceived, 2Pe 2:14 : see Eph 4:14 .

Wrest pervert the Scripture, and offer violence to it, and, as it were, rack and torture it to make it confess what it never meant.

To their own destruction eternal destruction, viz. while they use the Scriptures to countenance their errors; or stumble at some things in them, which are obscure, thereby taking occasion to deny the truth of God; and so make the Scripture the instrument of their perdition, which God appointed to be the means of salvation.

Poole: 2Pe 3:17

Seeing ye know these things which I have been now writing to you of, viz. That the Judge will certainly come; or, that heretics, deceivers, and scoffers will come; or both may be comprehended.

Beware lest ye also as well as others have been.

Fall from your own stedfastness the stedfastness of your faith. This admonition he gives them, not to discourage them with fear of apostacy, but to awaken them to that holy care which would be a means to prevent it; and so to keep them from security, and trust in themselves, not to weaken their faith, and reliance on the promise.

Poole: 2Pe 3:18

But grow in grace in all those spiritual gifts ye have received from Christ, especially sanctifying.

And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in faith, whereby ye are sanctified, and made partakers of that grace.

To him be glory both now and for ever which belongs only to God; and therefore this proves Christ to be God.

PBC: 2Pe 3:13

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

So far in our study of Peter’s description of the final chapter in the history of this world as we know it, we have seen a total meltdown that will occur in God’s way and at God’s time. Though long delayed and scoffed at by false teachers, Peter moves us confidently forward in our understanding of the certainty, as well as the nature of the final events.

" Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth…"

We think of something akin to a universal atomic meltdown as being the final event in the history of material things. However, we think as created mortals, not as the Creator. God created the universe by the word of His power; He can melt it down and recreate it as easily as He created it in the first place.

Strong’s enhanced lexicon of New Testament words offers an interesting analysis of two synonyms that are both translated as " new" in the New Testament.

" Kainos [the word that appears in 2Pe 3:13: denotes the new primarily in reference to quality, the fresh, unworn.

" neos: denotes the new primarily in reference to time, the young, recent." [1]

Thus, according to the meaning of the word that Peter selected (by inspiration of the Holy Spirit) Peter refers to something that is fresh in quality, and unworn. The other word that he did not use refers to something that is new in terms of time, of its origin. The material universe will continue to wear down and become more worn and fragile. Then after God melts it down, He will transform it into a new material universe, fresh and vibrant, altogether appropriate for eternity with God and His elect, void of sin and recreated for righteousness alone.

Occasionally we look at various partial passages and plead total ignorance of anything pertinent to eternity with God in heaven other than a sentimental claim of complete satisfaction. No doubt, we shall indeed be satisfied throughout eternity. However, we should not sell Scripture so short in terms of providing us with just enough information to anticipate that day with excitement rather than fearing dreadful boredom. However much we love the words of " Amazing Grace" or one of our other favorite hymns, the idea of singing it and other hymns for all eternity in an unending " eternal church meeting" triggers a fear of boredom. Can we imagine anything so exciting and varied as to please God for all eternity? Not at all; yet this is precisely what He has in store for us. Peter opens a unique door of thought to our minds in terms of a transformed and recreated earth. The Biblical description of our resurrected and glorified bodies suggests a mature, perfectly healthy body, void of any residue of disease or physical trauma. I suggest that it may well also suggest a body void of any of the awful scars of DNA flaws that produce babies with birth defects and other deformities. Imagine the impact of sin and man’s fall on the material universe. Now imagine the whole material universe, transformed as fully as our mortal bodies after the resurrection. That is what Peter presents to our minds in this lesson.

Late first century and subsequent Gnosticism described a deity who was wholly inapproachable by mortals. It also despised the material universe as a colossal mistake by an " underling deity." The true Gnostic deity despised anything material. If Peter correctly described the role of the material universe in our eternity with God, Gnostic error is mirror-opposite from the Biblical view of God and His material universe. The Gnostic deity could never have inspired poets to write, " The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork…" (Ps 19:1). Can one possibly look at the wonders of Yosemite, of Yellowstone, or of so many other wonders in nature and fail to hear the echoes of their existence that shouts the glory of their Creator God? Scripture consistently directs us to view the created universe as the masterpiece of God, the supreme artwork of the Supreme Artist. Therefore, we should not be at all surprised that God may very well transform this material universe into a suitable declaration of His glory for our eternity with Him.

" Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless ."

As Peter draws us ever deeper into this incredible image of our future eternity with God, he returns again to the practical exhortation that we live in gracious godliness. He singles out three characteristics for our objective.

1. We are to strive for " peace." What kind of peace might he have in mind? Are we to strive for peace with our conscience, with God’s law, divinely imprinted in our deepest inner being? Undoubtedly. Are we to strive for peace with other believers, even those believers who said hurtful things about us, or to us? Yes, we will spend eternity with them, altogether thrilled that both they and we are there by the loving mercy and grace of God, so why not work harder at peace with them now? We claim that we believe in salvation by God’s grace alone. How much of that kind of grace do we consistently extend to those around us? Should we work for peace with God? Jesus accomplished our legal peace with our holy, but offended, God at Calvary. How peaceful are we in heart and mind with God in our routine conduct?

2. " Without spot ." Rather than fostering a slothful take-it-for-granted attitude about our faith, Peter expects that our faith will drive us toward the godly image that we shall wear in eternity. So, you say, we shall never arrive at that perfect man here and now. I agree, but I see no excuse for failure to work at the job, do you? Rather, I see, both reasonably and Biblically, an uncompromising urge that drives concerted action to grow in godly conduct that declares for all who know us to see; that we are citizens of a holy and heavenly country; that we are dedicated to our citizenship now in every way possible.

3. " Blameless." Again we confront the question. Shall we arrive in this life? And we must shamefacedly respond that we shall not. However, we should work to avoid spiritual adolescence that views difficulties immaturely and avoids any effort to grow into spiritual maturity. On one occasion Paul wrote that he " withstood Peter to his face, because he was to be blamed" (Ga 2:11). Neither Paul nor Peter perpetuated the " blame game." Both of them viewed this event as a temporary failure from which Peter recovered, and for which Paul forgave him. Perhaps this momentary confrontation motivated Peter to strive toward a blameless life with greater energy than he had exerted before this event. May we reflect on our own " blameworthy" moments and look for ways to transform them, and our conduct, into a more " blameless" life for out Savior.

This follow-up exhortation should reinforce our conviction to the vital correlation between our realistic expectation of the Second Coming and of our eternity with God and our present discipleship. " Peace, no spot, and no blame;" what a legacy for believers to live out for future generations of believers—and for our beloved God.

41

[1]Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the test of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (5852). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.

PBC: 2Pe 3:15

If you study Ac 15:1-41 from a purely human perspective, you could wonder about residual tension between Paul and the Jerusalem establishment of which Peter was an integral part.  After all, Paul and the Antioch contingency took a problem that had been created by Jerusalem church members in Antioch right back to Jerusalem church for its resolution.  How refreshing.  Further in Ga 2:11-21 Paul records a situation in which he confronted Peter for a significant lapse that Peter committed, possibly also in the Antioch church.  Given our humanity, even the dominant humanity of many who claim to be true believers in Christ, Paul and Peter might have died as archenemies.  Obviously this didn’t happen.  Why?  Whatever the tension of the moment, Paul and Peter worked it out and continued as respected and faithful brothers in the faith.  We have a similar parallel between Paul, Barnabas, and Mark.  Mark disappointed Paul and shook his confidence in the young man.  At the moment Paul refused to invite Mark to join him and others in a fairly strenuous evangelistic work because of Mark’s failure.  Yet later in Paul’s writings we find both Barnabas and Mark mentioned with tender respect.  Apparently the Holy Spirit was quite pleased with Mark, for He chose Mark to write one of the inspired gospels.  In our study verses Peter offers a tender affirmation of his love and respect for Paul in the shadow of his own death.  

This noble example of Christianity at its best serves to shame contemporary Christians, who look for reasons to break fellowship with other believers rather than working hard to preserve it.  Sometimes rather peripheral ideas may be elevated to the stature of an essential, and people who differ part company over their difference.  Trivial practices occasionally follow suit and divide believers.  In these cases the parties grieve their loss and will try to find a way to restore their former fellowship.  However, many who claim to march under the Christian flag live a fractious, self-absorbed life that inevitably isolates them from friend after friend and never think for a moment that they, not their friends, are the problem.  They will speak endlessly of the way others hurt or mistreated them.  Their life is sadly missing the essential elements of grace that we see so prominently in the lives of these New Testament leaders and example-setters in our faith.  A life marked by broken friendships, broken relationships, and an endless complaint of how others disappointed " me," is missing one of the most essential ingredients of authentic New Testament Christianity.  In Joh 17:1-26 Jesus prayed that His followers in this life should be one, even as He and the Father were one.  In Eph 5:13 with a convincing exhortation for personal forgiveness, based not on merit but on the noble example of God for Christ’s sake forgiving us.  In other words God’s forgiveness of us because of Christ serves to direct us to forgive in the same model.  We forgive each other for the sake of Christ.  " I have forgiven, but I haven’t forgotten" is not forgiveness.  Ask yourself a simple question.  If God had supposedly forgiven our sins, but we discovered that He still remembered them, how comfortable would you feel facing God in judgment?  Scripture consistently informs us that God’s forgiveness means that He will no longer remember (Jer 31:34).  In fact spend some time with Jeremiah studying the " remember" passages in that book.  To remember is to hold against and to visit justice upon.  To stop remembering is to forgive.  If we could come to terms with the profound reality of our own forgiveness before God, we would surely live more gently toward other believers in our life.  

How sadly often we defensively offer rationalizations for not forgiving others when confronted with the Biblical directives to forgive for Jesus’ sake.  Anytime we discover this rationalizing attitude we should stop and reflect on our Lord’s personal example toward those who crucified Him, as well as the nearly countless additional examples by which Scripture dictates a gentle and forgiving lifestyle among believers.  

Think of the utter hypocrisy of this fractious, unforgiving lifestyle.  We live before unbelievers in the claim that we believe all of God’s children shall spend eternity together praising God and engaged in a myriad of wondrous activities that suitably honor our God throughout eternity.  We will do all these things " together."  Yet in this life we live in a constant process of putting everyone around us under a magnifying glass to emphasize their faults, real or imagined, so that we may set them at a distance from us.  

This contentious attitude contradicts Jesus’ personal prayer for His followers (Joh 17:1-26).  It violates Paul’s stated result of the gospel in believers’ lives, and it denies that the gospel has had any impact whatever upon us.  By practicing fractious grudge-holding and refusing to forgive those in our life whom we believe offend us, we practice heathenism while claiming holy Christianity.  This contradictory conduct may deceive others for a season, but I dare say that it will not deceive our omniscient God. 

Indeed the New Testament sets an ethical mark for each of us that challenges every aspect of our conduct and interpersonal relationships.  Scripture directs us to work to avoid offending other believers, not nudge the edge of the envelope to see how much we can do before they react against us.  It directs us to live in respectful honor of our brothers and sisters in Christ, even when they and we disagree.  Christian ethics does not appear when we all agree on every point of doctrine and Biblical teaching.  It appears—or its absence is clearly demonstrated—when we deal with differences of perspective.  How do we deal with them?  Do we denigrate those with whom we disagree?  Or do we speak kindly of them, despite our differences?  Do we firmly keep our focus on all the points of common faith despite a few areas of difference?  Or do we ignore the many areas of agreement and shine the spotlight on those few areas of difference?  

Those of us who believe in the doctrines of God’s sovereign and efficacious grace point with a touch of disdain at others who believe in salvation by works or by some form of God-man synergism and at times feel a bit superior.  But do we live by the same grace that we claim for our salvation?  Did Jesus point at those who walked away from Him, rejecting His teaching, with disdain or with grief (Joh 6:67)?  Did He react with scorn against those who crucified Him (Lu 23:34)?  We criticize them for their pride in their works, but do we feel equal pride in our superior doctrinal posture?  Would we not win more converts to our belief by living the grace toward them that God showed toward us when He saved us? 

We marvel at a small group of eleven men with some 112 associates who served to catalyze the beginning of our faith that literally transformed the ancient world.  We look at rampant moral decay in our own world and wonder why we can’t see similar transformation now.  We could.  If we started practicing the gracious Christianity that Peter demonstrates in our passage, the same unbelievers who view us with scorn today might stand up and take notice.  Living God’s grace, not just talking about it; practicing it, not just claiming it for our eternity; these things empower believers with the supernatural magnetism that drove the first generation of believers to " turn the world upside down" (Ac 17:6).  This process begins, not with me demanding that others forgive me or treat me with grace.  It begins with me treating others with undeserved grace.  It begins with me speaking in gracious and respectful tones regarding those with whom I disagree, showing supernatural grace toward people with whom I disagree.  Is there a Paul in your life who withstood you to your face?  A Mark who forsook you in a moment of crisis?  A faithful Barnabas who intensely disagreed with you and would not back down?  How is your relationship with them today?  Have you sought and insisted on practicing the healing grace of God to restore your relationship with them?  Wouldn’t this be a good time to start that process? 

51   

                Over the centuries Paul has seen his controversial days.  Some sects have almost worshipped him rather than his Lord, an act that Paul would have disdained.  Others have rejected his teaching almost entirely.  In either case the balanced and whole of inspired Scripture is altered to suite the fancy of the reader.  Peter doesn’t specifically tell us what Paul wrote that prompted this comment.  Factually, Paul didn’t teach anything that Peter doesn’t affirm, but his emphasis in certain theological issues is different from Peter’s or other New Testament writers.  Paul has always been noted for his emphasis on the theological issues of predestination.  The word translated as the various derivatives of this word appears six times in the New Testament, five of which appear in Paul’s writings.  The word also appears in Ac 4:28 under Luke’s pen.  We should note that Peter didn’t reject Paul’s teaching; rather he accepted it and described it as hard to understand.  

                Often Paul’s related writings in Ro 9:1-33 regarding election are mentioned as unique to Paul’s writings.  Although modern Bible teachers will seldom outright reject Paul’s writings in this chapter, they frequently " wrest" these teachings in an effort to avoid the obvious teachings that appear there.  The most common wresting effort is that Paul was simply writing about God’s choice of the Jews as His national people in the Old Testament, and that this chapter has nothing to say about Gentiles or New Testament Christian teaching.  It almost seems that Paul knew that these teachings would come under just such an attack, for in Ro 9:24 he specifically mentions that God’s electing mercy extends to all whom He has called, " not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."  In light of this verse the teaching that Paul had reference only to Jews is patently false, a clear example of wresting, twisting a bone out of its joint or twisting a Scripture out of its context and intended teaching.  

                We find subtle evidence that this teaching was under attack throughout the Roman letter.  In the third chapter Paul raises a criticism of his adversaries that he taught that we should intentionally do evil that good may come, a wholly perverted idea that Paul rejected.  In the sixth chapter he asks the rhetorical question, not once but twice, " Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"  And twice he resoundingly rejected the idea in the strongest possible terms.  

                Rather than guess, why don’t we allow Paul’s writings to define the opponents who wrested his writings?  He confronts these unnamed twisters in the third chapter of Romans with the notation that they falsely and absurdly accused him of advocating that people should sin in order to bring about good.  On occasion when I have talked with people about Paul’s teachings in Ro 9:1-33, saying little beyond Paul’s literal teachings, they have responded with precisely the critic’s Ro 3:1-31 objection.  " Why, if I believed that doctrine, I’d just go out and live in sin, knowing that I’m saved regardless of what I do."  Perhaps these people reveal more about their own moral outlook than about the doctrine.  Do they have any moral conviction beyond fear of retribution, of divine judgment against their sins?  Do they have any sense of right and wrong that compels righteous conduct on the basis of its inherent rightness before God?  Why not avoid sin because it is inherently wrong and destructive?  Because righteous conduct honors God apart from any consequences, positive or negative, to them?  

                While most modern Christian teachers either reject or shamefully misrepresent Paul’s teachings of these doctrines, we should never forget their prominence in historical Christianity.  Although you will likely not hear an Episcopal minister teach on predestination or eternal election, these doctrines are clearly set forth in the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.  Though you frequently hear Presbyterian ministers sidestep these doctrines, they form an essential part of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the historical statement of what Presbyterians believed and taught.  You will not likely hear a Lutheran minister teach these doctrines in his Sunday sermon, but Martin Luther left no doubt of his belief in his writings on the bondage of the human will and his commentary on the book of Galatians.  Although these doctrines were integral to historical Baptist doctrinal statements, the Founders’ Movement in the Southern Baptist fellowship faces significant hostility for advocating a return to them.  

                Obviously Paul lived a highly moral and spiritual life that avoided sin in every way possible, and that filled his hours with righteous conduct in the service of his God and his fellowman.  Clearly, Paul’s belief regarding election, predestination, or any other doctrine, didn’t diminish his zeal for holy living, nor for evangelism.  Therefore, claiming Paul’s doctrinal teachings as justification for such sinful conduct is a manifest example of Peter’s notation.  They " wrest," twist, Paul’s writings out of joint and out of context to their own destruction. 

                The whole concept of humans earning their salvation with a bit of necessary help from God has perverted much of Christian teaching in our time.  Ask the common Bible teacher or believer to describe their expectations of heaven.  What do you hear?  They will plunge into a near-endless sequence of excited imaginations about how big their eternal crown will be, what they will do to indulge their personal fancies throughout eternity.  Seldom indeed will you hear them immediately and excitedly tell you how they long to be able to praise God with both body and soul throughout eternity without the hindrance of sin.  Praise God?  Glorify Him?  They far prefer walking their pet lion or some other fanciful self-indulgence to spending eternity in praise to God.  Several years ago I heard a popular and nationally known Christian teacher illustrate his view of heaven in a radio program with a lengthy description of how he expected to have a pet lion in eternity and how he looked forward to taking it on daily walks.  

                The abysmal corruption of heaven in people’s minds reveals much of the dreadful depth to which contemporary Christianity has sunken into the quicksand of man-centric religion that has almost no relationship whatever to New Testament Christ-centric, God-honoring Christianity.  For Paul, Peter, John, and all New Testament inspired writers, the walk of faith was not about self-indulgence, but self-denial.  It did not involve egomaniacal anticipation of satisfying personal appetites in heaven, but the wondrous opportunity to glorify God without restraint.  Such self-indulgent ideas fit the Moslem idea of heaven better than the Christian.  

                Rather than wresting Paul’s writings or outright rejecting them, Peter honored his brother Paul for writing " according to the wisdom given unto him."  I wholeheartedly believe Paul’s writings to the extent that I can understand them.  Rather than argue with his conclusions in Ro 8:1-39 and Ro 9:1-33, or Eph 1:1-23, I want to understand them and believe them.  

                For those of us who rather believe than reject Paul’s teachings on these doctrines, I offer a challenge.  Does our life bear credible testimony to our commitment to holy, Christ-centric, and moral living?  Do we by consistent conduct demonstrate that those who believe these doctrines are not anti-evangelical, but in fact are faithfully evangelistic in our efforts to spread our faith wherever we have opportunity?  

                It is somewhat amazing that the major revivals and evangelistic works of historical Christianity were effected under the teachings of godly men who embraced Paul’s teachings of these doctrines.  History rejects the idea that Paul’s teachings of these doctrines will dampen evangelism or weaken a believer’s commitment to godly living.  Those who believe all of Scripture will not neglect Paul’s reminder that if we name the name of Christ, we are obligated to " depart from iniquity" (2Ti 2:19).  Rather than engaging in foolish arguments as to whether or not the " Great Commission" applies to Christians today, they faithfully practice the Lord’s teachings that require those who believe in Him to constantly teach His truth wherever they go, and to go where they wouldn’t otherwise go in order to take that truth to others.  

                Our challenge is clearly set before us.  Hold fast to inspired Scriptural teachings as interpreted by historical believers of many stripes across the centuries.  Believe it and live it.

51

PBC: 2Pe 3:18

See WebbSr: GROW IN GRACE

See GG: 19,11 March 14, 2004

Haydock: 2Pe 3:15-16

As also our most dear brother, Paul,...hath written to you. He seems to mean in his epistle to the Hebrews or converted Jews, (Chap. x. 37.) where he says: yet a little while,...and he that is to come, will come, and will not delay. ---

In which are some things hard to understand, especially by unlearned, ignorant people, unstable, inconstant, not well grounded in faith, and which they wrest, [2] as they do also the other scriptures, by their private interpretations, to their own perdition. (Witham)

Haydock: 2Pe 3:16

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Depravant, Greek: streblousin. detorquent. It is a speech, says Mr. Legh, on Greek: strebloo, borrowed from torturers, when they put an innocent man on the rack, and make him speak what he never thought. They deal, says he, with the Scriptures as chemists sometimes deal with natural bodies, torturing them to extract out of them what God and nature never put in them.

====================

Haydock: 2Pe 3:17

Being forewarned, therefore, and knowing these things before, take heed not to be led away by the errors of such false and unwise teachers, whatever knowledge they boast of, as did the Gnostics. But make it your serious endeavour to increase in grace by God's assistance, in the true knowledge of our Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whom, as being one God with his eternal Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory now, and for all eternity. Amen. (Witham)

Gill: 2Pe 3:13

Nevertheless we, according to his promise,.... Or promises, as the Alexandrian copy, and the Vulgate Latin version; namely those in Isa 65:17;

look for new heavens and a new earth; not figuratively, the world to come in distinction from the Jewish world or state; a new church state, the Gospel dispensation, with new ordinances, as baptism and the Lord's supper, all legal ceremonies and ordinances being gone, and everything new; for these things had taken place already, and were not looked for as future: but these phrases are to be understood literally, as the heavens and the earth are in every passage in the context, 2Pe 3:5; and designs not new heavens and earth for substance, but for qualities; the heavens and elements being melted and dissolved, and so purged and purified by fire, and the earth and its works being burnt up with it, and so cleared of everything noxious, needless, and disagreeable, new heavens and a new earth will appear, refined and purged from everything which the curse brought thereon for man's sin: and such heavens and earth the saints look for by faith and hope, and earnest expectation, and with desire and pleasure; and therefore are not distressed, as they have no reason to be, with the burning of the present heavens and earth, as awful as these things will be; and they expect them not upon their own fancies and imaginations, or the vain conjectures and cunningly devised fables of men, but according to the promises of God recorded in the above passages, and in which they may be confirmed by the words of Christ, and by the vision of John, Rev 20:1. The Alexandrian copy reads, "and his promises"; as if it respected other promises the saints looked for besides the new heavens and earth; namely, the resurrection of the dead, eternal life, the in corruptible inheritance, the ultimate glory and happiness:

wherein dwelleth righteousness; meaning not the heavenly felicity, called sometimes the crown of righteousness, and the hope of righteousness, to which righteousness gives a right, and where it will be perfect, for the apostle is not speaking of the ultimate glory of the saints; nor the righteousness of Christ, as dwelling in the saints, as if the sense was this, we in whom righteousness dwells, look for new heavens and a new earth; for though the righteousness of Christ is unto and upon them that believe, yet it is not in them; it is in Christ, and dwells in him, and not in them; it is not inherent in them, but imputed to them: by "righteousness" is meant righteous men; such as are so not in and of themselves, or by the deeds of the law, or by works of righteousness done by them, but who are made righteous by the obedience of Christ, and are righteousness itself in him; see Jer 33:16; now these, and these only, will be the inhabitants of the new heavens and the new earth; there will be no unrighteous persons there, as in the present world, which lies in wickedness, and is full of wicked men; and they will be stocked with inhabitants after this manner; all the elect will now be gathered in, and Christ, when he comes, will bring all his saints with him from heaven, and will raise their bodies, and reunite them to their souls; and those that are alive will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and will make up together the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven; and whereas, upon the coming of Christ, the present heavens and earth will be burnt or purified by fire, and so made new and fit for the spirits of just men made perfect, who being again embodied, will fill the face of them, and shall inherit the earth, and reign with Christ on it for a thousand years, during which time there will not be a wicked man in them; for the wicked that will be alive at Christ's coming will be burnt with the earth, and the wicked dead shall not rise till the thousand years are ended, and who being raised, will, together with the devils, make the Gog and Magog army; wherefore none but righteous persons can look for these new heavens and earth, for to these only are they promised, and such only shall dwell in them; so the Targum on Jer 23:23 paraphrases the words,

"I God have created the world from the beginning, saith the Lord, I God will "renew the world for the righteous":''

and this will be, the Jews say, for the space of a thousand years;

"it is a tradition (they say ^l) of the house of Elias, that the righteous, whom the holy blessed God will raise from the dead shall not return to their dust, as is said, Isa 4:3, and it shall come to pass, &c. as the Holy One continues for ever, so they shall continue for ever; and if you should say those years (some editions read, "those thousand years", and so the gloss upon the place) in which the holy blessed God "renews the world": as it is said Isa 2:11, and the Lord alone; &c. what shall they do? the holy blessed God will make them wings as eagles, and they shall fly upon the face of the waters:''

and this renovation of the heavens and the earth, they say, will be in the seventh millennium;

"in the seventh thousand year (they assert ^m) there will be found new heavens and a new earth;''

which agree with these words of Peter.

Gill: 2Pe 3:14

Wherefore, beloved, seeing ye look for these things,.... For the burning of the heavens and the earth, for the coming of Christ, and for the new heavens and new earth,

be diligent that ye may be found of him; Christ, or αυτω, "in him", as in Phi 3:9; for such as are in Christ will have an undoubted right to the new heavens and the new earth, and will certainly dwell in them, because they will be found not in their own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ: or "before him", as the Arabic version renders it; before him the Judge of all, at whose tribunal they must stand; but being clothed with his righteousness, and so without spot and blemish, they will not be ashamed before him: or "by him"; Christ first finds his in redemption, and next in the effectual calling, and last of all at his coming, when all the elect will be looked up, gathered in, and presented first to himself, and then to his Father, complete and perfect, not one wanting: and thus to be found in him, and before him, and by him, should be the concern of all that look for the glorious things here spoken of, and particularly that they be found in the following situation and circumstances: in peace; interested in that peace Christ has made by the blood of his cross; for such as are reconciled to God by his death, shall be saved by his life, and live with him in the new heavens and new earth, and for ever in the ultimate glory; and in enjoying that peace of conscience which he himself gives, and which flows from his blood, righteousness, and atonement; so that the day of his coming by death, or at judgment, will not be terrifying to them, but they will look for these things with great delight and satisfaction: or

in peace one with another; for peace makers and keepers are called the children of God, and so heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; or in happiness and glory, expressed by peace, which is the end of the righteous man, which he enters into at death, and will rest in to all eternity:

without spot and blemish; no man is so in himself, sanctification is imperfect, and many are the slips and falls of the saints, though their desire is to be harmless and inoffensive, and to give no just occasion for blame or scandal; but the saints are so in Christ Jesus, being washed in his blood, and clothed with his righteousness, and will be found so by him when he comes again, when he will present them to himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, and also before the presence of his Father's glory, as faultless, with exceeding joy; and so will they be fit and meet to be the inhabitants of the new heavens and new earth, and reign with him therein, and be with him to all eternity.

Gill: 2Pe 3:15

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord,.... Not his longsuffering towards the wicked, and his forbearance with them, for that is not the means of, nor the way to, nor does it issue in, their salvation, but in their sorer punishment and greater damnation, see Rom 2:4; but towards the elect, as in 2Pe 3:9; whom he bears much and long with before conversion, while in their sins, and in a state of unregeneracy, and waits to be gracious to them, as he is in their calling, and to make known and apply his great salvation to them; and as with particular persons, so with the whole body of them, till they are all gathered in, and even with the world for their sakes; and particularly the Lord's longsuffering here intends the deferring of his coming, or his seeming slackness in the performance of his promise: the reason of which is,

salvation: the salvation of all his chosen ones, and in that it issues; he waits, he stays, that none of them might perish, but that they might be all brought to faith and repentance, and so be saved: wherefore the apostle would have the saints consider it in this light, and not imagine and conclude, with the scoffing infidels, that he is slack and dilatory, and will not come, but that his view in it is the salvation of all his people, which by this means is brought about: in confirmation of which, and other things he had delivered, he produces the testimony of the Apostle Paul;

even as our beloved brother Paul also; he calls him a "brother", both on account of his being a believer in Christ, one that belonged to the same family with him, and was of the household of faith, born of the same Father, and related to the same Redeemer, the firstborn among many brethren, and likewise on account of his being a fellow apostle; for though he was not one of the twelve apostles, but his call and mission were later than theirs, yet Peter does not disdain to put him among them, and upon an equal foot with them, nor was he a whit behind the chief of them: he styles him a "beloved" brother; expressing his affection for him, which the relation between them called for, and which he bore to him, notwithstanding his public opposition to him, and sharp reproof of him, Gal 2:11, and perhaps loved him the more for it; see Psa 141:5; and he makes mention of him, and that under these characters, partly to show their agreement and consent in doctrine; and partly to recommend him to the Jews, to whom he writes, who had, upon report of his doctrine and ministry, entertained an ill, at least a mean opinion, of him; as also to set us an example to speak well of one another, both as ministers and private believers:

according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; meaning not all his epistles, as being written for the general good of all the saints, as well as for those particular churches or men to whom they were sent; for what Peter speaks of is what was particularly written to them, and is distinguished in 2Pe 3:16 from the rest of Paul's epistles; nor does he intend the epistle of Paul to the Romans, for the longsuffering of God spoken of in that, as in Rom 2:4, is his longsuffering to the wicked, which issues in their destruction, and not his longsuffering to his elect, which is salvation, as here; but he seems manifestly to have in view the epistle to the Hebrews, for Peter wrote both his first and second epistles to Jews; wherefore, since none of Paul's epistles but that were written particularly to them, it should seem that that is designed, and serves to confirm his being the author of it; in which he writes to the Hebrews concerning the coming of Christ, and of the deferring of it a little while, and of the need they had of patience to wait for it, Heb 10:36; and in it also are some things difficult to be understood concerning Melchizedek, the old and new covenant, the removing of the Aaronic priesthood, and the abrogation of the whole ceremonial law, &c. things not easily received by that nation; and the whole is written with great wisdom, respecting the person and office of Christ, the nature of his priesthood, and the glory of the Gospel dispensation; and in a most admirable manner is the whole Mosaic economy laid open and explained: he was indeed a wise master builder, and whatever he wrote was "according to wisdom"; not fleshly wisdom, the wisdom of this world, nor with enticing words of men's wisdom, but according to the divine wisdom, under the influence of the spirit of wisdom and revelation; for he had not this of himself naturally, nor did he learn it at Gamaliel's feet, but it was what was "given to him"; it came from above, from God, who gives it liberally; and as he himself always owned it to be a free grace gift of God bestowed on him, and that all his light and knowledge were by the revelation of Christ, so Peter ascribes it to the same, that God might have all the glory, and all boasting in man be stopped.

Gill: 2Pe 3:16

As also in all his epistles,.... From whence it appears, that the Apostle Paul had, by this time, wrote several of his epistles, if not all of them; and they were all written according to the same wisdom, and under the influence of the same spirit, as his epistle to the Hebrews:

speaking in them of those things; of the same things, Peter had been speaking of, of the coming of Christ, as that he should appear a second time to them that look for him, and would come as a thief in the night, and that the fashion, scheme, and form of this world should pass away, and that saints should look and wait for his coming, and love it: something of this kind is said in all his epistles; see Heb 9:28; and also of mockers, scoffers, seducers, and wicked men that would arise in the last days; see 1Ti 4:1,

in which are some things hard to be understood. The phrase, "in which", refers either to the epistles, or the things spoken in them. The Alexandrian manuscript, and three of Robert Stephens's copies, read εν αις, "in which" epistles, but the generality of copies read εν οις, "in", or "among which things", spoken of in them, concerning the subject here treated of, the coming of Christ; as the time of Christ's coming, which is sometimes represented by the apostle, as if it would be while he was living; and the manner of his coming in person with all his saints, and his mighty angels, with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and trump of God, things not easily understood; and the destruction of antichrist at his coming, which will be with the breath of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming; as also the resurrection of the dead, of the saints that will rise first, and that with spiritual bodies; and likewise the change of the living saints, and the rapture both of living and raised saints together, in the, clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and the standing of them before the judgment seat of Christ, and the account that everyone must give to him, 1Th 4:15 1Co 15:44;

which they that are unlearned; untaught of God, who have never learned of the Father, nor have learned Christ, nor have that anointing which teacheth all things; who, though they may have been in the schools of men, were never in the school of Christ; and though they have been ever learning, yet will never come to the knowledge of the truth; for men may have a large share of human literature, and yet be unlearned men in the sense of the apostle; and very often it is, that such wrest and pervert the Scriptures to the ruin of themselves, and others:

and unstable; unsettled in their principles, who are like children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine; the root of the matter is not in them; nor are they rooted and built up in Christ, and so are not established in the faith; they are not upon the foundation Christ, nor do they build upon, and abide by the sure word of God, or form their notions according to it, but according to their own carnal reasonings, and fleshly lusts; and so

wrest the word of God, distort it from its true sense and meaning, and make it speak that which it never designed; dealing with it as innocent persons are sometimes used, put upon a rack, and tortured, and so forced to speak what is contrary to their knowledge and consciences; and so were the words of the Apostle Paul wrested by ill designing men, as about the doctrines of grace and works, so concerning the coming of Christ; see Rom 3:8;

as they do also the other Scriptures; the writings of Moses, and the prophets of the Old Testament, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the other epistles of the apostles of the New Testament: and which is eventually

unto their own destruction; for by so doing they either add unto, or detract from the Scriptures, and so bring the curse of God upon them; and they give into doctrines of devils, and into heresies, which are damnable, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, which lingers not, and slumbers not. Now from hence it does not follow, that the Scriptures are not to be read by the common people; for not all the parts of Scripture, and all things in it, are hard to be understood, there are many things very plain and easy, even everything respecting eternal salvation; there is milk for babes, as well as meat for strong men: besides, not the Scriptures in general, but Paul's epistles only, are here spoken of, and not all of them, or anyone whole epistle among them, only some things in them, and these not impossible, only difficult to be understood; and which is no reason why they should be laid aside, but rather why they should be read with greater application and diligence, and be followed with fervent prayer, and frequent meditation; and though unlearned and unstable men may wrest them to their perdition, those that are taught of God, though otherwise illiterate, may read them to great profit and advantage.

Gill: 2Pe 3:17

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,.... As that there will be such mockers and scoffers in the last days, and such unlearned and unstable men that will deprave the Scriptures, and wrest them in such a miserable manner:

beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked; from the simplicity of the Gospel, along with such wicked men, that wax worse and worse, deceivers and being deceived, by giving into any of their errors which respect the grace of God, or the person and offices of Christ, or particularly his second coming; be upon the watch and guard against them, having previous notice of them, for they lie in wait to deceive: lest ye

fall from your own steadfastness; which was proper to them, and which, by the grace of God, they had, and retained, both in the faith of Christ and doctrine of the Gospel; for though the saints can never finally and totally fall into sin, or from the truth, yet they may fall from their steadfastness, both as to the exercise of the grace of faith, and as to their profession of the doctrine of faith; and to be fluctuating, hesitating, and doubting in either respect, must be very uncomfortable and dishonourable.

Gill: 2Pe 3:18

But grow in grace,.... In the gifts of grace, which, under a divine blessing, may be increased by using them: gifts neglected decrease, but stirred up and used, are improved and increase. And though men are to be thankful for their gifts, and be contented with them, yet they may lawfully desire more, and in the use of means seek an increase of them, which may be a means of preserving themselves, and others, from the error of the wicked. Moreover, by "grace" may be meant internal grace. The work of grace is gradual; it is like a grain of mustard seed, or like seed cast into the earth, which springs up, it is not known how, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear; saints are first babes, and from children they grow to young men, and from young men to fathers. There is such a thing as growth in grace, in this sense; every grace, as to its act and exercise, is capable of growing and increasing; faith may grow exceedingly, hope abound, love increase, and patience have its perfect work, and saints may grow more humble, holy, and self-denying: this is indeed God's work, to cause them to grow, and it is owing to his grace; yet saint, should show a concern for this, and make use of means which God owns and blesses for this purpose, such as prayer, attending on the word, and looking over the promises of God, for an increase of faith; recollecting past experiences, and looking to the death and resurrection of Christ for the encouragement of hope, and to the love of God and Christ, for the stirring up of love to both, and to the saints; considering the sufferings of Christ, the desert of sin, and the glories of another world, to promote patience and self-denial, and the pattern of Christ, to excite to humility; though "grace" may also intend the Gospel, the knowledge of which is imperfect, and may be increased in the use of means, and which is a special preservative against error, a growth in which saints should be concerned for:

and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; of his person, office, and grace, than which nothing is more valuable, and is to be preferred to everything; it is the principal thing in grace, and is the beginning and pledge of eternal life, and will issue in it; for an increase of which, and a growth in it, the word and ordinances are designed; and nothing can be a greater security against error than an experimental growing knowledge of Christ. The Syriac version adds, "and of God the Father"; and so some copies read:

to him be glory, both now, and for ever; or "to the day of eternity"; that is, to Christ, who is truly God, or otherwise such a doxology would not belong to him, be ascribed the glory of deity, of all divine perfections; the glory of all his offices and work as Mediator; the glory of man's salvation; and the glory of all that grace, and the growth of it, together with the knowledge of himself, which saints have from him; and that both in this world, and that which is to come.

Amen; so be it.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Pe 3:13

¹ tn Or possibly, “let us wait for.” The form in Greek (προσδόκωμεν, prosdokwmen) could be either indicative or subjunctive. The present participle in v. 14, however, is best taken causally (“since you are waiting for”), suggesting that the indicative is to be read here.

² tn The relative pronoun is plural, indicating that the sphere in which righteousness dwells is both the new heavens and the new earth.

³ tn Grk “dwells.” The verb κατοικέω (katoikew) is an intensive cognate of οἰκέω (oikew), often with the connotation of “taking up residence,” “settling down,” being at home,” etc. Cf., e.g., Matt 2:23; Acts 17:26; 22:12; Eph 3:17; Col 1:19; 2:9. Hence, the addition of the adverb “truly” is implicit in the connotation of the verb in a context such as this.

NET Notes: 2Pe 3:14

¹ tn Grk “dear friends, waiting for.” See note in v. 13 on “waiting for.”

² sn The Greek verb used in the phrase strive to be found is the same as is found in v. 10, translated “laid bare.” In typical Petrine fashion, a conceptual link is made by the same linkage of terms. The point of these two verses thus becomes clear: When the heavens disappear and the earth and its inhabitants are stripped bare before the throne of God, they should strive to make sure that their lives are pure and that they have nothing to hide.

³ tn “When you come into” is not in Greek. However, the dative pronoun αὐτῷ (autw) does not indicate agency (“by him”), but presence or sphere. The idea is “strive to found {before him/in his presence}.”

NET Notes: 2Pe 3:15

¹ tn The language here is cryptic. It probably means “regard the patience of our Lord as an opportunity for salvation.” In the least, Peter is urging his audience to take a different view of the delay of the parousia than that of the false teachers.

² sn Critics generally assume that 2 Peter is not authentic, partially because in vv. 15-16 Paul is said to have written scripture. It is assumed that a recognition of Paul’s writings as scripture could not have happened until early in the 2nd century. However, in the same breath that Paul is canonized, Peter also calls him “brother.” This is unparalleled in the 2nd century apocryphal works, as well as early patristic writings, in which the apostles are universally elevated above the author and readers; here, Peter simply says “he’s one of us.”

³ sn Paul wrote to you. That Paul had written to these people indicates that they are most likely Gentiles. Further, that Peter is now writing to them suggests that Paul had already died, for Peter was the apostle to the circumcised. Peter apparently decided to write his two letters to Paul’s churches shortly after Paul’s death, both to connect with them personally and theologically (Paul’s gospel is Peter’s gospel) and to warn them of the wolves in sheep’s clothing that would come in to destroy the flock. Thus, part of Peter’s purpose seems to be to anchor his readership on the written documents of the Christian community (both the Old Testament and Paul’s letters) as a safeguard against heretics.

NET Notes: 2Pe 3:16

¹ tn Grk “as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.”

² tn Grk “in which are some things hard to understand.”

³ tn Grk “which.” The antecedent is the “things hard to understand,” not the entirety of Paul’s letters. A significant principle is seen here: The primary proof texts used for faith and practice ought to be the clear passages that are undisputed in their meaning. Heresy today is still largely built on obscure texts.

⁴ tn Or “distort,” “wrench,” “torture” (all are apt descriptions of what heretics do to scripture).

⁵ sn This one incidental line, the rest of the scriptures, links Paul’s writings with scripture. This is thus one of the earliest affirmations of any part of the NT as scripture. Peter’s words were prophetic and were intended as a preemptive strike against the heretics to come.

NET Notes: 2Pe 3:17

¹ tn Grk “knowing beforehand.”

² tn Or “lawless ones.”

sn These unprincipled men. The same word is used in 2:7, suggesting further that the heretics in view in chapter 3 are the false teachers of chapter 2.

³ tn Grk “fall from your firmness.”

NET Notes: 2Pe 3:18

¹ tn The term “knowledge” (γνῶσις, gnwsis) used here is not the same as is found in 2 Pet 1:2, 3, 8; 2:20. This term is found in 1:5 and 1:6.

² tn Or “until.”

³ tc ‡ The vast bulk of mss add ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”) at the end of this letter, as they do almost all the rest of the NT books (only Acts, James, and 3 John lack a majority of witnesses supporting a concluding ἀμήν). The omission in B 1241 1243 1739* 1881 2298 appears to be original, although the fact that some of the best and earliest Alexandrian witnesses (Ì⁷² א A C P Ψ 33 co), along with the Byzantine text and early versions (vg sy), add the particle renders such a judgment less than iron-clad. NA²⁷ places the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

tn Grk “day of eternity.”

Geneva Bible: 2Pe 3:13

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, ^{( f )} wherein dwelleth righteousness.

^{( f )} In which heavens.

Geneva Bible: 2Pe 3:14

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in ^{( g )} peace, without spot, and blameless.

^{( g )} that you may try to your benefit, how gently and profitable he is.

Geneva Bible: 2Pe 3:15

And account [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; ^{( 12 )} even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

^{( 12 )} Paul's epistles are allowed by the express testimony of Peter.

Geneva Bible: 2Pe 3:16

As also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; ^{( 13 )} in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

^{( 13 )} There are some things that are obscure and dark which the ignorant use to overthrow men who are not established, wrestling the testimony of the scripture for their own destruction. But this is the remedy against such deceit, to labour that we may daily more and more grow up and increase in the knowledge of Christ.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 2Pe 3:1-18

1 He assures them of the certainty of Christ's coming to judgment, against those scorners who dispute against it;

8 warning the godly, for the long patience of God, to hasten their repentance.

10 He describes also the manner how the world shall be destroyed;

11 exhorting them, from the expectation thereof, to all holiness of life;

16 and again to think the patience of God to tend to their salvation, as Paul wrote to them in his epistles.

Maclaren: 2Pe 3:14

Be Diligent

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.'--2 Peter 3:14.

As we pass the conventional boundary of another year, most of us, I suppose, cast glances into the darkness ahead. To those of us who have the greater part of our lives probably before us, the onward look will disclose glad possibilities. To some of us, who have life mostly behind us, the prospect will take a sober colouring from an eye that hath kept watch over man's mortality,' and there will be little on the lower levels to attract. My text falls in with the mood which the season fosters. It directs our onward look to a blessed certainty instead of a peradventure, and it deduces important practical consequences from the hope. These three things are in the words of our text: a clear vision that should fill the future; a definite aim for life, drawn from the vision; and an earnest diligence in the pursuit of that aim, animated by that hope.

Now these three--a bright hope, a sovereign purpose, and a diligent earnestness--are the three conditions of all noble life. They themselves are strength, and they will bring us buoyancy and freshness which will prolong youth into old age, and forbid anything to appear uninteresting or small.

So I ask you to look at these three points, as suggested by my text.

I. First, Then, The Clear Hope Which Should Fill Our Future.

Seeing that ye look for such things.' What things? Peter has been drawing a very vivid and solemn picture of the end, in two parts, one destructive, the other constructive. Anticipating the predictions of modern science, which confirm his prophecy, he speaks of the dissolution of all things by fervent heat, and draws therefrom the lesson: What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?'

But that dissolution by fire is not, as people often call it, the final conflagration.' Rather is it a regenerating baptism of fire, from which the heavens and the earth that now are'--like the old man in the fable, made young in the flame--shall emerge renewed and purified. The lesson from that prospect is the words of our text.

Now I am not going to dwell upon that thought of a new heaven and a new earth renewed by means of the fiery change that shall pass upon them, but simply to remark that there is a great deal in the teaching of both Old and New Testaments which seems to look in that direction. It is, at least, a perfectly tenable belief, and in my humble judgment is something more, that this earth, the scene of man's tragedy and crime, the theatre of the display of the miracle of redeeming love, emancipated from the bondage of corruption, shall be renewed and become the seat of the blessed. They who dwell in it, and it on which they dwell pass through analogous changes, and as for the individuals, the new creation' is the old self purified by the fire of the Divine Spirit into incorruption and righteousness, so the world in which they live shall, in like manner, be that new world which is the old,' only having suffered the fiery transformation and been glorified thereby.

But passing from that thought, which, however interesting it may be as a matter of speculation, is of very small practical importance, notice, still further, the essential part of the hope which the Apostle here sets forth--viz., that that order of things towards which we may look is one permeable only for feet that have been washed and made clean. Therein dwelleth righteousness.' Righteousness there, of course, is the abstract for the concrete; the quality is put for the persons that exhibit it. And just as the condition of being at home in this present material world is the possession of flesh and blood, which puts creatures into relationships therewith, and just as it is impossible for a finite, bodyless spirit to move amongst, and influence, and be influenced by, the gross materialities of the heavens and the earth that now are, so is it impossible for anything but purity to be at rest in, or even to enter into that future world. The gates' of the New Jerusalem shall not be closed day nor night'; but through the ever-open gates none can pass except they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. There stand at the gates of that Paradise unseen, the repulsions of the angel with the flaming sword, and none can enter except the righteous. Light kills the creatures of the darkness.

How pure that soul must beWhich, placed withinThy piercing sight,Shall shrink not, but with calm delightCan live, and look on Thee!'

Thus, then, brethren, an order of things free from all corruption, and into which none can pass but the pure, should be the vision that ever flames before us. Peter takes it for granted that the anticipation of that future is an inseparable part of the Christian character. The word which he employs, by its very form, expresses that that expectance is habitual and continuous. I am afraid that a great many so-called Christians very seldom send their thoughts, and still less frequently their desires, onwards to that end. In all your dreams of the future, how much space has been filled by this future which is no dream? Have you, in these past days, and do you, as a matter of habitual and familiar occupation of your mind, let your eyes travel on beyond and above the low levels of earth and peradventures, to fix them on that certainty?

Opticians make glasses with three ranges, and write upon a little bar which shifts their eyepieces, Theatre,' Field,' Marine.' Which of the three is your glass set to? The turn of a button determines its range. You can either look at the things close at hand, or, if you set the eyepiece right and use the strongest, you can see the stars. Which is it to be? The shorter range shows you possibilities; the longer will show .you certainties. The shorter range shows you trifles; the longer, all that you can desire. The shorter range shows you hopes that are destined to be outgrown and left behind; the longer, the far-off glories, a pillar of light which will move before you for ever. Oh, how many of the hopes that guided our course, and made our objective points in the past, are away down below the backward horizon! How many hopes we have outgrown, whether they were fulfilled or disappointed. But we may have one which will ever move before us, and ever draw our desires. The greater vision, if we were only wise enough to bring our lives habitually under its influence, would at once dim and ennoble all the near future.

Let us then, dear friends, not desecrate that wondrous faculty of looking before as well as after which God has given to us, by wasting it upon the nothings of this world, but heave it higher, and anchor it more firmly in the very Throne of God Himself. And for us let one solemn, blessed thought more and more fill with its substance and its light the else dim and questionable and insufficient future, and walk evermore as seeing Him who is invisible, and as hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord.

II. Then, Secondly, Note The Definite Aim Which This Clear Hope Should Impress Upon Life.

If you knew that you were going to emigrate soon, and spend all your life on the other side of the world, in circumstances the outlines of which you knew, you would be a fool if you did not set yourself to get ready for them. The more clearly we see and the more deeply we feel that future hope, which is disclosed for us in the words of my text, the more it will prescribe a dominant purpose which will give unity, strength, buoyancy, and blessedness to any life. Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent.' For what? That ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.'

Now mark the details of the aim which this great hope impresses upon life, as they are stated in the words of my text. Every word is weighty here. That ye may be found.' That implies, if not search, at least investigation. It suggests the idea of the discovery of the true condition, character, or standing of a man which may have been hidden or partially obscured before--and now, at last, is brought out clearly. With the same suggestion of investigation and discovery, the same phrase is employed in other places; as, for instance, when the Apostle Paul speaks about being found naked,' or as when he speaks about being found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.' So, then, there is some process of examination or investigation, resulting in the discovery, possibly for the first time, of what a man really is.

Then note, Found in Him,' or as the Revised Version reads it, in His sight.' Then Christ is the Investigator, and it is before those pure eyes and perfect judgment' that they have to pass, who shall be admitted into the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Then mark what is the character which, discovered on investigation by Jesus Christ, admits there: without spot and blameless.' There must be the entire absence of every blemish, stain, or speck of impurity. The purer the white the more conspicuous the black. Soot is never so foul as when it lies on driven snow. They who enter there must have nothing in them akin to evil. Blameless' is the consequence of spotless.' That which in itself is pure attracts no censure, whether from the Judge or from the assessors and onlookers in His court.

But, further, these two words, in almost the same identical form--one of them absolutely the same, and the other almost so--are found in Peter's other letter as a description of Jesus Christ Himself. He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot.' And thus the character that qualifies for the new heavens is the copy of us in Jesus Christ.

Still further, only those who thus have attained to the condition of absolute, speckless purity and conformity to Jesus Christ will meet His searching eye in calm tranquillity and be found of Him in peace.'

The steward brings his books to his master. If he knows that there has been trickery with the figures and embezzlement, how the wretch shakes in his shoes, though he may stand apparently calm, as the master's keen eye goes down the columns! If he knows that it is all right, how calmly he waits the master's signature at the end, to pass the account! The soldiers come back with victory on their helmets, and are glad to look their captain in the face. But if they come back beaten, they shrink aside and hide their shame. If we are to meet Jesus Christ with quiet hearts, and we certainly shall meet Him, we must meet Him without spot and blameless.' The discovery, then, of what men truly are will be like the draining of the bed of a lake. Ah! what ugly, slimy things there are down in the bottom! What squalor and filth flung in from the houses, and covered over many a day by the waters! All that surface work will be drained off from the hearts of men. Shall we show slime and filth, or shall we show lovely corals and silver sands without a taint or a speck?

These are the details of the life's aim of a Christian man. And they may all be gathered up into one. The end which we should seek as sovereign and high above all others is the conformity of our character to Jesus Christ our Lord. Never mind about anything else; let us leave all in God's hands. He will do better for us than we can do for ourselves. Let us trust Him for the contingent future; and let us set ourselves to secure this, that, whether joy or sorrow, whether wealth or poverty, whether success or failure, whether sweet companionship or solitary tears be our lot for the rest of our lives, we may grow in grace, and in the knowledge and likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Make that your aim, and freshness, buoyancy, enthusiasm, the ennobling of everything in this world, and the bending of all to be contributory of it, will gladden your days. Make anything else your aim, and you fail of your highest purpose, and your life, however successful, will be dreary and disappointed, and its end will be shame.

III. Lastly, Notice The Earnest Diligence With Which That Aim Should Be Pursued, In The Light Of That Hope.

Peter is fond of using the word which is here translated be diligent.' Hard work, honest effort, continuous and persevering, is His simple recipe for all nobleness. You will find He employs it, for instance, at least three times in this letter, in such connections as, Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,' and so on through the whole glorious series; and again, Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.' So, then, there is no mystery about the way of securing the aim; work towards it, and you will get it.

Now, of course, there are a great many other considerations to be brought in, in reference to the Christian man's means of becoming Christlike. We should have to speak of the gifts of a Divine Spirit, of the dependence upon God for it, and the like; but for the present purpose we may confine ourselves to Peter's own prescription, be diligent,' and that will secure it. But then the word itself opens out into further meanings than that. It not only implies diligence: there may be diligence of a very mechanical and ineffective sort. The word also includes in its meaning earnestness, and it very frequently includes that which is the ordinary consequence of earnest-ness-viz., haste and economy of time.

So I venture, in closing, just to throw my remarks into three simple exhortations. Be in earnest in cultivating a Christlike character. Half-and-half Christians, like a great many of us, are of no use either to God or to men or to themselves. Dawdling and languid, braced up and informed by no earnestness of purpose, and never having had enthusiasm enough to set themselves fairly alight, they do no good and they come to nothing. I would thou wert cold or hot.' One thing sorely wanted in the average Christianity of this day is that professing Christians should give the motives which their faith supplies for earnest consecration due weight and power. Nothing else will succeed. You will never grow like Christ unless you are in earnest about it any more than you could pierce a tunnel through the Alps with a straw. It needs an iron bar tipped with diamond to do it. Unless your whole being is engaged in the task, and you gather your whole self together into a point, and drive the point with all your force, you will never get through the rock bar-tier that rises between you and the fair lands beyond. Be in earnest, or give it up altogether.

Then another thing I would venture to say is, Make it your business to cultivate a character like that of Jesus Christ. If you would go to the work of growing a Christlike spirit one-hundredth part as systematically as you will go to your business to-morrow, and stick at it, there would be a very different condition of things in most of our hearts. No man becomes noble and good and like the dear Lord by a jump,' without making a systematic and conscious effort towards it.

I would say, lastly, Make haste about cultivating a Christlike character. The harvest is great, the toil is heavy, the sun is drawing to the west, the evening shadows are very long with some of us, the reckoning is at hand, and the Master waits to count your sheaves. There is no time to lose, brother; set about it as you have never done before, and say, This one thing I do.'

And so let us not fill our minds with vain hopes which, whether they be fulfilled or not, will not satisfy us, but lift our eyes to and stay our anticipations on those glories beyond, as real as God is real, and as certain as His word is true. Let these hopes concentrate and define for us the aims of our life; and let the aims, clearly accepted and recognised, be pursued with earnestness, with diligence,' with haste, with the enthusiasm of which they, and they only, are worthy. Let us listen to our Master, I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh.' And let us listen to the words of the servant, which reverse the metaphor, and teach the same lesson in a trumpet call which anticipates the dawn and rouses the sleeping soldiers: The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light'

Maclaren: 2Pe 3:18

Growth

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,'--2 Peter 3:18.

THESE are the last words of an old man, written down as his legacy to us. He was himself a striking example of his own precept. It would be an interesting study to examine these two letters of the Apostle Peter, in order to construct from them a picture of what he became, and to contrast it with his own earlier self when full of self-confidence, rashness, and instability. It took a lifetime for Simon, the son of Jonas, to grow into Peter; but it was done. And the very faults of the character became strength. What he had proved possible in his own case he commands and commends to us, and from the height to which he has reached, he looks upwards to the infinite ascent which he knows he will attain when he puts off this tabernacle; and then downwards to his brethren, bidding them, too, climb and aspire. His last word is like that of the great Roman Catholic apostle to the East Indies: Forward!' He is like some trumpeter on the battlefield who spends his last breath in sounding an advance. Immortal hope animates his dying injunction: Grow! grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.'

So I think we may take these words, dear friends, as the starting-point for some very plain remarks about what I am afraid is a neglected duty, the duty of growth in Christian character.

I. I Begin, First, With A Word Or Two About The Direction Which Christian Growth Ought To Take.

Now those of you who use the Revised Version will see in it a very slight, but very valuable alteration. It reads there: Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.' The effect of that alteration being to bring out more clearly that whilst the direction of the growth is twofold, the process is one. And to bring out more clearly, also, that both the grace and the knowledge have connection with Jesus Christ.

He is the Giver and the Author of the grace. He is the Object of the knowledge. The one is more moral and spiritual; the other, if we may so say, more intellectual; but both are realised by one act of progress, and both inhere in, and refer to, and are occupied with, and are derived from, Jesus Christ Himself.

Let us look a little more closely at this double direction, this bifurcation, as it were, of Christian growth. The tree, like some of our forest trees, in its normal progress, diverges into two main branches at a short distance upwards from the root.

First, we have growth in the grace' of Christ. Grace, of course, means, first, the undeserved love and favour which God in Jesus Christ bears to us sinful and inferior creatures; and then it means the consequence of that love and favour in the manifold spiritual endowments which in us become graces,' beauties, and excellences of Christian character. So then, if you are a Christian, you ought to be continually realising a deeper and more blessed consciousness of Christ's love and favour as yours. You ought to be, if I may so say, nestling every day nearer and nearer to His heart, and getting more and more sure, and more and more happily sure, of more and more of His mercy and love to you.

And if you are a Christian you ought not only thus to be realising daily, with increasing certitude and power, the fact of His love, but you ought to be drinking in and deriving more and more every day of the consequences of that love, of the spiritual gifts of which His hands are full. There is open for each of us in Him an inexhaustible store of abundance. And if our Christian life is real and vigorous there ought to be in us a daily increasing capacity, and therefore a daily increasing possession of the gifts of His grace. There ought to be, in other words, also a daily progressive transformation into His likeness. It is the grace of our Lord Jesus,' not only in the sense that He is the Author and the Bestower of it to each of us, but also in the sense that He Himself possesses and exemplifies it. So that there is nothing mystical and remote from the experience of daily life in this exhortation: Grow in grace'; and it is not growth in some occult theological virtue, or transcendent experience, but a very plain, practical thing, a daily transformation, with growing completeness and precision of resemblance, into the likeness of Jesus Christ; the grace that was in Him being transferred to me, and my character being growingly irradiated and refined, softened and ennobled by the reflection of the lustre of His.

This it is to grow into the grace of our Lord and Saviour'; a deeper consciousness of His love creeping round the roots of my heart every day, and fuller possession of His gifts placed in my opening hand every day; and a continual approximation to the beauty of His likeness, which never halts nor ceases.

Grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.' The knowledge of a person is not the same as the knowledge of a creed or of a thought or of a book. We are to grow in the knowledge of Christ, which includes but is more than the intellectual apprehension of the truths concerning Him. He might turn the injunction into--Increase your acquaintance with your Saviour.' Many Christians never get to be any more intimate with Him than they were when they were first introduced to Him. They are on a kind of bowing acquaintance with their Master, and have little more than that. We sometimes begin an acquaintance which we think promises to ripen into a friendship, but are disappointed. Circumstances or some want of congeniality which is discovered prevent its growth. So with not a few professing Christians. They have got no nearer Jesus Christ than when they first knew Him. Their friendship has not grown. It has never reached the stage where all restraints are laid aside and there is perfect confidence. Grow in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' Get more and more intimate with Him, nearer to Him, and franker and more cordial with Him day by day.

But there is another side to the injunction besides that. We are to grow in the grasp, the intellectual grasp and realisation of the truths which lie wrapped up and enfolded in Him. The first truths that a man learns when he becomes a Christian are the most important. The lesson that the little child learns contains the Omega as well as the Alpha of all truth. There is no word in all the gospel that is an advance on that initial word, the faith of which saves the most ignorant who trusts to it. We begin with the end, if I may say so, and the highest truth is the first truth that we learn. But the aspect which that truth bears to the man when, first of all, it dawns upon him, and he sees in it the end of his fears, the cleansing of his heart, the pardoning of his sins, his acceptance with God, is a very different thing from the aspect that it ought to wear to him, after, say forty years of pondering, of growing up to it, after years of experience have taught him. Life is the best commentary upon the truths of the gospel, and the experience teaches their depths and their power, their far-reaching applications and harmonies. So our growth in the knowledge of Jesus Christ is not a growing away from the earliest lessons, or a leaving them behind, but a growing up to and into them. So as to learn more fully and clearly all their infinite contents of grace and truth. The treasure put into our hands at first is discovered in its true preciousness as life and trial test its metal and its inexhaustibleness. The child's lesson is the man's lesson. All our Christian progress in knowledge consists in bringing to light the deep meaning, the far-reaching consequences of the fact of Christ's incarnation, death, and glory. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' The same truth which shone at first a star in a far-off sky, through a sinful man's night of fear and agony, grows in brilliance as we draw nearer to it, until at last it blazes, the central Sun of the Universe, the hearth for all vital warmth, the fountain of all guiding light, the centre of all energy. Christ in His manhood, in His divinity, Christ in His cross, resurrection, and glory, is the object of all knowledge, and we grow in the knowledge of Him by penetrating more deeply into the truths which we have long ago learned, as well as by following them as they lead us into new fields, and disclose unsuspected issues in creed and practice.

That growth will not be one-sided; for grace and knowledge will advance side by side--the moral and spiritual keeping step with the intellectual, the practical with the theoretical. And that growth will have no term. It is growth towards an infinite object of our aspiration, imitation, and affection. So we shall ever approach and never surpass Jesus Christ. Such endless progress is the very salt of life. It keeps us young when physical strength decays. It flames, an immortal hope, to light the darkness of the grave when all other hopes are quenched in night.

II. Now, For A Moment, Look At Another Thought, Viz., The Obligation.

It is a command, that is to say, the will is involved. Growth is to be done by effort, and the fact that it is a command teaches us this, that we are not to take this one metaphor as if it exhausted the whole of the facts of the case in reference to Christian progress.

You would never think of telling a child to grow any more than you would think of telling a plant to grow, but Peter does tell Christian men and women to grow. Why? Because they are not plants, but men with wills, which can resist, and can either further or hinder their

Lo! in the middle of the wood,The folded leaf is wooed from out the bud,

and there Grows green and broad, and takes no care.'

But that is not how we grow. In the sweat of thy brow,' with pain and peril, with effort and toil, and not otherwise, do men grow in everything but stature. And especially is it so in the Christian character. There are other metaphors that need to be taken into consideration as well as this of growth, with all its sweet suggestions of continuous, effortless, spontaneous advance.

The Christian progress is not only growth, it is warfare. The Christian progress is not only growth, it is a race. The Christian progress is not only growth, it is mortifying the old man. The Christian progress is not only growth, it is putting off the old man with his deeds and putting on the new! First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear,' was never meant for a complete account of how the Christian life is perfected.

We are bidden to grow, and that command points to hindrances and resistance, to the need for effort and the governing action of our own wills.

The command is one sorely needed in the present state of our average Christianity. Our churches are full of monsters, specimens of arrested growth, dwarfs, who have scarcely grown since they were babes, infants all their lives. I come to you with a very plain question: Have you any more of Christ's beauty in your characters, any more of His grace in your hearts, any more of His truth in your minds than you had a year ago, ten years ago, or at that far-off period when some of you greyheaded men first professed to be Christians? Have you experienced so many things in vain? Have the years taught you nothing? Ah! brethren! for how many of us is it true: When for the time ye ought to be teachers ye have need that one teach you which be the first principles of the oracles of God'? Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.'

And we need the command because all about us there are hindrances. There is the hindrance of an abuse of the evangelical doctrine of conversion, and the idea that springs up in many hearts that if once a man has passed from death unto life,' and has managed to get inside the door of the banqueting-hall, that is enough. And there are numbers of people in our Nonconformist communities especially, where that doctrine of conversion is most distinctly preached, whose growth is stopped by the abuse that they make of it in fancying if they have once exercised faith in Jesus Christ they may safely and sinlessly stand still. Conversion' is turning round. What do we turn round for? Surely, in order that we may travel on in the new direction, not that we may stay where we are, There is also the hindrance of mere indolence, and there is the hindrance arising from absorption in the world and its concerns.

If all your strength is going thither, there is none left to grow with. Many professing Christians take such deep draughts of the intoxicating cup of this world's pleasures that it stunts their growth. People sometimes give children gin in order .to keep them from growing. Some of you do that for your Christian character by the deep draughts that you take of the Circean cup of this world's pleasures and cares.

And not unfrequently, some one favourite evil, some lust or passion, or weakness, or desire, which you have not the strength to cast out, will kill all aspirations and destroy all possibilities of growth; and will be like an iron band round a little sapling, which will confine it and utterly prevent all expansion. Is that the case with any of us? We all need--and I pray you suffer--the word of exhortation.

III. Now, Again, Consider The Method Of Growth.

There are two things essential to the growth of animal life. One is food, the other is exercise; and your Christian character will grow by no other means.

Now as to the first. The true means by which we shall grow in Christian grace is by holding continual intercourse and communion with Jesus Christ. It is from Him that all come. He is the Fountain of Life; He gives the life, He nourishes the life, He increases the life. And whilst I have been saying, in an earlier part of this discourse, that we are not to expect an effortless growth, I must here say that we shall very much mistake what Christian progress requires if we suppose that the effort is most profitably directed to the cultivation of specific and single acts of goodness and purity. Our efforts are best when directed to keeping ourselves in union with our Lord. The heart united to Him will certainly be advancing in all things fair and lovely and of good report. Keep yourselves in touch with Christ; and Christ will make you grow. That is to say, occupy heart and mind with Him, let your thoughts go to Him. Do you ever, from morning to night, on a week-day, think about your Master, about His truth, about the principles of His Gospel, about His great love to you? Keep your heart in union with Him, in the midst of the rush and hurry of your daily life. Are your desires turning to Him? Do they go out towards Him and feel after Him? It will take an effort to keep up the union with Him, but without the effort there will be no contact, and without the contact there will be no growth. As soon may you expect a plant, wrenched from the soil and shut out from the sunshine to grow, as expect any Christian progress in the hearts which are disjoined from Jesus Christ. But rooted in that soil, smiled upon by that sun, watered by the perpetual dew from His Heaven, we shall grow like the lily, and cast forth our roots like Lebanon. The secret of real Christian progress and the direction in which the effort of Christian progress can most profitably and effectually be made, is simply in keeping close to our Lord and Master. He is the food of the Spirit. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.'

Communion with Christ includes prayer. Desire to grow will help our growth. We tend to become what we long to be. Desire which impels to effort will not be in vain if it likewise impels to prayer. We may have the answer to our petition for growth in set ways; we may be "but partially conscious of the answer, nor know that our faces shine when we go among men. But certainly if we pray for what is in such accordance with His will as growth in grace' is, we shall have the petition that we desire. That longing to know Him better and to possess more of His grace, like the tendrils of some climbing plant, will always find the support round which it may twine, and by which it may ascend.

The other condition of growth is exercise. Use the grace which you have, and it increases. Practice the truth which you know, and many things will become clearer. The blacksmith's muscles are strengthened by wielding the forge-hammer, but unused they waste. The child grows by exercise. To him that hath--truly possesses with that possession which only use secures--shall be given.

Communion with Christ, including prayer, and exercise are the means of growth.

IV. Lastly, Observe The Solemn Alternative To Growth.

It is not a question of either growing or not growing, and there an end; but if you will look at the context you will see that the exhortation of my text comes in a very significant connection. Behold! beware, lest being led away, ye fall from your own steadfastness.' But grow in grace.' That is to say, the only preventive of falling away from steadfastness is continual progress. The alternative of advance is retrogression. There is no standing still upon the inclined plane. If you are not going up, gravity begins to act, and down you go. There must either be continual advance or there will be certain decay and corruption. As soon as growth ceases in this physiology disintegration commences. Just as the graces exercised are strengthened, so the graces unexercised decay. The slothful servant wraps his talent in a napkin, and buries it in the ground. He may try to persuade his Master and himself with There Thou hast that is Thine'; but He will not take up what you buried. Rust and verdigris will have done their work upon the coin; the inscription will be obliterated and the image will be marred. You cannot bury your Christian grace in indolence without diminishing it. It will be like a bit of ice wrapped in a cloth and left in the sun, it will all have gone into water when you come to take it out. And the truth that you do not live by, whose relations and large harmonies and controlling power are not being increasingly realised in your lives; that truth is becoming less and less real, more and more shadowy, and ghostlike to you. Truth which is not growing is becoming fossilised. The things most surely believed' are often the things which have least power. Unquestioned truth too often lies bedridden in the dormitory of the soul side by side with exploded error.' The sure way to reduce your knowledge of Jesus Christ to that inert condition is to neglect increasing it and applying it to your daily life. There are men, in all churches, and there are some whole communions whose creeds are the most orthodox, and also utterly useless, and as near as possible nonentities, simply because the creed is accepted and shelved. If your belief is to be of any use to you, or to be held by you in the face of temptations to abandon it, you must keep it fresh, and oxygenated, so to say, by continual fresh apprehension of it and closer application of it to conduct. As soon as the stream stands, it stagnates; and the very manna from God will breed worms and stink. And Christian truth unpractised by those who hold it, corrupts itself and corrupts them.

So Peter tells us that the alternative is growth or apostasy. This decay may be most real and unsuspected. There are many, many professing Christians all ignorant that, like the Jewish giant of old, their strength is gone from them, and the Spirit of God departed. My brother, I beseech you, rouse yourself from your contented slothfulness. Do not be satisfied with merely having come within the Temple. Count nothing as won whilst anything remains to be won. There is a whole ocean of boundless grace and truth rolling shoreless there before you. Do not content yourselves with picking up a few shells on the beach, but launch out into the deep, and learn to know more and more of the grace and truth and beauty of your Saviour and your God.

But remember dead things do not grow. You cannot grow unless you are alive, and you are not alive unless you have Jesus Christ.

Have you given yourselves to Him? have you taken Him as yours? given yourselves to Him as His servants, subjects, soldiers? taken Him for yours as your Saviour, Sacrifice, Pattern, Inspirer, Friend? If you have, then you have life which will grow if you keep it in union with Him. Joined to Him, men are like a tree that is planted by the rivers of water,' which spreads its foliage and bears its fruit, and year after year flings a wider shadow upon the grass, and lifts a sturdier bole to the heavens. Separated from Him they are like the chaff, which has neither root nor life, and which cannot grow. Which, my friend, are you?

THE END

1 John

MHCC: 2Pe 3:11-18

From the doctrine of Christ's second coming, we are exhorted to purity and godliness. This is the effect of real knowledge. Very exact and universal holiness is enjoined, not resting in any low measure or degree. True Christians look for new heavens and a new earth; freed from the vanity to which things present are subject, and the sin they are polluted with. Those only who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, shall be admitted to dwell in this holy place. He is faithful, who has promised. Those, whose sins are pardoned, and their peace made with God, are the only safe and happy people; therefore follow after peace, and that with all men; follow after holiness as well as peace. Never expect to be found at that day of God in peace, if you are lazy and idle in this your day, in which we must finish the work given us to do. Only the diligent Christian will be the happy Christian in the day of the Lord. Our Lord will suddenly come to us, or shortly call us to him; and shall he find us idle? Learn to make a right use of the patience of our Lord, who as yet delays his coming. Proud, carnal, and corrupt men, seek to wrest some things into a seeming agreement with their wicked doctrines. But this is no reason why St. Paul's epistles, or any other part of the Scriptures, should be laid aside; for men, left to themselves, pervert every gift of God. Then let us seek to have our minds prepared for receiving things hard to be understood, by putting in practice things which are more easy to be understood. But there must be self-denial and suspicion of ourselves, and submission to the authority of Christ Jesus, before we can heartily receive all the truths of the gospel, therefore we are in great danger of rejecting the truth. And whatever opinions and thoughts of men are not according to the law of God, and warranted by it, the believer disclaims and abhors. Those who are led away by error, fall from their own stedfastness. And that we may avoid being led away, we must seek to grow in all grace, in faith, and virtue, and knowledge. Labour to know Christ more clearly, and more fully; to know him so as to be more like him, and to love him better. This is the knowledge of Christ, which the apostle Paul reached after, and desired to attain; and those who taste this effect of the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, will, upon receiving such grace from him, give thanks and praise him, and join in ascribing glory to him now, in the full assurance of doing the same hereafter, for ever.

Matthew Henry: 2Pe 3:11-18

The apostle, having instructed them in the doctrine of Christ's second coming,

I. Takes occasion thence to exhort them to purity and godliness in their whole conversation: all the truths which are revealed in scripture should be improved for our advancement in practical godliness: this is the effect that knowledge must produce, or we are never the better for it. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. Seeing all these things must be dissolved, how holy should we be, that are assured of it, departing from and dying to sin, that has so corrupted and defiled all the visible creation that there is an absolute need of its dissolution! All that was made for man's use is subject to vanity by man's sin: and if the sin of man has brought the visible heavens, and the elements and earth, under a curse, from which they cannot be freed without being dissolved, what an abominable evil is sin, and how much to be hated by us! And, inasmuch as this dissolution is in order to their being restored to their primitive beauty and excellency, how pure and holy should we be, in order to our being fit for the new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness! It is a very exact and universal holiness that he exhorts to, not resting in any lower measure or degree, but labouring to be eminent beyond what is commonly attained - holy in God's house and in our own, holy in our worshipping of God and in our conversing with men. All our conversation, whether with high or low, rich or poor, good or bad, friends or enemies, must be holy. We must keep ourselves unspotted from the world in all our converses with it. We must be perfecting holiness in the fear of God, and in the love of God too. We must exercise ourselves unto godliness of all sorts, in all its parts, trusting in God and delighting in God only, who continues the same when the whole visible creation shall be dissolved, devoting ourselves to the service of God, and designing the glorifying and enjoyment of God, who endures for ever; whereas what worldly men delight in and follow after must all be dissolved. Those things which we now see must in a little while pass away, and be no more as they now are: let us look therefore at what shall abide and continue, which, though it be not present, is certain and not far off. This looking for the day of God is one of the directions the apostle gives us, in order to our being eminently holy and godly in all manner of conversation. "Look for the day of God as what you firmly believe shall come, and what you earnestly long for." The coming of the day of God is what every Christian must hope for and earnestly expect; for it is a day when Christ shall appear in the glory of the Father, and evidence his divinity and Godhead even to those who counted him a mere man. The first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he appeared in the form of a servant, was what the people of God earnestly waited and looked for: that coming was for the consolation of Israel, Luk 2:25. How much more should they wait with expectation and earnestness for his second coming, which will be the day of their complete redemption, and of his most glorious manifestation! Then he shall come to be admired in his saints, and glorified in all those that believe. For though it cannot but terrify and affright the ungodly to see the visible heavens all in a flame, and the elements melting, yet the believer, whose faith is the evidence of things not seen, can rejoice in hope of more glorious heavens after these have been melted and refined by that dreadful fire which shall burn up all the dross of this visible creation. Here we must take notice, 1. What true Christians look for: new heavens and a new earth, in which a great deal more of the wisdom, power and goodness of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ will be clearly discerned than we are able to discover in what we now see; for in these new heavens and earth, freed from the vanity the former were subject to, and the sin they were polluted with, only righteousness shall dwell; this is to be the habitation of such righteous persons as do righteousness, and are free from the power and pollution of sin; all the wicked shall be turned into hell; those only who are clothed with a righteousness of Christ, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, shall be admitted to dwell in this holy place. 2. What is the ground and foundation of this expectation and hope - the promise of God. To look for any thing which God has not promised is presumption; but if our expectations are according to the promise, both as to the things we look for and the time and way of their being brought about, we cannot meet with a disappointment; for he is faithful who has promised. "See therefore that you raise and regulate your expectations of all the great things that are to come according to the word of God; and, as to the new heaven and new earth, look for them as God has allowed and directed by the passages we have in this portion of scripture how before you, and in Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22, to which the apostle may be thought to allude."

II. As in 2Pe 3:11 he exhorts to holiness from the consideration that the heavens and the earth shall be dissolved, so in 2Pe 3:14 he resumes his exhortation from the consideration that they shall be again renewed. "Seeing you expect the day of God, when our Lord Jesus Christ will appear in his glorious majesty, and these heavens and earth shall be dissolved and melted down, and, being purified and refined, shall be erected and rebuilt, prepare to meet him. It nearly concerns you to see in what state you will be when the Judge of all the world shall come to pass sentence upon men, and to determine how it shall be with them to all eternity. This is the court of judicature whence there lies no appeal; whatever sentence is here passed by this great Judge is irreversible; therefore get ready to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ: and see to it,"

1. "That you be found of him in peace, in a state of peace and reconciliation with God through Christ, in whom alone God is reconciling the world to himself. All that are out of Christ are in a state of enmity, and reject and oppose the Lord and his anointed, and shall therefore be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power. Those whose sins are pardoned and their peace made with God are the only safe and happy people; therefore follow after peace, and that with all."(1.) Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (2.) Peace in our own consciences, through the Spirit of grace witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God. (3.) Peace with men, by having a calm and peaceable disposition wrought in us, resembling that of our blessed Lord.

2. That you be found of Christ without spot, and blameless. Follow after holiness as well as peace: and even spotless and perfect; we must not only take heed of all spots which are not the spots of God's children (this only prevents our being found of men without spot), we must be pressing towards spotless purity, absolute perfection. Christians must be perfecting holiness, that they may be not only blameless before men, but also in the sight of God; and all this deserves and needs the greatest diligence; he who does this work negligently can never do it successfully. "Never expect to be found at that day of God in peace, if you are lazy and idle in this your day, in which we must finish the work that is given us to do. It is only the diligent Christian who will be the happy Christian in the day of the Lord. Our Lord will suddenly come to us, or shortly call us to him; and would you have him find you idle?"Remember there is a curse denounced against him who does the work of the Lord negligently, Marg. Jer 48:10. Heaven will be a sufficient recompence for all our diligence and industry; therefore let us labour and take pains in the work of the Lord; he will certainly reward us if we be diligent in the work he has allotted us; now, that you may be diligent, account the long-suffering of our Lord to be salvation. "Does your Lord delay his coming? Do not think this is to give more time to make provision for your lusts, to gratify them; it is so much space to repent and work out your salvation. It proceeds not from a want of concern or compassion for his suffering servants, nor is it designed to give countenance and encouragement to the world of the ungodly, but that men may have time to prepare for eternity. Learn then to make a right use of the patience of our Lord, who does as yet delay his coming. Follow after peace and holiness, or else his coming will be dreadful to you."And inasmuch as it is difficult to prevent men's abuse of God's patience, and engage them in the right improvement thereof, our apostle quotes St. Paul as directing men to make the same good use of the divine forbearance, that in the mouth, or from the pen, of two apostles the truth might be confirmed. And we may here observe with what esteem and affection he speaks of him who had formerly publicly withstood and sharply reproved Peter. If a righteous man smite one who is truly religious, it shall be received as a kindness; and let him reprove, it shall be as an excellent oil, which shall soften and sweeten the good man that is reproved when he does amiss. What an honourable mention does this apostle of the circumcision make of that very man who had openly, before all, reproved him, as not walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel! (1.) He calls him brother, whereby he means not only that he is a fellow-christian (in which sense the word brethren is used 1Th 5:27), or a fellow-preacher (in which sense Paul calls Timothy the evangelist a brother, Col 1:1), but a fellow-apostle, one who had the same extraordinary commission, immediately from Christ himself, to preach the gospel in every place, and to disciple all nations. Though many seducing teachers denied Paul's apostleship, yet Peter owns him to be an apostle. (2.) He calls him beloved; and they being both alike commissioned, and both united in the same service of the same Lord, it would have been very unseemly if they had not been united in affection to one another, for the strengthening of one another's hands, mutually desirous of, and rejoicing in, one another's success. (3.) He mentions Paul as one who had an uncommon measure of wisdom given unto him. He was a person of eminent knowledge in the mysteries of the gospel, and did neither in that nor any other qualification come behind any of all the other apostles. How desirable is it that those who preach the same gospel should treat one another according to the pattern Peter here sets them! It is surely their duty to endeavour, by proper methods, to prevent or remove all prejudices that hinder ministers' usefulness, and to beget and improve the esteem and respect in the minds of people towards their ministers that may promote the success of their labours. And let us also here observe, [1.] The excellent wisdom that was in Paul is said to be given him. The understanding and knowledge that qualify men to preach the gospel are the gift of God. We must seek for knowledge, and labour to get understanding, in hopes that it shall be given us from above, while we are diligent in using proper means to attain it. [2.] The apostle imparts to men according as he had received from God. He endeavours to lead others as far as he himself was led into the knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel. He is not an intruder into the things he had not seen or been fully assured of, and yet he does not fail to declare the whole counsel of God, Act 20:27. [3.] The epistles which were written by the apostle of the Gentiles, and directed to those Gentiles who believed in Christ, are designed for the instruction and edification of those who from among the Jews were brought to believe in Christ; for it is generally thought that what is here alluded to is contained in the epistle to the Romans (Rom 2:4), though in all his epistles there are some things that refer to one or other of the subjects treated of in this and the foregoing chapter; and it cannot seem strange that those who were pursuing the same general design should in their epistles insist upon the same things. But the apostle Peter proceeds to tell us that in those things which are to be met with in Paul's epistles there are some things hard to be understood. Among the variety of subjects treated of in scripture, some are not easy to be understood because of their own obscurity, such are prophecies; others cannot be so easily understood because of their excellency and sublimity, as the mysterious doctrines; and others are with difficulty taken in because of the weakness of men's minds, such are the things of the Spirit of God, mentioned 1Co 2:14. And here the unlearned and unstable make wretched work; for they wrest and torture the scriptures, to make them speak what the Holy Ghost did not intend. Those who are not well instructed and well established in the truth are in great danger of perverting the word of God. Those who have heard and learned of the Father are best secured from misunderstanding and misapplying any part of the word of God; and, where there is a divine power to establish as well as to instruct men in divine truth, persons are effectually secured from falling into errors. How great a blessing this is we learn by observing what is the pernicious consequence of the errors that ignorant and unstable men fall into - even their own destruction. Errors in particular concerning the holiness and justice of God are the utter ruin of multitudes of men. Let us therefore earnestly pray for the Spirit of God to instruct us in the truth, that we may know it as it is in Jesus, and have our hearts established with grace, that we may stand firm and unshaken, even in the most stormy times, when others are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

III. The apostle gives them a word of caution, 2Pe 3:17, 2Pe 3:18, where,

1. He intimates that the knowledge we have of these things should make us very wary and watchful, inasmuch as there is a twofold danger, 2Pe 3:17. (1.) We are in great danger of being seduced, and turned away from the truth. The unlearned and unstable, and they are very numerous, do generally wrest the scripture. Many who have the scriptures and read them do not understand what they read; and too many of those who have a right understanding of the sense and meaning of the word are not established in the belief of the truth, and all these are liable to fall into error. Few attain to the knowledge and acknowledgment of doctrinal Christianity; and fewer find, so as to keep in the way of practical godliness, which is the narrow way, which only leadeth unto life. There must be a great deal of self-denial and suspicion of ourselves, and submitting to the authority of Christ Jesus our great prophet, before we can heartily receive all the truths of the gospel, and therefore we are in great danger of rejecting the truth. (2.) We are in great danger by being seduced; for, [1.] So far as we are turned from the truth so far are we turned out of the way to true blessedness, into the path which leads to destruction. If men corrupt the word of God, it tends to their own utter ruin. [2.] When men wrest the word of God, they fall into the error of the wicked, men without law, who keep to no rules, set no bounds to themselves, a sort of free-thinkers, which the psalmist detests. Psa 119:113, I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. Whatever opinions and thoughts of men are not conformable to the law of God, and warranted by it, the good man disclaims and abhors; they are the conceits and counsels of the ungodly, who have forsaken God's law, and, if we imbibe their opinions, we shall too soon imitate their practices. [3.] Those who are led away by error fall from their own stedfastness. They are wholly unhinged and unsettled, and know not where to rest, but are at the greatest uncertainty, like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. It nearly concerns us therefore to be upon our guard, seeing the danger is so great.

2. That we may the better avoid being led away, the apostle directs us what to do, 2Pe 3:18. And, (1.) We must grow in grace. He had in the beginning of the epistle exhorted us to add one grace to another, and here he advises us to grow in all grace, in faith, and virtue, and knowledge. By how much the stronger grace is in us, by so much the more stedfast shall we be in the truth. (2.) We must grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Follow on to know the Lord. Labour to know him more clearly and more fully, to know more of Christ and to know him to better purpose, so as to be more like him and to love him better."This is the knowledge of Christ the apostle Paul reached after and desired to attain, Phi 3:10. Such a knowledge of Christ as conforms us more to him, and endears him more to us, must needs be of great use to us, to preserve us from falling off in times of general apostasy; and those who experience this effect of the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will, upon receiving such grace from him, give thanks and praise to him, and join with our apostle in saying, To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Barclay: 2Pe 3:11-14

The one thing in which Peter is supremely interested is the moral dynamic of the Second Coming. If these things are going to happen and the world is hastening to judgment, obviously a man must live a life of piety and of holiness. If there are to be a new heaven and a new earth and if that heaven and earth are to be the home of righteousness, obviously a man must seek with all his mind and heart and soul and strength to be fit to be a dweller in that new world. To Peter, as Moffatt puts it, "it was impossible to give up the hope of the advent without ethical deterioration." Peter was right. If there is nothing in the nature of a Second Coming, nothing in the nature of a goal to which the whole creation moves, then life is going nowhere. That, in fact, was the heathen position. If there is no goal, either for the world or for the individual life, other than extinction, certain attitudes to life become well-nigh inevitable. These attitudes emerge in heathen epitaphs.

(i) If there is nothing to come, a man may well decide to make what he can of the pleasures of this world. So we come on an epitaph like this: "I was nothing: I am nothing. So thou who art still alive, eat, drink, and be merry."

(ii) If there is nothing to live for, a man may well be utterly indifferent. Nothing matters much if the end of everything is extinction, in which a man will not even be aware that he is extinguished. So we come on such an epitaph as this: "Once I had no existence; now I have none. I am not aware of it. It does not Concern me."

(iii) If there is nothing to live for but extinction and the world is going nowhere, there can enter into life a kind of lostness. Man ceases to be in any sense a pilgrim for there is nowhere to which he can make pilgrimage. He must simply drift in a kind of lostness, coming from nowhere and on the way to nowhere. So we come on an epigram like that of Callimachus. "Charidas, what is below?" "Deep darkness." "But what of the paths upward?" "All a lie." "And Pluto?" (The God of the underworld). "Mere talk." "Then we're lost." Even the heathen found a certain almost intolerable quality in a life without a goal.

When we have stripped the doctrine of the Second Coming of all its temporary and local imagery, the tremendous truth it conserves is that life is going somewhere--and without that conviction there is nothing to live for.

Barclay: 2Pe 3:11-14

There is in this passage still another great conception. Peter speaks of the Christian as not only eagerly awaiting the Coming of Christ but as actually hastening it on. The New Testament tells us certain ways in which this may be done.

(i) It may be done by prayer. Jesus taught us to pray: "Thy Kingdom come" (Mat 6:10). The earnest prayer of the Christian heart hastens the coming of the King. If in no other way, it does so in this--that he who prays opens his own heart for the entry of the King.

(ii) It may be done by preaching. Matthew tells us that Jesus said, "And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come" (Mat 24:14). All men must be given the chance to know and to love Jesus Christ before the end of creation is reached. The missionary activity of the Church is the hastening of the coming of the King.

(iii) It may be done by penitence and obedience. Of all things this would be nearest to Peter's mind and heart. The Rabbis had two sayings: "It is the sins of the people which prevent the coming of the Messiah. If the Jews would genuinely repent for one day, the Messiah would come." The other form of the saying means the same: "If Israel would perfectly keep the law for one day, the Messiah would come." In true penitence and in real obedience a man opens his own heart to the coming of the King and brings nearer that coming throughout the world. We do well to remember that our coldness of heart and our disobedience delay the coming of the King.

Barclay: 2Pe 3:15-16

Peter here cites Paul as teaching the same things as he himself teaches. It may be that he is citing Paul as agreeing that a pious and a holy life is necessary in view of the approaching Second Coming of the Lord. More likely, he is citing Paul as agreeing that the fact that God withholds his hand is to be regarded not as indifference on God's part but as an opportunity to repent and to accept Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of those who despise the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and patience, forgetting that his kindness is designed to lead a man to repentance (Rom 2:4). More than once Paul stresses the forbearance and the patience of God (Rom 3:25; Rom 9:22). Both Peter and Paul were agreed that the fact that God withholds his hand is never to be used as an excuse for sinning but always as a means of repentance and an opportunity of amendment.

With its reference to Paul and its tinge of criticism of him, this is one of the most intriguing passages in the New Testament. It was this passage which made John Calvin certain that Peter did not himself write Second Peter because, he says, Peter would never have spoken about Paul like this. What do we learn from it?

(i) We learn that Paul's letters by this time were known and used throughout the Church. They are spoken of in such a way as to make it clear that they have been collected and published, and that they are generally available and widely read. We are fairly certain that it was about the year A.D. 90 that Paul's letters were collected and published in Ephesus. This means that Second Peter cannot have been written before that and, therefore, cannot be the work of Peter, who was martyred in the middle sixties of the century.

(ii) It tells us that Paul's letters have come to be regarded as Scripture. The misguided men twist them as they do the other Scriptures. This again goes to prove that Second Peter must come from a time well on in the history of the early Church, for it would take many generations for the letters of Paul to rank alongside the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

(iii) It is a little difficult to determine just what the attitude to Paul is in this passage. He is writing "in the wisdom which has been given to him." Bigg says neatly that this phrase can be equally a commendation or a caution! The truth is that Paul suffered the fate of all outstanding men. He had his critics. He suffered the fate of all who fearlessly face and fearlessly state the truth. Some regarded him as great but dangerous.

(iv) There are things in Paul's letters which are hard to understand and which ignorant people twist to their own ruin. The word used for hard to understand is dusnoetos (1425), which is used of the utterance of an oracle. The utterances of Greek oracles were always ambiguous. There is the classic example of the king about to go to war who consulted the oracle at Delphi and was given the answer: "If you go to war, you will destroy a great nation." He took this as a prophecy that he would destroy his enemies; but it happened that he was so utterly defeated that by going to war he destroyed his own country. This was typical of the dangerous ambiguity of the ancient oracles. It is that very word which Peter uses of the writings of Paul. They have things in them which are as difficult to interpret as the ambiguous utterance of an oracle.

Not only, Peter says, are there things in Paul's writings that are hard to understand; there are things which a man may twist to his own destruction. Three things come immediately to mind. Paul's doctrine of grate was twisted into an excuse and even a reason for sin (Rom 6 ). Paul's doctrine of Christian freedom was twisted into an excuse for unchristian licence (Gal 5:13). Paul's doctrine of faith was twisted into an argument that Christian action was unimportant, as we see in James (Jam 2:14-26).

G. K. Chesterton once said that orthodoxy was like walking along a narrow ridge; one step to either side was a step to disaster. Jesus is God and man; God is love and holiness; Christianity is grace and morality; the Christian lives in this world and lives in the world of eternity. Overstress either side of these great two-sided truths, and at once destructive heresy emerges. One of the most tragic things in life is when a man twists Christian truth and Holy Scripture into an excuse and even a reason for doing what he wants to do instead of taking them as guides for doing what God wants him to do.

Barclay: 2Pe 3:17-18

In conclusion Peter tells us certain things about the Christian life.

(i) The Christian is a man who is forewarned. That is to say, he cannot plead ignorance. He knows the right way and its rewards; he knows the wrong way and its disasters. He has no right to expect an easy way, for he has been told that Christianity means a cross, and he has been warned that there will always be those who are ready to attack and to pervert the faith. To be forewarned is to be forearmed; but to be forewarned is also a grave responsibility, for he who knows the right and does the wrong is under a double condemnation.

(ii) The Christian is a man with a basis for life. He ought to be rooted and founded in the faith. There are certain things of which he is absolutely certain. James Agate once declared that his mind was not a bed to be made and remade but that on certain things it was finally made up. There is a certain inflexibility in the Christian life; there is a certain basis of belief which never changes. The Christian will never cease to believe that, "Jesus Christ is Lord" (Phi 2:11); and he will never cease to be aware that there is laid on him the duty of making his life fit his belief.

(iii) The Christian is a man with a developing life. The inflexibility of the Christian life is not the rigidity of death. The Christian must daily experience the wonder of grace, and daily grow in the gifts which grace can bring; and he must daily enter more and more deeply into the wonder which is in Jesus Christ. It is only on a firm foundation that a great building can tower into the air; and it is only because it has a deep root that a great tree can reach out to the sky with its branches. The Christian life is at once a life with a firm foundation and with an ever outward and upward growth.

And so the letter finishes by giving glory to Christ, both now and to the end of time.

Constable: 2Pe 3:1-16

V. THE PROSPECT FOR THE CHRISTIAN 3:1-16

Peter turned from a negative warning against false teachers to make a positive declaration of the apostles' message to help his readers understand why he wrote this letter. His language had been strong and confrontive, but now he spoke with love and encouragement in gentle and endearing terms.

"While in chapter 2 the writer delivered a fervid denunciation of the false teachers and their immorality, in this section he renews his pastoral concern to fortify his readers in regard to another aspect of the danger facing them, namely, the heretical denial of Christ's return."¹²⁹

"In the third chapter Peter refutes the mockers' denial of Christ's return (vv. 1-7), presents the correct view concerning Christ's return (vv. 8-13), and concludes with timely exhortations to his readers in view of the dark and dangerous days facing them (vv. 14-18)."¹³⁰

Constable: 2Pe 3:11-16

D. Living in View of the Future 3:11-16

Peter drew application for his readers and focused their attention on how they should live presently in view of the future.

3:11 Peter believed that an understanding of the future should motivate the believer to live a holy life now. His question is rhetorical. Holy conduct refers to behavior that is separate from sin and set apart to please God. Godly means like God (1:3, 6-7; cf. 2:7, 10, 12-15, 18-20; 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:15-16).

3:12 The Greek participle translated "hastening" or "speeding" (speudontes) sometimes means "desiring earnestly" (RSV margin).¹⁵⁵ If Peter meant that here, the sense would be that believers not only look for the day of God but desire earnestly to see it (cf. vv. 8-10; Matt. 24:42; 25:13).¹⁵⁶ The AV has "hastening unto" implying that Peter meant believers are rapidly approaching the day of God. Yet "unto" needs supplying; it is not in the text. Most of the translators and commentators, however, took speudontes in its usual sense of hastening. They assumed that Peter was thinking that believers can hasten the day of God by their prayers (cf. Matt. 6:10) and their preaching (cf. Matt. 24:14; Acts 3:19-20).¹⁵⁷ Believers affect God's timetable by our witnessing and our praying as we bring people to Christ (cf. Josh. 10:12-14; 1 Kings 20:1-6; et al.).¹⁵⁸

"Clearly this idea of hastening the End is the corollary of the explanation (v 9) that God defers the Parousia because he desires Christians to repent. Their repentance and holy living may therefore, from the human standpoint, hasten its coming. This does not detract from God's sovereignty in determining the time of the End . . ., but means only that his sovereign determination graciously takes human affairs into account."¹⁵⁹

The "day of God" may be a reference to the time yet future in which God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).¹⁶⁰ This will follow the creation of the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 21:1). On the other hand this phrase may be another way of describing the day of the Lord.¹⁶¹ The antecedent of "on account of which" (NASB) is the day of God. God will burn up the present heavens and earth because of that day.

3:13 We look forward to the new heavens and earth, not the destruction of the present heavens and earth. The reason is that the new heavens and earth will be where righteousness dwells. Unrighteousness characterizes the present world (cf. Jer. 23:5-7; 33:16; Dan. 9:24; Rev. 21:1, 8, 27). "His promise" of new heavens and earth is in Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; et al.

"Christians need to remember the ultimate, bottom-line,' purpose of biblical eschatology: to make us better Christians here and now."¹⁶²

"The purpose of prophetic truth is not speculation but motivation . . ."¹⁶³

3:14 "These things" probably refers to all of what Peter just finished saying in verses 10-13 rather than to the new world in which righteousness dwells (v. 13; cf. the "these things" in v. 11). Peter again urged his readers to "diligent" action (cf. 1:5, 10). He wanted us to be at peace with God, and the implication was that he expected his readers to be alive when the Lord comes.¹⁶⁴ "Spotless" means without defect or defilement (as in a spotless sacrifice, cf. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:19), and "blameless" means without justifiable cause for reproach. The false teachers were stains and blemishes (2:13), but believers need to be spotless and blameless.

3:15 We should view the Lord's tarrying as a manifestation of His longsuffering that leads people to repentance and salvation rather than as a sign that He is never coming (v. 9).

"While God is waiting, He is both giving time for the unbeliever to be saved, and for the believer to be working out his salvation (cf. Phil. 2:12, 13) in terms of progress in sanctification."¹⁶⁵

Peter regarded Paul as a "dear brother" who was one with him in his allegiance to God and His Word. Perhaps Peter had Romans 2:4 in mind when he said Paul wrote the same thing he had just said.

3:16 "These things" probably refers generally to future events (cf. vv. 11, 14) and the importance of Christians living godly lives in view of them.

It is somewhat comforting to learn that even the Apostle Peter found some of what Paul wrote hard to understand! Peter also wrote some things in his two epistles that tax our understanding. The "untaught" (Gr. amatheis) are those who had not received teaching concerning all that God had revealed. The "unstable" (Gr. asteriktoi) are those who were not always consistent in their allegiance to God or the world, namely, double-minded, fence-straddling compromisers. These types of people misunderstood and in some cases deliberately misrepresented the meaning of Paul's writings. However this only added to their own guilt before God.

"The verb distort' (streblousin), occuring only here in the New Testament, means to twist or wrench,' specifically, to stretch on the rack, to torture.'¹⁶⁶ They take Paul's statements and twist and torture them, like victims on the rack, to force them to say what they want them to say."¹⁶⁷

Note that Peter regarded Paul's writings as of equal authority with the Old Testament Scriptures. This statement reiterates what he said previously about the apostles' teaching being equal with the prophets' writings (1:12-21; 3:2).

"That an Apostle should speak of the writings of a brother-Apostle in the same terms as the books of the Old Testament--viz., as Scripture--need not surprise us, especially when we remember the large claims made by St. Paul for his own words (1 Thess. ii. 13; 2 Thess. ii. 15; Eph. iii. 3-5. Comp. Acts xv. 28; Rev. xxii. 18, 19)."¹⁶⁸

"In attempting to destroy the Bible men destroy themselves."¹⁶⁹

Constable: 2Pe 3:17-18

VI. CONCLUSION 3:17-18

Peter concluded his epistle with a summary of what he had said and a doxology. He did so to condense his teaching for his readers and to redirect their living to glorify God.

3:17 Much of what Peter had written was warning that he summarized here. His appeal was tender throughout this epistle (cf. vv. 1, 8, 14). The threat to his readers was the false teachers (ch. 2). Peter's mental picture was of a torrent of false teaching knocking believers off their feet and sweeping them away. The possibility of loss of salvation is not in view, but loss of steadfastness is.

This is the fourth and last time Peter addressed his readers as "beloved" in this chapter, and in each instance he gave them a challenge. He told them to remember (vv. 1-2), to be informed (v. 8), to be diligent (v. 14), and to beware.

3:18 Next he added a positive exhortation (cf. 1:5-10). Rather than being swept away by error his audience should keep on growing (present imperative in Greek) in God's grace. They could do so by consciously depending on His resources (His power and promises, 1:3-4) and by growing in the knowledge (Gr. gnosei) of "our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (cf. 1:11; 2:20; 3:2). They could do the latter by getting more intimately acquainted with Him day by day (1:5-8).

"Christian knowledge fosters fellowship with God and deepens a consciousness of the believer's obligation to live a life worthy of His grace."¹⁷⁰

"The command to grow is an appeal to the will. But growth, in the spiritual as in the physical realm, is not produced by an assertion of the will. Yet the human will plays a decisive part in the experience of spiritual growth. Believers must will to remove the hindrances to growth while actively fostering the conditions which promote growth. When the conditions for spiritual growth are maintained the divinely implanted life will assuredly grow and mature. . . .

"Growing knowledge fosters fellowship with God and deepens the consciousness of one's obligations to lead a life worthy of His grace."¹⁷¹

Continuing growth ". . . is the unfailing panacea for all spiritual ills."¹⁷²

"We grow best in a loving family, and this is where the local church comes in. A baby needs a family for protection, provision, and affection. Tests prove that babies who are raised alone, without special love, tend to develop physical and emotional problems very early. The church is God's nursery' for the care and feeding of Christians, the God-ordained environment that encourages them to grow."¹⁷³

The greatest goal for the Christian should be to glorify Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 10:31).¹⁷⁴ Peter's final words focused his readers' attention anew on that ultimate priority. The day of eternity is the time when we will be living on the new earth (v. 13).

College: 2Pe 3:1-18

2 PETER 3

C. THE NECESSITY OF BELIEVING IN CHRIST'S RETURN (3:1-13)

1. The False Teaching (3:1-7)

¹ Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. ² I 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.

³ First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. ⁴ They will say, ''Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." ⁵ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. ⁶ By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. ⁷ By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

As Peter begins to close his letter, he returns to his earlier emphasis on strengthening the faith of his readers. He reminds them of the many reasons for believing that Jesus is indeed coming back in judgment. It is here that he most clearly reveals the arguments of the false teachers. They teach that Christ will not return, because he has not yet returned as expected, and because the world has continued without change since the creation. Peter reminds the readers that God created the world by his word, then destroyed the world by his word, and that he certainly can and will destroy it again by his word. Destruction awaits the ungodly.

3:1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

Peter seems to know his readers well, as he calls them "loved ones" (ajgaphtoiv, agapçtoi). (The NIV's "friends" is not strong enough.) Since he calls this his "second" letter to these Christians, it is probable that the first was the letter we call 1 Peter. This is not certain, though, since 1 Peter could have been sent to a different group of Christians. Peter probably wrote many more letters than these two.

His purpose for both, "to stimulate you to wholesome thinking," is stated very generally. Since both letters deal with the ethical obligations of Christians, the description is an accurate one. The term translated "wholesome" refers to purity or a lack of contamination. Peter's fear at the time of this writing is, of course, that the false teachers will contaminate the thinking of his readers.

3:2 I 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.

Just as he did in 1:16-21, Peter reminds these believers that his words are based on the words of the prophets and the apostles, who passed on what Jesus taught them. He speaks of "your apostles," probably referring to the apostles who first taught these readers.

The content of the "words" and the "command" is somewhat difficult to determine. Peter may be discussing the demand for holy living preached by the prophets and by Jesus. The word "command" (ejntolhv, entolç) would seem to support this view. Yet he may be looking forward to the following verse, suggesting that the prophets and Jesus predicted that false teachers would come and lead people into apostasy. Or he may be writing about the future coming of Jesus in judgment, also taught by the prophets and by Jesus himself. This would be supported by the primary teaching of the whole letter, especially the similar section in 1:16-21. It is impossible to rule out any of these as possibilities, and it may be best to assume Peter has in mind all three. Jesus and the prophets spoke of the need for holy living to escape the final judgment at the final coming of God's Messiah. They also knew that some would deny these truths.

3:3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

The phrase, "first of all," indicates that these Christians must first understand that Jesus and the prophets knew of these "scoffers" long ago. In other words, Peter's readers should not be alarmed or swayed by these men - they knew they were coming. As discussed above, Peter may use the future tense here (scoffers will come) because the false teachers have only begun their destructive program, which will get worse. Or it may be that he is in essence quoting the words of Jesus and the prophets to which he has just alluded. Matthew 24:5 is a good example: "Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many."

The words, "in the last days," have been taken in two different ways. Some think that this writer believes that the final days are just arriving at this time, the false teachers themselves being the proof. However, the most common understanding in the New Testament is that Jesus inaugurated the last days and that all Christians are therefore living in the last days. It does not refer to the last few days before the end but rather the last period of history in terms of God's dealings with humans.

Throughout the Bible, "scoffers" are those who ridicule the teachings of God. They tend to discount the spiritual world, making their judgments based on worldly wisdom. In this case they are ridiculing the idea of the Second Coming. Peter ties their scoffing to their sinful lifestyles - they scoff at God's ways and follow "their own evil desires."

3:4 They will say, ''Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

The form of the ridicule of the false teaching is a fairly common one in the Old Testament. Peter's use of this form puts these men in the same category as those who asked Jeremiah, for example, "Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled!" The question, "Where is this 'coming'?" is asked with sarcasm, and it means, "He did not return as he said he would, did he?"

The last part of the verse, the reasoning behind the scoffing, is subject to two major interpretations. The first is that there will be no complete destruction of the world because such a thing never has happened - not since the beginning of the world. (This interpretation will be discussed below.) The second and most common interpretation among modern commentators is that the scoffers contended that Jesus promised to come back during the lifetime of his early disciples. They would have gotten this idea from such passages as Matthew 16:28: "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." It is just such an expectation that has led the false teachers to mention the death of "our fathers." According to this view the "fathers" here must be the fathers of the Christian faith, the earliest generation of disciples or even the apostles themselves.

This view is not without merit. It is at least understandable that believers would think that Jesus promised to return before the death of some who were present during his ministry. After the early disciples died, the mockery was inevitable. However, there are a few problems with this reading. First, it is not at all clear that Jesus promised to return during the lifetime of his disciples. The texts that may appear to teach this are certainly subject to other understandings. Not only have they been interpreted in other ways for 1,900 years; it is also quite doubtful that the Gospel writers so understood them as they penned these words toward the end of that first generation.

Second, the term "fathers" is nowhere else used to describe the early Christians. It is often used, however, to speak of the Old Testament "fathers of the faith," as in Romans 9:5; 11:28; 15:8; Acts 7:2,32. There the term refers to Abraham and his near descendants. The phrase, "since the beginning of creation," also leads the reader to assume the fathers are the ancient heroes of the faith because it is parallel to the phrase "since our fathers died."

Third, the writer (whether Peter or not) never really answers the charge that the early Christians have died before the return of Jesus. His answer is much better suited to the understanding of the scoffers' charges presented below. He answers that the Lord has reasons for waiting, not that the Lord never imposed a time limit or that he changed the limit. Surely the writer would have attempted to answer the question directly if he understood it that way.

The better view seems to be that which understands the term "our fathers" to refer to the Old Testament patriarchs, its more normal connotation. The scoffers' reasoning is, then, "It has been several decades now and Jesus still has not returned, as he promised. In fact, the world continues upon its course just the way it has since the time of Abraham. Only dreamers would think that it is about to change."

Unfortunately, we cannot know precisely what has led these false teachers to such a position. They apparently see themselves as Christians, so they must have respect for Jesus. It is, in fact, odd that they seem to deny the coming he promised. Perhaps it means "the coming that some say he promised." What has led them to deny the Second Coming? First, there is little doubt that their sinful lifestyles have influenced their thinking. It is a fact that behavior influences thinking as often as thinking influences behavior. Humans have an amazing ability to rationalize their behavior. But how did the false teachers support their denial of the Second Coming on an intellectual level? This verse may give the clearest hint, since Peter quotes them as contending that, "everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." Their statement seems to imply a philosophy of history. Perhaps these teachers blended Christianity with Greco-Roman philosophical thought. The Epicureans believed that the gods existed but that there was nothing to fear from them. The gods could do nothing to hurt people. More likely, though, the false teachers were simply typical Greek thinkers who believed time moves in a continuous cycle and not toward an end. "Everything goes on as it has." The concept of an end to the world may not have made any sense to these people. It has been that way "since the beginning of creation," and it will always be that way.

Excursus: The Imminent Coming of Jesus

It must be admitted that the early Christians seem to have expected Jesus to return within a generation or so. This is the reason for the crisis at Thessalonica that Paul responds to in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Some in that church became concerned when loved ones began to die and Jesus had not returned. This suggests that they expected him back by that time. It does not prove that he had promised to come back by that time. Paul's response is, of course, that the dead will be raised when Jesus returns, so that their loved ones would not miss out on Jesus' return.

A number of other New Testament texts also seem to assume that Jesus would be back "soon." In 1 Corinthians 7:29,31, Paul writes that, "The time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; . . . For this world in its present form is passing away." James writes, "Be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near" (Jas 5:8).

There are several answers to this "problem." First, it must be remembered that Jesus said that, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come" (Mark 13:32). If the early church expected Jesus back during the first generation, it was their opinion and not inspired prophecy. Second, it may be that the New Testament writers were trying to convey the idea of imminence. That is, everything is ready for the Second Coming, so that it could arrive at any moment. In that sense it is "near." Third, the present passage in 2 Peter offers the most satisfying answer in the New Testament. If it seems that God is slow, it is not slowness but patience. And besides, human beings are incapable of understanding God's timetable. "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day" (2 Pet 3:8).

3:5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 3:6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

Peter accuses these men of having a selective memory. They "deliberately forget" that the world was created by "God's word," and that it was also by his word that it was destroyed. The point is that God can (and will) do it again. In other words, their assumption that the world will simply continue without change ignores two important facts: God created the world, and God once destroyed the world. That destruction by water serves as an example, a reminder and an assurance that God will again destroy the ungodly.

The statement that heaven and earth were formed "out of water and by water" is somewhat perplexing. Probably its meaning is that God formed the heavens and the earth out of "the deep" (Gen 1:2) and that he made them by water when he separated and gathered the waters. Separating the waters above from the waters below formed the sky (heavens), and gathering together the waters below created dry ground (Gen 1:6-10).

Even if the precise meaning of the discussion of "water" here is difficult, the reason for it is clear enough. God once destroyed the world with water, but he will destroy it with fire the next time. And it too will be by the power of his word. A better translation for the NIV's "by these waters" would be simply "by these," referring to the waters and the word of God. Perhaps the false teachers doubted God's ability to bring about catastrophic change in the world. Peter assures his readers that God need only speak the word.

3:7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

The all-powerful word of God has already decreed that "the present heavens and earth" will be destroyed by fire. Since God has spoken, it will occur. The only unknown factor is the time. The teaching that the world will be destroyed by fire is taught only here in the New Testament. Peter is very likely referring here to the words of the prophets, such as those of Malachi: "'Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,' says the LORD Almighty" (4:1). This passage from Malachi and others like it from the Old Testament do not envision a fiery destruction for the whole creation but rather only for ungodly people. In fact, only in 2 Peter is it taught that "the heavens and earth" will be consumed by fire. This undoubtedly looks forward to the "new heaven and new earth" of verse 13, where we will discuss it further.

The coming fiery day is "the day of judgment," when all will be judged. It will therefore also be the day of "destruction of ungodly men," such as the false teachers.

2. The Sure Return of Christ (3:8-10)

⁸ But 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. ⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

¹⁰ But 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 in it will be laid bare. ^a

a 10 Some manuscripts be burned up

In this section Peter answers the false teachers' fundamental doctrinal error. There were very good reasons that Christ had not yet returned. But make no mistake - he will return, and the world as presently known will be no more.

3:8 But 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.

In response to the scoffers' teaching that Jesus had not returned when expected, Peter offers his first response. He addresses his readers again as "loved ones" (agapçtoi, not simply "friends") and encourages them not to "forget," as the false teachers "deliberately forget" (verse 5). He uses the language of Psalm 90:4, as he argues that the Lord does not view time as humans view time.

The fundamental thought here is that people, given their limited perspective, cannot possibly understand God's time-table. What seems an eternity to humans is only a brief moment to an eternal God. Several decades seemed to the early Christians a very long time to wait for the return of Jesus. In fact, Peter implies, this may be a very short time from God's perspective.

It is unusual that Peter writes not only that "a thousand years are like a day" (as in Psalm 90:4) but also that "a day is like a thousand years." The reversed statement (which is the first) is probably just for rhetorical effect. However, it is possible that Peter means that God delays too long in the eyes of some, and that God acts too quickly in the eyes of others.

3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Peter now explains why it is that the Lord has not yet returned. While from a human perspective he seems "slow in keeping his promise," the apparent delay has nothing to do with being slow. The "some" who accuse God of "slowness" are undoubtedly the scoffing teachers.

Far from showing a lack of concern for people, the Lord is actually showing mercy. The theme is a common one in the Old Testament, as time and again God waits to execute his judgment in order to give people a chance to repent. Joel 2:13 provides an excellent example: "Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity." Peter does not deny that from a human point of view the return of Jesus seems delayed; but that apparent delay is actually patience, allowing for repentance.

The statement that God does not want "anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance," has always created problems for certain theologians. Those who believe that God has chosen some to be saved (and not others) have trouble explaining why God wants all to be saved but has chosen only some. A standard response is to ask who is actually included by the words "anyone" and "everyone." Since Peter writes that God is patient "with you ," suggesting that some of his readers were in need of repentance, it is argued that Peter means "any of you" and "all of you." That is, God wants all those he has chosen to repent and therefore shows patience in sending Jesus. However, it must be noted that some are apparently in real danger of being caught unrepentant when Christ comes "as a thief in the night." And it is far from clear that "anyone" and "everyone" refer to God's chosen ones. For what sense does it make to say that God wants his saved ones to repent so they can be saved? Surely it is more reasonable to think that God wants everyone to repent and be saved.

As explained above, Peter does use the language of "election" in order to reassure his readers (see comments on 1:3). However, this letter as a whole tends to resonate better with a free-will doctrine rather than that of predestination.

3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

If Peter has hinted that God has delayed his promised activity (and that is debatable), he wants to ensure that all know that the delay will not last. The verb "will come" begins the sentence in Greek. Christ will return, and he will do so at an unexpected time.

The term "day of the Lord" is an Old Testament phrase, commonly used by the prophets to speak of the coming judgment against sinful people and salvation for the people of God. In the New Testament it is used, as here, to warn of the return of Christ (1 Thess 5:4; Rom 2:5). The fact that it "will come like a thief" is based on Jesus' use of this metaphor (see Matt 24:43; Luke 12:39). The idea is, of course, that the thief breaks into the house when he is unexpected. Here it has great importance because it is the answer to the question of the scoffers (v. 4). The passage of time has led them not to expect the Second Coming. They will be surprised by the one who will come like a thief.

The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Returning to the earlier teaching that all will be destroyed by fire, Peter envisions the "roar" of the flames that will consume "the heavens." Jesus spoke of the future passing away of the heavens and the earth (Matt 5:18; 24:35), and Peter most likely gets this teaching from him. He also clearly alludes to Isaiah 34:4: "All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine . . . ." Here "the heavens" probably refer to the physical heavens, most likely the sky, rather than the abode of God. "The elements" (stoicei'a, stoicheia ) are best understood to refer to the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars. The fact that they will "melt" (v. 12) seems to support this understanding. It also seems to recall Isaiah 34:4 with its dissolved stars.

After describing both areas above the earth (sky and space), Peter speaks of what will happen to the earth itself. Oddly, he writes that "the earth and everything in it will be laid bare ." Assuming that the image of a fiery destruction is still in Peter's mind, it is probable that he is writing about refinement, or purification by fire (see 1 Pet 1:7). The fire will determine what is pure and what is not. (Paul uses similar imagery in 1 Corinthians 3:13.)

3. Christian Living in Light of Christ's Return (3:11-13)

¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹² as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. ^a That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³ But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

^a 12 Or as you will wait eagerly for the day of God to come

After reminding them of the coming destruction of the ungodly, Peter now calls on his readers to live in light of the future. His message is not only about fear of punishment but is also about the joy of the new heaven and new earth.

3:11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives

The use of rhetorical questions has always been popular with those who call on others to do what is right. Peter not only asks the obvious question - he answers it. The thinking is the same as that of the prophets, Paul and most other New Testament writers, and Jesus (see especially the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-13). Since the world will be destroyed and the faithfulness of everyone will be clearly shown, Christians must live "holy" and "godly" lives. Both of these terms are plural in Greek, signifying the many holy behaviors and godly acts to which believers are called.

3:12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.

A focus on the eternal future that begins with the return of Jesus provides motivation for Christian living. What is most encouraging about this verse is that it moves beyond simply using fear of judgment as motivation. Peter calls on all his readers to anticipate eagerly the "day of God" and even to hasten its coming. The "day of God" is obviously the day of judgment, the Second Coming of Christ, the end of the present world. But what does it mean to "speed its coming?" The word for "speed" could be simply a synonym for "look forward to," but it probably means more here. Peter has just written about God's patient waiting which is motivated by his desire to give people the time to repent. It is likely therefore that holy living is understood here to hasten the coming of Jesus. Luke records Peter speaking in a similar way in Acts 3:19-20: "Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ . . . ."

That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.

Rehearsing what he has just written in verse 10, Peter writes that the day of God will be horrible and wonderful. It is unclear whether the phrase, "the heavens," refers to the sky or outer space or both. The "elements" are surely the stars, and they will "melt in the heat" (as in verse 10, see Isaiah 34:4).

3:13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

God's promise is not only that this world and its wickedness will be destroyed. It is also that the new world will be "the home of righteousness." While lazy and discouraged Christians may need to be reminded of the coming punishment of the sinful, the greater motivation for Christians is God's promise of life with him. Peter borrows from Isaiah in order to express this future period. In Isaiah 65:17, God says, "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth." The picture is one in which sin has been conquered, and God's will is being done.

When many Christians think about eternal life, the thought is only of "heaven." Here Peter envisions not only a new heaven but also a new earth, presumably the dwelling place of God's people. Even though the picture of eternal life with God is necessarily fuzzy, it should be remembered that Christians look forward to the resurrection of the body and the redemption and renewal of the creation, which has been subjected to frustration (Rom 8:20).

III. FINAL EXHORTATIONS (3:14-18)

¹⁴ So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵ Bear 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. ¹⁶ He 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.

¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

Although it is arguable that the conclusion to the letter does not begin until verse 17, the repetitive nature of these verses may suggest that Peter is now summing up his practical advice. He also returns to the wording of the beginning of the letter, when he writes about the "knowledge of our Lord" (see 1:3) and their need to "make every effort" (see 1:5). Finally, he seems to mark the conclusion by the use of "so then, dear friends" in verse 14. The use of the similar "therefore, dear friends" in verse 17 serves to return to concluding remarks after the parenthetical statements about Paul.

3:14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

After his third reference to these Christians as "loved ones" (NIV "dear friends"), Peter calls to their mind what he has just told them about the new heavens and earth. He reminds them that they will only enjoy this wonderful existence if they "make every effort," echoing his words in 1:5. There he called them to goodness, knowledge, self-control, and the like. Here he calls them to "be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him." It is, of course, by the exercise of the former virtues that they will at the judgment be found innocent. There is apparently a legal metaphor at work here, that of a trial before a judge. There is also the background of the sacrificial system, in which only the animals "without spot or blemish" are accepted. (The careful reader remembers that the false teachers are "blots and blemishes," according to 2:13.) The terms "spotless" and "blameless" refer to being without sin. The desire to be "at peace" most likely refers to the relationship with God that comes from having sins forgiven in Christ and living in light of that forgiveness.

3:15 Bear 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.

Peter repeats again the important teaching that the so-called delay of the return of Jesus is due to God's patient desire for people to repent and therefore receive "salvation." Peter then alludes to the teaching of Paul, perhaps to remind these Christians that the false teachers stand not only against Peter but also against the apostle Paul. This probably implies that Paul was well known and respected among the Christians who received this letter. He was also loved by Peter and by others (perhaps these readers or other apostles), as indicated in the description "our dear ["loved," ajgaphtov", agapçtos] brother Paul." Peter may mean that Paul wrote specifically to these people ("Paul also wrote you"), in which case they would naturally think of Paul as dear or beloved.

Peter acknowledges the already common belief that Paul's "wisdom" came from God. This acceptance of Paul by Peter is one of the so-called proofs that Peter could not have written this letter. It is argued that Paul and Peter were on opposite sides in the early church, Peter representing a very Jewish approach and Paul a very non-Jewish approach. There certainly were some early troubles between these two over some matters (see Gal 2:11-14). However, there is every indication that these were quickly worked out and that Peter and Paul were of the same mind in all important areas. Not only does the book of Acts show Peter and Paul together at the Jerusalem council (Acts 15). They also were both helped by Silas (1 Pet 5:12; 1 Thess 1:1, etc.) and Mark (1 Pet 5:13; Col 4:10). The differences between Peter and Paul have been greatly overstated.

3:16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.

Peter acknowledges what all readers of Paul's letters know. In virtually every letter Paul calls his readers to a holy life, basing his exhortation on the coming of Christ. A typical example is Romans 13:11-13: "And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently . . . ."

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.

Having mentioned the letters of Paul, Peter now feels the need to deal with the fact that some are misusing Paul. That parts of Paul's letters are "hard to understand" would probably be agreed upon as quickly in the early church as in its modern counterpart. Not only did he write about specific situations which only the originally addressed church would fully comprehend, Paul also wrote things that were subject to misinterpretation. It is quite possible that the false teachers Peter opposed claimed Paul for their position. It could be that they misunderstood Paul's teachings on justification by faith and Christian freedom, using them to justify libertine behavior. Paul himself had to counter this misuse of his teaching (Rom 6:1-2, Gal 5:13). In the second century, Gnostic heretics regularly cited Paul's writings.

Peter accuses those who "distort" Paul's writings of being "ignorant" and "unstable." The terms probably refer to the false teachers and may also refer to those who follow them. There is no hint here that these people are excused on the basis of their ignorance and instability since they are willfully so (see 3:5). This too will contribute to their coming "destruction."

It is especially interesting that Peter writes of the distortion of Paul's letters along with "the other Scriptures." The implication is that the letters of Paul were already regarded as Scripture at the time Peter wrote. While many have dated 2 Peter into the second century on this basis, there is no compelling reason to do so. It is quite reasonable to think that the letters of the apostles were regarded as Scripture almost immediately. Paul claims to be inspired and authoritative in his letters, which may have been read during the assembly (see Col 4:16).

3:17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.

With the words, "Therefore, dear friends" (see 3:14), Peter returns to his concluding remarks after his aside about the letters of Paul. He has given them no new information in this letter but has rather "reminded them" (1:12; 3:1-2) of what they already knew from the prophets, apostles, and Jesus himself. They are to "be on guard," because the false teachers sound impressive (2:18-19) and because many will follow them (2:2). These men are "lawless," since their lack of moral constraint has led them into lust and greed (2:13-15).

Christians can be confident in their relationship with God ("secure position") by putting their complete confidence in Jesus and living in light of God's holiness. However, it is possible to "fall" from that high position by failing to strive for holiness. It is especially dangerous to be surrounded by people who are encouraging sinful living. Therefore Peter ends this letter as he began it, with an exhortation for spiritual growth (1:5-8; 3:18).

3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

The antidote to being "carried away" is to "grow in the grace and knowledge" of Christ. Peter described this process early in this letter by encouraging his readers to add to their faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (1:5-7). These are all gifts that can only come from the grace of God. However, only those who seek these gifts will receive them. The exhortation to "grow" means to "make every effort" (1:5).

One Christian virtue, knowledge, is singled out by Peter for special mention. Peter has already written several times of the importance of knowledge (1:2,3,8; 2:20). This is because the false teachers' fundamental error is a lack of knowledge. Their wrong thinking about the return of Christ has had disastrous consequences for their lives. Bad thinking leads to bad living. Correct thinking encourages right living.

Peter ends the letter with a doxology to Christ. Although many Jewish and Christian writings ended with doxologies, it is somewhat unusual to end a letter in this way (but see Philippians 4:20 and Romans 16:25-27). It is even more unusual to find a doxology to Jesus Christ rather than to God the Father (but see 2 Timothy 4:18 and Revelation 1:4-6). However, given Peter's very high view of Jesus (see comments on 1:1), it is not surprising.

"To him be glory" is a prayer that Jesus will be praised. The NIV translation "both now and forever" obscures the reference to "the day of the ages" in the original. Given the content of 2 Peter, the reference may be to the day that will begin with the Second Coming of Jesus.

Peter's final words provide a fitting prayer with which to end these comments on his letter: "Lord, may we continually grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: 2Pe 3:16

Never feel as though you have to be able to explain every Bible verse. Ever Peter admits that some things Paul wrote are hard to understand. In doing so, he also puts his seal of approval on the fact that Paul’s letters were not the mere writings of a man, but " Scriptures."

Evidence: 2Pe 3:18

" Bless O Lord the whole race of mankind, and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy Son, Jesus Christ." GEORGE WASHINGTON

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER

ABOUT a.d. 66 OR 67

By Way of Introduction

Most Doubtful New Testament Book

Every book in the New Testament is challenged by some one, as indeed the historicity of Jesus Christ himself is and the very existence of God. But it is true that more modern scholars deny the genuineness of 2 Peter than that of any single book in the canon. This is done by men like F. H. Chase, J. B. Mayor, and R. D. Strachan, who are followers of Christ as Lord and Saviour. One has to admit that the case concerning 2 Peter has problems of peculiar difficulty that call for careful consideration and balanced judgment. One other word needs to be said, which is that an adverse decision against the authenticity of 2 Peter stands by itself and does not affect the genuineness of the other books. It is easy to take an extreme position for or against it without full knowledge of all the evidence.

Slow in General Acceptance

It was accepted in the canon by the council at Laodicea (372) and at Carthage (397). Jerome accepted it for the Vulgate, though it was absent from the Peshito Syriac Version. Eusebius placed it among the disputed books, while Origen was inclined to accept it. Clement of Alexandria accepted it and apparently wrote a commentary on it. It is probable that the so-called Apocalypse of Peter (early second century) used it and the Epistle of Jude either used it or 2 Peter used Jude. There are undoubted allusions also to phrases in 2 Peter in Aristides, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Ignatius, Clement of Rome. When one considers the brevity of the Epistle, the use of it is really as strong as one can expect. Athanasius and Augustine accepted it as genuine, as did Luther, while Calvin doubted and Erasmus rejected it. It may be said for it that it won its way under criticism and was not accepted blindly.

Claims Petrine Authorship

Not only so, but in fuller form than 1Pe_1:1, for the writer terms himself " Simon (Symeon in some MSS.) Peter," a fact that has been used against the genuineness. If no claim had been made, that would have been considered decisive against him. Simon (Symeon was the Jewish form as used by James in Act_15:14) is the real name (Joh_1:42) and Peter merely the Greek for Cephas, the nickname given by Christ. There is no reason why both could not properly be employed here. But the claim to Petrine authorship, if not genuine, leaves the Epistle pseudonymous. That was a custom among some Jewish writers and even Christian writers, as the spurious Petrine literature testifies (Gospel of Peter, Apocalypse of Peter, etc.), works of a heretical or curious nature. Whatever the motive for such a pious fraud, the fact remains that 2 Peter, if not genuine, has to take its place with this pseudonymous literature and can hardly be deemed worthy of a place in the New Testament. And yet there is no heresy in this Epistle, no startling new ideas that would lead one to use the name of Simon Peter. It is the rather full of edifying and orthodox teaching.

And Personal Experiences of Peter

The writer makes use of his own contact with Jesus, especially at the Transfiguration of Christ (Mar_9:2-8; Mat_17:1-8; Luk_9:28-36). This fact has been used against the genuineness of the Epistle on the plea that the writer is too anxious, anyhow, to show that he is Symeon Peter (2Pe_1:1). But Bigg rightly replies that, if he had only given his name with no personal contacts with Jesus, the name would be called " a forged addition." It is possible also that the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration may have been suggested by Peter’s use of exodos for his own death (2Pe_1:15), the very word used by Luke (Luk_9:31) as the topic of discussion between Jesus and Moses and Elijah. There is also in 2Pe_1:13 the use of " tent" ( skēnoma ) for the life in the body, like Peter’s use of " tents" ( skēnas ) to Jesus at that very time (Mar_9:5; Mat_17:4; Luk_9:33). In 2Pe_1:14 Peter also refers to the plain words of Jesus about his coming death (Joh_21:18.). In 2Pe_1:15 Peter speaks of his own plan for preserving the knowledge of Jesus when he is gone (possibly by Mark’s Gospel). All this is in perfect keeping with Peter’s own nature.

And yet the Epistle Differs in Style from First Peter

This is a fact, though one greatly exaggerated by some scholars. There are many points of similarity, for one thing, like the habit of repeating words ( epichorēgeō in 2Pe_1:10, 2Pe_1:19, bebaios in 2Pe_1:12, 2Pe_1:13, 2Pe_1:15, prophēteia in 2Pe_1:20; 2Pe_3:3, etc.). These repetitions occur all through the Epistle as in 1 Peter. " This is a matter of very high importance" (Bigg). Again in both Epistles there is a certain dignity of style with a tendency to iambic rhythm. There is more quotation of the Old Testament in 1 Peter, but frequent allusion to words and phrases in 2 Peter. There are more allusions to words and facts in the Gospels in 1 Peter than in 2 Peter, though some do occur in 2 Peter. Besides those already given, note 2Pe_1:8 (Luk_13:7.), 2Pe_2:1 (Mat_10:33), 2Pe_2:20 (Mat_12:45; Luk_11:26), 2Pe_3:4 (Mat_24:1.), and possibly 2Pe_1:3 to Christ’s calling the apostles. Both appear to know and use the O.T. Apocrypha. Both are fond of the plural of abstract substantives. Both make sparing use of Greek particles. Both use the article similarly, idiomatically, and sometimes not using it. There are some 361 words in 1 Peter not in 2 Peter, 231 in 2 Peter not in 1 Peter. There are 686 hapax legomena in N.T., 54 in 2 Peter instead of the average of 62, a large number when the brevity of the Epistle is considered. There are several ways of explaining these variations. One way is to say that they are written by different men, but difference of subject has to be borne in mind. All writers and artists have an early and a later manner. Another solution is that Peter employed different amanuenses. Silvanus was the one for 1 Peter (1Pe_5:12). Mark was Peter’s usual interpreter, but we do not know who was the amanuensis for 2 Peter, if indeed one was used. We know from Act_4:13 that Peter and John were considered unlettered men ( agrammatoi kai idiōtai ). 2 Peter and the Apocalypse illustrate this statement. 2 Peter may have more of Peter’s real style than 1 Peter.

He Accepts Paul’s Epistles as Scripture

This fact (2Pe_3:15.) has been used as conclusive proof by Baur and his school that Peter could not have written the Epistle after the stern rebuke from Paul at Antioch (Gal_2:11.). But this argument ignores one element in Peter’s impulsive nature and that is his coming back as he did with Jesus. Paul after that event in Antioch spoke kindly of Peter (1Co_9:5). Neither Peter nor Paul cherished a personal grudge where the Master’s work was involved. It is also objected that Peter would not have put Paul’s Epistles on the level with the O.T. and call them by implication " Scripture." But Paul claimed the help of the Holy Spirit in his writings and Peter knew the marks of the Holy Spirit’s power. Besides, in calling Paul’s Epistles Scripture he may not have meant to place them exactly on a par with the Old Testament.

The Resemblance to the Epistle of Jude

This is undoubted, particularly between Jude and the second chapter of 2 Peter. Kuhl argues that 2 Peter 2:1-3:2 is an interpolation, though the same style runs through out the Epistle. " The theory of interpolation is always a last and desperate expedient" (Bigg). In 2 Peter 2 we have the fallen angels, the flood, the cities of the plain with Lot, Balaam. In Jude we have Israel in the wilderness, the fallen angels, the cities of the plain (with no mention of Lot, Cain, Balaam, Korah). Jude mentions the dispute between Michael and Satan, quotes Enoch by name. There is rather more freshness in Jude than in 2 Peter, though 2 Peter is more intelligible. Evidently one had the other before him, besides other material. Which is the earlier? There is no way to decide this point clearly. Every point is looked at differently and argued differently by different writers. My own feeling is that Jude was before (just before) 2 Peter, though it is only a feeling and not a conviction.

Anachronisms

It used to be said that it was impossible for 2 Peter to have been written in the first century, because it had the atmosphere of the second. But one fact is strongly against that argument. In 2Pe_3:8 occurs the quotation of Psa_90:4 about the thousand years without any chiliastic turn at all, a thing sure to happen in the second century after chiliasm had come to have such a swing. Peter’s use of it suits the first century, not the second. As a matter of fact, the false teachers described in 2 Peter suit the first century precisely if one recalls Paul’s troubles with the Judaizers in Galatia and Corinth and with the Gnostics in Colossae and Ephesus. " Every feature in the description of the false teachers and mockers is to be found in the apostolic age" (Bigg).

The Readers

The author says that this is his second Epistle to them (2Pe_3:1), and that means that he is writing to the saints in the five Roman provinces in Asia Minor to whom the first Epistle was sent (1Pe_1:1). Spitta and Zahn deny this on the ground that the two Epistles do not discuss the same subjects, surely a flimsy objection. Zahn even holds that 2 Peter precedes 1 Peter and that the Epistle referred to in 2Pe_3:1 has been lost. He holds that 2 Peter was addressed to the church in Corinth. He considers the readers to be Jews while 1 Peter was addressed to Gentiles. But " there is nothing in 2 Peter to differentiate its first readers from those of 1 Peter" (Bigg).

The Purpose

Certainly Peter is here concerned chiefly with the heresies of that general region in Asia Minor that so disturbed Paul (Colossians, Ephesians, Pastoral Epistles) and John (Gospel, Epistles, Apocalypse). Paul early foresaw at Miletus these wolves that would ravish the sheep (Act_20:29.). In 1 Peter he is concerned chiefly with the fiery persecutions that are upon them, but here with the heretics that threaten to lead them astray.

Balance of Probability

There are difficulties in any decision about the authorship and character of 2 Peter. But, when all things are considered, I agree with Bigg that the Epistle is what it professes to be by Simon Peter. Else it is pseudonymous. The Epistle more closely resembles the other New Testament books than it does the large pseudepigraphic literature of the second and third centuries.

The Date

If we accept the Petrine authorship, it must come before his death, which was probably a.d. 67 or 68. Hence the Epistle cannot be beyond this date. There are those who argue for a.d. 64 as the date of Peter’s death, but on insufficient grounds in my opinion.

JFB: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS.--If not a gross imposture, its own internal witness is unequivocal in its favor. It has Peter's name and apostleship in its heading: not only his surname, but his original name Simon, or Simeon, he thus, at the close of his life, reminding his readers who he originally was before his call. Again, in 2Pe 1:16-18, he mentions his presence at the Transfiguration, and Christ's prophecy of his death! and in 2Pe 3:15, his brotherhood with Paul. Again, in 2Pe 3:1, the author speaks of himself as author of the former Epistle: it is, moreover, addressed so as to include (but not to be restricted to) the same persons as the first, whom he presupposes to be acquainted with the writings of Paul, by that time recognized as "Scripture" (2Pe 3:15, "the long-suffering of God," compare Rom 2:4). This necessarily implies a late date, when Paul's Epistles (including Romans) already had become generally diffused and accepted as Scripture in the Church. The Church of the fourth century had, besides the testimony which we have of the doubts of the earlier Christians, other external evidence which we have not, and which, doubtless, under God's overruling providence, caused them to accept it. It is hard to understand how a book palpably false (as it would be if Peter be not the author) could have been accepted in the Canon as finally established in the Councils of Laodicea, A.D. 360 (if the fifty-ninth article be genuine), Hippo, and Carthage in the fourth century (393 and 397). The whole tone and spirit of the Epistle disprove its being an imposture. He writes as one not speaking of himself, but moved by the Holy Ghost (2Pe 1:21). An attempt at such a fraud in the first ages would have brought only shame and suffering, alike from Christians and heathen, on the perpetrator: there was then no temptation to pious frauds as in later times. That it must have been written in the earliest age is plain from the wide gulf in style which separates it and the other New Testament Scriptures from even the earliest and best of the post-apostolic period. DAILLE well says, "God has allowed a fosse to be drawn by human weakness around the sacred canon to protect it from all invasion."

Traces of acquaintance with it appear in the earliest Fathers. HERMAS [Similitudes, 6.4] (compare 2Pe 2:13), Greek, "luxury in the day . . . luxuriating with their own deceivings"; and [Shepherd, Vision 3.7], "They have left their true way" (compare 2Pe 2:15); and [Shepherd, Vision 4.3], "Thou hast escaped this world" (compare 2Pe 2:20). CLEMENT OF ROME, [Epistle to the Corinthians, 7.9; 10], as to Noah's preaching and Lot's deliverance, "the Lord making it known that He does not abandon those that trust in Him, but appoints those otherwise inclined to judgment" (compare 2Pe 2:5-7, 2Pe 2:9). IRENÆUS, A.D. 178 ("the day of the Lord is as a thousand years"), and JUSTIN MARTYR seem to allude to 2Pe 3:8. HIPPOLYTUS [On Antichrist], seems to refer to 2Pe 1:21, "The prophets spake not of their own private (individual) ability and will, but what was (revealed) to them alone by God." The difficulty is, neither TERTULLIAN, CYPRIAN, CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, nor the oldest Syriac (Peschito) version (the later Syriac has it), nor the fragment known as Muratori's Canon, mentions it. The first writer who has expressly named it is ORIGEN, in the third century (Homily on Joshua; also Homily 4 on Leviticus, and Homily 13 on Numbers), who names it "Scripture," quoting 2Pe 1:4; 2Pe 2:16; however (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.25]), he mentions that the Second Epistle was doubted by some. FIRMILIAN, bishop of Cappadocia, in Epistle to Cyrpian speaks of Peter's Epistles as warning us to avoid heretics (a monition which occurs in the Second, not the First Epistle). Now Cappadocia is one of the countries mentioned (compare 1Pe 1:1 with 2Pe 3:1) as addressed; and it is striking, that from Cappadocia we get the earliest decisive testimony. "Internally it claims to be written by Peter, and this claim is confirmed by the Christians of that very region in whose custody it ought to have been found" [TREGELLES].

The books disputed (Antilegomena), as distinguished from those universally recognized (Homologoumena), are Epistles Second Peter, James, Second and Third John, Jude, the Apocalypse, Epistle to Hebrews (compare EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.3,25]). The Antilegomena stand in quite a different class from the Spurious; of these there was no dispute, they were universally rejected; for example, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Revelation of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM (A.D. 348) enumerates seven Catholic Epistles, including Second Peter; so also GREGORY NAZIANZEN (A.D. 389), and EPIPHANIUS (A.D. 367). The oldest Greek manuscripts extant (of the fourth century) contain the Antilegomena. JEROME [On Illustrious Men], conjectured, from a supposed difference of style between the two Epistles, that Peter, being unable to write Greek, employed a different translator of his Hebrew dictation in the Second Epistle, and not the same as translated the First into Greek. Mark is said to have been his translator in the case of the Gospel according to Mark; but this is all gratuitous conjecture. Much of the same views pervade both Epistles. In both alike he looks for the Lord's coming suddenly, and the end of the world (compare 2Pe 3:8-10 with 1Pe 4:5); the inspiration of the prophets (compare 1Pe 1:10-12 with 2Pe 1:19-21; 2Pe 3:2); the new birth by the divine word a motive to abstinence from worldly lusts (1Pe 1:22; 1Pe 2:2; compare 2Pe 1:4); also compare 1Pe 2:9 with 2Pe 1:3, both containing in the Greek the rare word "virtue" (1Pe 4:17 with 2Pe 2:3).

It is not strange that distinctive peculiarities of STYLE should mark each Epistle, the design of both not being the same. Thus the sufferings of Christ are more prominent in the First Epistle, the object there being to encourage thereby Christian sufferers; the glory of the exalted Lord is more prominent in the Second, the object being to communicate fuller "knowledge" of Him as the antidote to the false teaching against which Peter warns his readers. Hence His title of redemption, "Christ," is the one employed in the First Epistle; but in the Second Epistle, "the Lord." Hope is characteristic of the First Epistle; full knowledge, of the Second Epistle. In the First Epistle he puts his apostolic authority less prominently forward than in the Second, wherein his design is to warn against false teachers. The same difference is observable in Paul's Epistles. Contrast 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; Phi 1:1, with Gal 1:1; 1Co 1:1. The reference to Paul's writings as already existing in numbers, and as then a recognized part of Scripture (2Pe 3:15-16), implies that this Epistle was written at a late date, just before Peter's death.

Striking verbal coincidences occur: compare 1Pe 1:19, end, with 2Pe 3:14, end; "His own," Greek, 2Pe 1:3, 2Pe 2:16; 2Pe 3:17 with 1Pe 3:1, 1Pe 3:5. The omission of the Greek article, 1Pe 2:13 with 2Pe 1:21; 2Pe 2:4-5, 2Pe 2:7. Moreover, two words occur, 2Pe 1:13, "tabernacle," that is, the body, and 2Pe 1:15, "decease," which at once remind us of the transfiguration narrative in the Gospel. Both Epistles refer to the deluge, and to Noah as the eighth that was saved. Though the First Epistle abounds in quotations of the Old Testament, whereas the Second contains none, yet references to the Old Testament occur often (2Pe 1:21; 2Pe 2:5-8, 2Pe 2:15; 2Pe 3:5-6, 2Pe 3:10, 2Pe 3:13). Compare Greek, "putting away," 1Pe 3:21, with 2Pe 1:14; Greek, "pass the time," 1Pe 1:17, with 2Pe 2:18; "walked in," 1Pe 4:3, with 2Pe 2:10; 2Pe 3:3; "called you," 1Pe 1:15; 1Pe 2:9; 1Pe 5:10, with 2Pe 1:3.

Moreover, more verbal coincidences with the speeches of Peter in Acts occur in this Second, than in the First Epistle. Compare Greek, "obtained," 2Pe 1:1 with Act 1:17; Greek, "godliness," 2Pe 1:6, with Act 3:12, the only passage where the term occurs, except in the Pastoral Epistles; and 2Pe 2:9 with Act 10:2, Act 10:7; "punished," 2Pe 2:9, with Act 4:21, the only places where the term occurs; the double genitive, 2Pe 3:2, with Act 5:32; "the day of the Lord," 2Pe 3:10, with Act 2:20, where only it occurs, except in 1Th 5:2.

The testimony of Jude, Jud 1:17-18, is strong for its genuineness and inspiration, by adopting its very words, and by referring to it as received by the churches to which he, Jude, wrote, "Remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts." Jude, therefore, must have written after Second Peter, to which he plainly refers; not before, as ALFORD thinks. No less than eleven passages of Jude rest on similar statements of Second Peter. Jud 1:2, compare 2Pe 1:2; Jud 1:4, compare 2Pe 2:1; Jud 1:6, compare 2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:7, compare 2Pe 2:6; Jud 1:8, compare 2Pe 2:10; Jud 1:9, compare 2Pe 2:11; Jud 1:11, compare 2Pe 2:15; Jud 1:12, compare 2Pe 2:17; Jud 1:16, compare 2Pe 2:18; Jud 1:18, compare 2Pe 2:1; 2Pe 3:3. Just in the same way Micah, Mic 4:1-4, leans on the somewhat earlier prophecy of Isaiah, whose inspiration he thereby confirms. ALFORD reasons that because Jude, in many of the passages akin to Second Peter, is fuller than Second Peter, he must be prior. This by no means follows. It is at least as likely, if not more so, that the briefer is the earlier, rather than the fuller. The dignity and energy of the style is quite consonant to what we should expect from the prompt and ardent foreman of the apostles. The difference of style between First and Second Peter accords with the distinctness of the subjects and objects.

THE DATE, from what has been said, would be about A.D. 68 or 69, about a year after the first, and shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem, the typical precursor of the world's end, to which 2Pe 3:10-13 so solemnly calls attention, after Paul's ministry had closed (compare Greek aorist tense, "wrote," past time, 2Pe 3:15), just before Peter's own death. It was written to include the same persons, and perhaps in, or about the same place, as the first. Being without salutations of individuals, and entrusted to the care of no one church, or particular churches as the first is, but directed generally "to them that have obtained like precious faith with us" (2Pe 1:1), it took a longer time in being recognized as canonical. Had Rome been the place of its composition or publication, it could hardly have failed to have had an early acceptance--an incidental argument against the tradition of Peter's martyrdom at Rome. The remote scene of its composition in Babylon, or else in some of the contiguous regions beyond the borders of the Roman empire, and of its circulation in Cappadocia, Pontus, &c., will additionally account for its tardy but at last universal acceptance in the catholic Church. The former Epistle, through its more definite address, was earlier in its general acceptance.

OBJECT.--In 2Pe 3:17-18 the twofold design of the Epistle is set forth; namely, to guard his readers against "the error" of false teachers, and to exhort them to grow in experimental "knowledge of our Lord and Saviour" (2Pe 3:18). The ground on which this knowledge rests is stated, 2Pe 1:12-21, namely, the inspired testimony of apostles and prophets. The danger now, as of old, was about to arise from false teachers, who soon were to come among them, as Paul also (to whom reference is made, 2Pe 3:15-16) testified in the same region. The grand antidote is "the full knowledge of our Lord and Saviour," through which we know God the Father, partake of His nature, escape from the pollutions of the world, and have entrance into Christ's kingdom. The aspect of Christ presented is not so much that of the past suffering, as of the future reigning, Saviour, His present power, and future new kingdom. This aspect is taken as best fitted to counteract the theories of the false teachers who should "deny" His Lordship and His coming again, the two very points which, as an apostle and eye-witness, Peter attests (His "power" and His "coming"); also, to counteract their evil example in practice, blaspheming the way of truth, despising governments, slaves to covetousness and filthy lusts of the flesh, while boasting of Christian freedom, and, worst of all, apostates from the truth. The knowledge of Christ, as being the knowledge of "the way of righteousness," "the right way," is the antidote of their bad practice. Hence "the preacher" of righteousness, Noah, and "righteous Lot," are instanced as escaping the destruction which overtook the "unjust" or "unrighteous"; and Balaam is instanced as exemplifying the awful result of "unrighteousness" such as characterized the false teachers. Thus the Epistle forms one connected whole, the parts being closely bound together by mutual relation, and the end corresponding with the beginning; compare 2Pe 3:14, 2Pe 3:18 with 2Pe 1:2, in both "grace" and "peace" being connected with "the knowledge" of our Saviour; compare also 2Pe 3:17 with 2Pe 1:4, 2Pe 1:10, 2Pe 1:12; and 2Pe 3:18, "grow in grace and knowledge," with the fuller 2Pe 1:5-8; and 2Pe 2:21; and 2Pe 3:13, "righteousness," with 2Pe 1:1; and 2Pe 3:1 with 2Pe 1:13; and 2Pe 3:2 with 2Pe 1:19.

The germs of Carpocratian and Gnostic heresies already existed, but the actual manifestation of these heresies is spoken of as future (2Pe 2:1-2, &c.): another proof that this Epistle was written, as it professes, in the apostolic age, before the development of the Gnostic heresies in the end of the first and the beginning of the second centuries. The description is too general to identify the heresies with any particular one of the subsequent forms of heresy, but applies generally to them all.

Though altogether distinct in aim from the First Epistle, yet a connection may be traced. The neglect of the warnings to circumspection in the walk led to the evils foretold in the Second Epistle. Compare the warning against the abuse of Christian freedom, 1Pe 2:16 with 2Pe 2:19, "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption"; also the caution against pride, 1Pe 5:5-6 with 2Pe 2:18, "they speak great swelling words of vanity."

JFB: 2 Peter (Outline)

• ADDRESS: EXHORTATION TO ALL GRACES, AS GOD HAS GIVEN US, IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST, ALL THINGS PERTAINING TO LIFE: CONFIRMED BY THE TESTIMONY OF APOSTLES, AND ALSO PROPHETS, TO THE POWER AND COMING OF CHRIST. (2Pe. 1:1-21)
• FALSE TEACHERS TO ARISE: THEM BAD PRACTICES AND SURE DESTRUCTION, FROM WHICH THE GODLY SHALL BE DELIVERED, AS LOT WAS. (2Pe. 2:1-22)
• SURENESS OF CHRIST'S COMING, AND ITS ACCOMPANIMENTS, DECLARED IN OPPOSITION TO SCOFFERS ABOUT TO ARISE. GOD'S LONG SUFFERING A MOTIVE TO REPENTANCE, AS PAUL'S EPISTLES SET FORTH; CONCLUDING EXHORTATION TO GROWTH IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST. (2Pe. 3:1-18)

TSK: 2 Peter 3 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

2Pe 3:1, He assures them of the certainty of Christ’s coming to judgment, against those scorners who dispute against it; 2Pe 3:8, warning the godly, for the long patience of God, to hasten their repentance; 2Pe 3:10, He describes also the manner how the world shall be destroyed; 2Pe 3:11, exhorting them, from the expectation thereof, to all holiness of life; 2Pe 3:16, and again to think the patience of God to tend to their salvation, as Paul wrote to them in his epistles.

Poole: 2 Peter 3 (Chapter Introduction)

PETER CHAPTER 3

MHCC: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

This epistle clearly is connected with the former epistle of Peter. The apostle having stated the blessings to which God has called Christians, exhorts those who had received these precious gifts, to endeavour to improve in graces and virtues. They are urged to this from the wickedness of false teachers. They are guarded against impostors and scoffers, by disproving their false assertions, 2Pe 3:1-7, and by showing why the great day of Christ's coming was delayed, with a description of its awful circumstances and consequences; and suitable exhortations to diligence and holiness are given.

MHCC: 2 Peter 3 (Chapter Introduction)

(2Pe 3:1-4) The design here is to remind of Christ's final coming to judgement.

(2Pe 3:5-10) He will appear unexpectedly, when the present frame of nature will be dissolved by fire.

(2Pe 3:11-18) From thence is inferred the need for holiness, and stedfastness in the faith.

Matthew Henry: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Second Epistle General of Peter

The penman of this epistle appears plainly to be the same who wrote the foregoing; and, whatever difference some learned men apprehend they discern in the style of this epistle from that of the former, this cannot be a sufficient argument to assert that it was written by Simon who succeeded the apostle James in the church at Jerusalem, inasmuch as he who wrote this epistle calls himself Simon Peter, and an apostle (2Pe 1:1), and says that he was one of the three apostles that were present at Christ's transfiguration (2Pe 1:18), and says expressly that he had written a former epistle to them, 2Pe 3:1. The design of this second epistle is the same with that of the former, as is evident from the first verse of the third chapter, whence observe that, in the things of God, we have need of precept upon precept, and line upon line, and all little enough to keep them in remembrance; and yet these are the things which should be most faithfully recorded and frequently remembered by us.

Matthew Henry: 2 Peter 3 (Chapter Introduction)

The apostle drawing towards the conclusion of his second epistle, begins this last chapter with repeating the account of his design and scope in writing a second time to them (2Pe 3:1-2). II. He proceeds to mention one thing that induced him to write this second epistle, namely, the coming of scoffers, whom he describes (2Pe 3:3-7). III. He instructs and establishes them in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to judgment (2Pe 3:8-10). IV. He sets forth the use and improvement which Christians ought to make of Christ's second coming, and that dissolution and renovation of things which will accompany that solemn coming of our Lord (2Pe 3:11-18).

Barclay: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND LETTER OF PETER

The Neglected Book And Its Contents

Second Peter is one of the neglected books of the New Testament. Very few people will claim to have read it, still less to have studied it in detail. E. F. Scott says "it is far inferior in every respect to First Peter"; and goes on "it is the least valuable of the New Testament writings." It was only with the greatest difficulty that Second Peter gained entry into the New Testament, and for many years the Christian Church seemed to be unaware of its existence. But, before we approach its history, let us look at its contents.

The Lawless Men

Second Peter was written to combat the beliefs and activities of certain men who were a threat to the Church. It begins by insisting that the Christian is a man who has escaped from the corruption of the world (2Pe_1:4 ) and must always remember that he has been purged of his old sins (2Pe_1:9 ). There is laid upon him the duty of moral goodness, which culminates in the great Christian virtue of love (2Pe_1:5-8 ).

Let us set out the characteristics of the men whom Second Peter rebukes. They twist Scripture to make it suit their own purpose (2Pe_1:20 ; 2Pe_3:16 ). They bring the Christian faith into disrepute (2Pe_2:2 ). They are covetous of gain and exploiters of their fellow-men (2Pe_2:3 ; 2Pe_2:14-15 ). They are doomed and will share the fate of the sinning angels (2Pe_2:4 ), the men before the Flood (2Pe_2:5 ), the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah (2Pe_2:6 ), and the false prophet Balaam (2Pe_2:15 ). They are bestial creatures, ruled by their brute instincts (2Pe_2:12 ), and dominated by their lusts (2Pe_2:10 ; 2Pe_2:18 ). Their eyes are full of adultery (2Pe_2:14 ). They are presumptuous, self-willed and arrogant (2Pe_2:10 , 2Pe_2:18 ). They spend even the daylight hours in unrestrained and luxurious revelry (2Pe_2:13 ). They speak of liberty but what they call liberty is unbridled licence and they themselves are the slaves of their own lusts (2Pe_2:19 ). Not only are they deluded, they also delude others and lead them astray (2Pe_2:14 ; 2Pe_2:18 ). They are worse than those who never knew the right, because they knew what goodness is and have relapsed into evil, like a dog returning to its vomit and a sow returning to the mud after it has been washed (2Pe_2:20-22 ).

It is clear that Peter is describing antinomians, men who used Godgrace as a justification for sinning. In all probability they were Gnostics, who said that only spirit was good and that matter was essentially evil and that, therefore, it did not matter what we did with the body and that we could glut its appetites and it made no difference. They lived the most immoral lives and encouraged others to do so; and they justified their actions by perverting grace and interpreting Scripture to suit themselves.

The Denial Of The Second Coming

Further, these evil men denied the Second Coming (2Pe_3:3-4 ). They argued that this was a stable world in which things remained unalterably the same, and that God was so dilatory that it was possible to assume that the Second Coming was never going to happen at all. The answer of Second Peter is that this is not a stable world; that it has, in fact, been destroyed by water in the Flood and that it will be destroyed by fire in the final conflagration (2Pe_3:5-7 ). What they regard as dilatoriness is in fact God withholding his hand in patience to give men still another chance to repent (2Pe_3:8-9 ). But the day of destruction is coming (2Pe_3:10 ). A new heaven and a new earth are on the way; therefore. goodness is an absolute necessity if a man is to be saved in the day of judgment (2Pe_3:11-14 ). With this Paul agrees, however difficult his letters may be to understand, and however false teachers deliberately misinterpret them (2Pe_3:15-16 ). The duty of the Christian is to stand fast, firmly founded in the faith, and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ (2Pe_3:17-18 ).

The Doubts Of The Early Church

Such are the contents of the letter. For long it was regarded with doubt and with something very like misgiving. There is no trace of it until after A.D. 200. It is not included in the Muratorian Canon Of A.D. 170 which was the first official list of New Testament books. It did not exist in the Old Latin Version of the Scriptures; nor in the New Testament of the early Syrian Church.

The great scholars of Alexandria either did not know it or were doubtful about it. Clement of Alexandria, who wrote outlines of the books of Scripture, does not appear to have included Second Peter. Origen says that Peter left behind one epistle which is generally acknowledged; "perhaps also a second, for it is a disputed question." Didymus commented on it, but concluded his work by saying: "It must not be forgotten that this letter is spurious; it may be read in public; but it is not part of the canon of Scripture."

Eusebius, the great scholar of Caesarea, who made a careful investigation of the Christian literature of his day, comes to the conclusion: "Of Peter, one Epistle, which is called his former Epistle, is acknowledged by all; of this the ancient presbyters have made frequent use in their writings as indisputably genuine; but that which is circulated as his second Epistle we have received to be not canonical although, since it appeared to be useful to many, it has been diligently read with the other Scriptures."

It was not until well into the fourth century that Second Peter came to rest in the canon of the New Testament.

The Objections

It is the well-nigh universal judgment of scholars, both ancient and modern, that Peter is not the author of Second Peter. Even John Calvin regarded it as impossible that Peter could have spoken of Paul as Second Peter speaks of him (2Pe_3:15-16 ), although he was willing to believe that someone else wrote the letter at Peterrequest. What, then, are the arguments against Peterauthorship?

(i) There is the extreme slowness, and even reluctance, of the early church to accept it. If it had been truly Peter there can be little doubt that the Church would have welcomed and honoured it from the first. But the case was very different. For the first two centuries the letter is never quoted at all in any certain instance; it is regarded with doubt and suspicion for more than another century; and only late in the fourth century is it accepted.

(ii) The contents make it difficult to believe that it is Peter There is no mention of the Passion, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus Christ; no mention of the Church as the true Israel; no mention of that faith which is undefeatable hope and trust combined; no mention of the Holy Spirit, of prayer, of baptism; and no passionate desire to call men to the supreme example of Jesus Christ. If one took away these great verities from First Peter there would be little or nothing left, and yet none of them occurs in Second Peter.

(iii) It is wholly different in character and style from First Peter. This was realized as early as Jerome who wrote: "Simon Peter wrote two Epistles which are called Catholic, of which the authenticity of the second is denied by many because of the difference of the style from the first." The Greek style of this letter is very difficult. Clogg calls it ambitious, artificial and often obscure, and remarks that it is the only book in the New Testament which is improved by translation. Bishop Chase writes: "The Epistle does produce the impression of being a somewhat artificial piece of rhetoric. It shows throughout signs of self-conscious effort. The author appears to be ambitious of writing in a style which is beyond his literary power." He concludes that it is hard to reconcile the literary character of this letter with the supposition that Peter wrote it. Moffatt says: "Second Peter is more periodic and ambitious than First Peter, but its linguistic and its stylistic efforts only reveal by their cumbrous obscurity a decided inferiority of conception, which marks it off from First Peter."

It might be claimed, as Jerome claimed, that, while Peter used Silvanus for First Peter, he used a different amanuensis for Second Peter and that this explains the change in style. But J. B. Mayor compares the two letters. He quotes some of the great passages of First Peter and then says: "I think that none who read these words can help feeling that, not even in Paul, not even in John, is there to be found a more beautiful or a more living description of the secret of primitive Christianity, of the force that overcame the world, than in the perfect quaternion of faith and hope and love and joy, which pervades this short epistle (i.e. First Peter). No one could make the same assertion with regard to Second Peter: thoughtful and interesting as it is, it lacks that intense sympathy, that flame of love, which marks First Peter.... No change of circumstances can account for the change of tone of which we are conscious in passing from one epistle to the other." It is the conclusion of that great and conservative scholar that no explanation, other than difference of authorship, can explain, not so much the difference in style as the difference in atmosphere between First and Second Peter. It is true that from the purely linguistic point of view there are 369 words which occur in First Peter which do not occur in Second Peter; and there are 230 words which occur in Second Peter and not in First Peter. But there is more than a difference in style. A writer can change his style and his vocabulary to suit his audience and his occasion. But the difference between the two letters in atmosphere and attitude is so wide that it is hardly possible that the same person should have written both.

(iv) Certain things within Second Peter point well-nigh irresistibly to a late date. So much time has passed that men have begun to abandon hope of the Second Coming altogether (2Pe_3:4 ). The apostles are spoken of as figures of the past (2Pe_3:2 ). The fathers, that is the founders of the Christian faith, are now figures of the almost dim and distant past; there have been generations between this letter and the first coming of the Christian faith (2Pe_3:4 ).

There are references which require the passing of the years to explain them. The reference to Peterapproaching death looks very like a reference to Jesusrophecy in Joh_21:18-19 , and the Fourth Gospel was not written until about A.D. 100. The statement that Peter is going to leave something which will continue his teaching after he has gone looks very like a reference to MarkGospel (Mar_1:12-14 ).

Above all there is the reference to the letters of Paul (2Pe_3:15-16 ). From this it is quite certain that Paulletters are known and used throughout all the Church; they are public property, and furthermore they are regarded as Scripture and on a level with "the other Scriptures" (2Pe_3:16 ). It was not until at least A.D. 90 that these letters were collected and published, and it would take many years for them to acquire the position of sacred Scripture. It is practically impossible that anyone should write like this until midway through the second century A.D.

All the evidence converges to prove that Second Peter is a late book. It is not until the third century that it is quoted. The great scholars of the early church did not regard it as Peteralthough they did not question its usefulness. The letter has references which require the passing of the years to explain them. The great interest of Second Peter lies in the very fact that it was the last book in the New Testament to be written and the last to gain entry into the New Testament.

In PeterName

How, then, did it become attached to the name of Peter? The answer is that it was deliberately attached. This may seem to us a strange proceeding but in the ancient world this was common practice. Platoletters were written not by Plato but by a disciple in the mastername. The Jews repeatedly used this method of writing. Between the Old and the New Testament, books were written under the names of Solomon, Isaiah, Moses, Baruch, Ezra, Enoch and many another. And in New Testament times there is a whole literature around the name of Peter--The Gospel of Peter, The Preaching of Peter, The Apocalypse of Peter.

One salient fact makes this method of writing even more intelligible. The heretics used it. They issued misleading and pernicious books under the names of the great apostles, claiming that they were the secret teaching of the great founders of the Church handed down by word of mouth to them. Faced with this, the Church retaliated in kind and issued books in which men set down for their own generation the things they were quite sure that the apostles would have said had they been facing this new situation. There is nothing either unusual or discreditable in a book being issued under the name of Peter although Peter did not write it. The writer in humility was putting the message which the Holy Spirit had given him into the mouth of Peter because he felt his own name was unworthy to appear upon the book.

We will not find Second Peter easy to read; but it is a book of first-rate importance because it was written to men who were undermining the Christian ethic and the Christian doctrine and who had to be stopped before the Christian faith was wrecked by their perversion of the truth.

FURTHER READING

2 Peter

C. Bigg, St. Peter and St. Jude (ICC; G)

C. E. B. Cranfield, 1 and 2 Peter and Jude (Tch; E)

J. B. Mayor, The Second Epistle of St. Peter and the Epistle of St. Jude (MmC; G)

J. Moffatt, The General Epistles: James, Peter and Jude (MC; E)

Abbreviations

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC : Moffatt Commentary

MmC: Macmillan Commentary

NCB: New Century Bible

Tch: Torch Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: 2 Peter 3 (Chapter Introduction)

The Principles Of Preaching (2Pe_3:1-2)

The Denial Of The Second Coming (2Pe_3:3-4)

Destruction By Flood (2Pe_3:5-6)

Destruction By Fire (2Pe_3:7)

The Mercy Of God's Delay (2Pe_3:8-9)

The Dreadful Day (2Pe_3:10)

The Moral Dynamic (2Pe_3:11-14)

Hastening The Day (2Pe_3:11-14 Continued)

Perverters Of Scripture (2Pe_3:15-16)

A Firm Foundation And A Continual Growth (2Pe_3:17-18)

Constable: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical Background

This epistle claims that the Apostle Peter wrote it (1:1). It also claims to follow a former letter by Peter (3:1) that appears to be a reference to 1 Peter, though Peter may have been referring to a letter we no longer have. The author's reference to the fact that Jesus had predicted a certain kind of death for him (1:14) ties in with Jesus' statement to Peter recorded in John 21:18.

The earliest external testimony (outside Scripture) to Petrine authorship comes from the third century.¹ The writings of the church fathers contain fewer references to the Petrine authorship of 2 Peter than to the authorship of any other New Testament book. It is easy to see why critics who look for reasons to reject the authority of Scripture have targeted this book for attack. Ironically in this letter Peter warned his readers of heretics who departed from the teaching of the apostles and the Old Testament prophets, which is the very thing these modern critics do. Perhaps that is another reason some contemporary teachers question its authenticity. Not all who reject Petrine authorship are false teachers, however. The arguments of these modern critics have convinced some otherwise conservative scholars who retain belief in the epistle's inspiration.

Regardless of the external evidence, there is strong internal testimony to the fact that Peter wrote the book.² This includes stylistic similarities to 1 Peter, similar vocabulary compared with Peter's sermons in Acts, and the specific statements already mentioned (i.e., 1:1, 14; 3:1). In addition, the writer claimed to have witnessed Jesus' transfiguration (1:16-18) and to have received information about his own death from Jesus (1:13-14; cf. John 21:18).

Assuming Peter's reference to his former letter (3:1) is to 1 Peter, he seems to have sent this epistle to the same general audience. That audience was primarily Gentile but also Jewish Christians living in northern Asia Minor (cf. 1 Pet. 1:1). The background of the readers and the situation they faced, as Peter described these, fit such an audience well.³

Peter's reference to his imminent departure from this life (1:13-15) suggests that the time of composition may have been just before Peter suffered martyrdom.⁴ The writings of church fathers place Peter's death at A.D. 67-68 in Rome.⁵ Consequently a date of composition about that time seems most likely. Early church tradition also says Peter spent the last decade of his life in Rome.

"Second Peter is the swan song of Peter, just as 2 Timothy is the swan song of Paul. There are striking similarities between the two books. Both epistles put up a warning sign along the pilgrim pathway the church is traveling to identify the awful apostasy that was on the way at the time and which in our time has now arrived. What was then like a cloud the size of a man's hand today envelops the sky and produces a storm of hurricane proportions. Peter warns of heresy among teachers; Paul warns of heresy among the laity."⁶

The similarities between 2 Peter 2 and the Book of Jude, especially Jude 4-18, have raised several questions. Did Peter have access to Jude's epistle, or did Jude have a copy of 2 Peter? Which book came first? Did one man use the other's material, or did both draw from a common source? The commentators and writers of New Testament introductions deal with these questions thoroughly. See them for further explanations.⁷

Suffice it to say that the church through the ages has recognized the end product of both 2 Peter and Jude as epistles that God inspired. As far as which came first, we may never know for sure until we get to heaven. The consensus among scholars now is that Jude probably wrote before Peter (or his agent) composed 2 Peter.⁸ I tend to favor the priority of 2 Peter as do many conservative authorities.⁹

"Most scholars, in fact, date 2 Peter in the early part of the second century and consider it the last New Testament book to have been written. The author's claim to Petrine authorship, therefore, is part of the phenomenon of pseudonymity' in the ancient world, whereby the authority and tradition of a revered religious figure were attributed to a later work by an anonymous author."¹⁰

This quotation reflects the majority of scholarly opinion but not the conviction of many conservatives including myself.

"The purpose of 2 Peter is to call Christians to spiritual growth so that they can combat apostasy as they look forward to the Lord's return."¹¹

Message¹²

Peter wrote this epistle, as he did 1 Peter, to establish believers in their faith. He wrote both letters in obedience to Jesus' instructions to him to "strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:32). Both epistles contain reminders of fundamental Christian teaching. Both evidently went to the same audience (2 Pet. 3:1). Both deal with how to handle various kinds of trials among other things, suffering in 1 Peter and false teachers in 2 Peter. Both also emphasize God's grace.

The differences between these two epistles are also significant.

The first epistle ends, "Stand firm in it [grace]" (5:12). Its theme is the sufficiency of God's grace. We need to stand fast in grace as Christians.

The second epistle ends, "Grow in grace" (3:18). Its theme is the responsibility of grace. We also need to keep growing in grace. This letter builds on the first. We do not only need to stand fast in grace, but we also need to keep growing in it.

We could state the message of the book therefore as follows: fulfill your responsibilities as recipients of the true grace of God. The message of 1 Peter was, "Stand firm in the true grace of God."

Let me identify the major revelations of this letter.

First, as recipients of God's grace we have resources that create responsibilities. Peter emphasized two of our resources.

Our first resource is the power of God (1:3). God's power grants us everything we need for godly living. Godly living becomes possible when we come to know God by saving faith. We grow in our knowledge of God as we get to know Him better through study of the Scriptures. We also do so as we respond to our increasing knowledge of Him properly by abiding in Him.

One area of life that God's power transforms is our spiritual vitality, energy. God wants us to be vital Christians (John 10:10; cf. James). The opposite condition is to have no spiritual energy. God's power enables us to demonstrate His own "glory" by giving us spiritual vitality (1:3). Peter saw the glory of God manifested through Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (1:17). God wants to manifest His glory through every Christian (3:18). People can see God's glory in our spiritual vitality. The clearest illustration of spiritual vitality is Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry.

Another area of life that God's power transforms is our conduct, more specifically. By conduct I mean how we conduct ourselves in thought, word, and deed--what we do, and what we do not do. God wants us to be godly Christians as well as glorious Christians. He wants us to be virtuous as well as vital. The opposite condition is ungodly and unclean. The false teachers reflected the opposite condition, and Peter described their conduct quite fully in chapter 2. God's power enables us to demonstrate His own "excellence" by making us godly (1:3). Peter heard the excellence of God testified to on the Mount of Transfiguration when he heard God say of Jesus Christ, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Cf. 1:17-18). God wants to manifest His excellence through every Christian (cf. 1 Pet. 2:9). People can see God's excellence in our godly conduct.

The second resource Peter emphasized that every Christian has is the promises of God (1:4). God's promises grant us everything we need to realize our potential and to maintain our purity in godly living. These promises are "magnificent" because they are essentially great and wonderful. They are "precious" to us because they are gifts of our loving heavenly Father and because they are the keys to our realizing our potential and maintaining our purity.

One area of life that God's promises transforms is our character. God wants us to partake of His nature. We receive His nature (i.e., the Holy Spirit) initially when we believe His promise that Christ died for our sins. However, He wants us to partake of that nature fully in this life. When we do so, we realize our potential as the children of God. We do so by continuing to believe God's promises to us. As we began the Christian life by faith, we should continue to walk by faith (cf. James). Because the false teachers rejected the promises of God they failed to realize their potential as human beings. They did not become partakers of the divine nature.

Another area of life that God's promises transforms is, more specifically, our morality. Again we receive future deliverance from the penalty of sin by believing that Christ died for our sins. Nevertheless we also receive present deliverance from the power of sin by believing other of God's promises to us. For example, God promises us that sin will no longer have enslaving power over us (Rom. 6:14; cf. 1 Pet. 4:11; 5:11). He also promises us that He will give us a way of escape in temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). He also promises us that He will give us the desire and the ability to obey Him (Phil. 1:6). One of the promises that Peter emphasized especially in this epistle was the promise that Jesus Christ would return (3:4, 9, 13). He discussed this promise in 3:4-16. When Christ returns He will perfect us. God has given us many more promises. Relying on these is key to maintaining our purity as Christians. Because the false teachers rejected the promises of God, they failed to maintain moral purity. They did not escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

These then are the resources that create our responsibility: God's power within us, and God's promises in His Word. You can succeed in life and in ministry because you have these resources.

Next let us notice what Peter appealed to his readers to do in view of their resources. He called them to give diligence to two things.

First, we should diligently appropriate our resources (1:5-8). We do this be responding responsibly. We must respond by fulfilling our responsibility as well as by trusting God to fulfill His. We must exercise effort and self-discipline to develop qualities God wants to perfect within us (1:5-8). No one can become a strong Christian without self-discipline.

Second, we should diligently avoid our perils. We do this by remembering God's promises (1:9, 12-13; 3:1-2). Our tendency is to forget God's power and our responsibilities (1:9; 3:5). Our tendency is also to forget God's promises (3:4). Peter's concern was mainly that his readers not forget the promise of the Lord's return (3:9, 13). This promise should affect us by encouraging us to live pure lives (3:14). Because the false teachers chose to forget it, they failed to fulfill the responsibilities of God's grace. Scripture memorization and review are valuable activities because they help us remember God's promises.

These are the major revelations in the book. As recipients of God's grace we have resources that create responsibilities, namely God's power and promises. We also need to give diligence to our responsibilities of responding to God's power and remembering God's promises.

I would also like to point out some applications of this epistle's message to our lives.

First, God's resources do not free us from responsibility to cultivate godliness diligently. They increase that responsibility. The Christian life is a combination of trusting and toiling. We must balance these things. When we neglect either responsibility, we get into trouble (1:5). We are partners with God.

Our sanctification is a process in which we labor together with God.

We are responsible to trust and to obey, to exercise faith in God and to work. We frustrate the Holy Spirit's work of sanctifying us if we do not trust or if we do not obey. The Christian life is a lot like water skiing. We have to lean back and let God pull us out of the stuff that holds us down. However we also have to hold on to the rope, to keep following His leading. When we do both things He enables us to overcome. We can even fly over what formerly held us in its clutches.

Second, we should cultivate habits that will help us remember our resources: God's power and promises. One of the most important reasons we should read our Bibles regularly is that they remind us of things we need to remember. The same is true of memorizing Scripture, attending church services, and having fellowship with other Christians. Peter said it is better not to know Scripture than to forget it (2:21).

Third, God intended the promise of the Lord's return and the events that will follow to be important motivations for us. This is our hope. If we neglect the prophetic portions of Scripture, our motivation for godly living will sag (3:14).

Constable: 2 Peter (Outline)

Outline

I. Introduction 1:1-2

II. The condition of the Christian 1:3-11

A. The believer's resources 1:3-4

B. The believer's needs 1:5-9

C. The believer's adequacy 1:10-11

III. The authority for the Christian 1:12-21

A. The need for a reminder 1:12-15

B. The trustworthiness of the apostles' witness 1:16-18

C. The divine origin of Scripture 1:19-21

IV. The danger to the Christian 2:1-22

A. The characteristics of false teachers 2:1-3

B. The consequences of false teaching 2:4-10a

C. The conduct of false teachers 2:10b-19

D. The condemnation of false teachers 2:20-22

V. The prospect for the Christian 3:1-16

A. The purpose of this epistle 3:1-2

B. Scoffing in the last days 3:3-6

C. End-time events 3:7-10

D. Living in view of the future 3:11-16

VI. Conclusion 3:17-18

Constable: 2 Peter

2 Peter

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Strachan, R. H. "The Second Epistle General of Peter." In The Expositor's Greek Testament, 5 (1910):81-148. Edited by W. Robertson Nicoll. 5 vols. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1900-10.

Thiessen, Henry Clarence. Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962.

Thomas, W. H. Griffith. The Apostle Peter: Outline Studies in His Life, Character, and Writings. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1946.

Wheaton, David H. "2 Peter." In The New Bible Commentary, Revised. Third edition. Edited by Donald Guthrie and J. A. Motyer. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1970.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary. 2 vols. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1989.

Williams, Nathaniel Marshman. "Commentary on the Epistles of Peter." In An American Commentary on the New Testament. Reprint ed. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, n.d.

Witmer, John A. "The Truth about Error." Bibliotheca Sacra 124:495 (July-September 1967):248-53.

Wolston, W. T. P. Simon Peter: His Life and Letters. 2nd ed. London: James Nisbet and Co., 1896.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

THE

SECOND EPISTLE OF ST. PETER,

THE APOSTLE.

INTRODUCTION.

This epistle, though not at first received [by some Churches] as canonical, was acknowledged as such [by all Churches] about the end of the fourth age [century]. See Eusebuis, lib. iii. History of the Church, chap. iii.; St. Jerome, de Vir. Illust. Tillem. art. 33. The design, as it appears, Chap. i. 13. and Chap. iii. 1. was to give them admonitions and instructions against teachers of false doctrine, particularly against the Simonites. It seems to have been written a little before his martyrdom, about the year 66. (Witham) --- In this epistle St. Peter says, (Chap. iii.) "Behold this is the second epistle I write unto you:" and before, (Chap. i. 14.) "Being assured that the putting off of this my tabernacle is at hand." This shews that it was written a very short time before his martyrdom, which was about thirty-five years after our Lord's ascension. In this epistle he admonishes the faithful to be mindful of the great gifts they received from God, and to join all other virtues with their faith. He warns them against false teachers, by describing their practices and foretelling their punishments. He describes the dissolution of this world by fire, and the day of judgment. (Challoner) --- This epistle may be considered as the spiritual testament or last will of the apostle, as it contains his last admonitions to the faithful. He first calls their attention to the care they should have of their sanctification and perfection, next to the perils that concern the Church one the part of heretics, those that menaced her in her infant state, and those that will assail her in the latter days, which includes an invincible proof of her perpetuity; for is is the same infallible and indefectible Church that is to encounter the latter as the former trials, but always with promised success. Hence the great St. John Chrysostom says: the same day that shall see the Church of God ended, shall see the end of the world; and to these continued struggles shall succeed perfect peace, to be enjoyed through a blissful eternity. If some are still found to object, that the present epistle was not written by St. Peter, on account of the marked difference of the style, St. Jerome removes this objection thus: St. Peter employed different interpreters, sometimes Glaucias, and sometimes St. Mark; hence the difference of the style, from the diversity of his scribes. St. Mark was with him when he penned the first, but was not with him when he dictated the present. The present epistle contains, as we said above, an account of the last dreadful trials that are to assail the faithful before the end of time; but all that faith teaches us on that subject is: first, That the world will have an end; secondly, that it will end by fire; and thirdly, that the world will not be destroyed, but changed and perfected. Hence all that is said with regard to the duration of the world; on the nature and quality of the fire that is to burn and purify the world; if it be to precede or follow the last judgment, all is problematical, all is doubtful. Hence the Christian knows a good deal, who knows how to entertain proper doubts.

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Gill: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 2 PETER

Though there was, among the ancients, a doubt concerning the authority of this epistle, which is first mentioned by Origen ^a, and afterwards by Eusebius ^b and Jerom ^c, yet it prevailed not among the churches, nor hindered the diligent reading and use of it, together with other Scriptures; it appearing to be useful and profitable, as Eusebius declares; and in process of time this doubt was entirely removed, and it was universally received by fathers and councils into the canon of the Scriptures, where it is justly retained, it having plain signatures of its divine original. Nor is there anything in it unworthy of so great an apostle, whose name it bears; but the whole of it is agreeable to the analogy of faith, to the rest of the sacred writings, particularly to the epistle of Jude, between which, and the second chapter of this, there is a great likeness. The only reason of the doubt of the genuineness of this epistle, and whether it was written by the Apostle Peter, is the difference of its style from the former; but the Holy Ghost, the dictator of the sacred writings, is not limited to a man's natural style, but could vary it as he pleased: besides, a man's style is not the same at different times, and when writing on different subjects; add to which, that this objection can only regard the second chapter, for the first and third agree with the former epistle. And some have thought that the second chapter is an extract out of some ancient Hebrew book, describing the characters of the old false prophets; which book Peter and Jude having before them, took the characters of the old prophets, and, under divine direction, applied them to the false teachers of the present age; and if so it is not to be wondered at that the style of the epistle should differ from the former, and even from itself in this part. But that it was written by the Apostle Peter, not only the inscription shows, which, if false, would indeed discredit the genuineness of the book, but the account that is given of the writer of it, as one that was with Christ at his transfiguration, 2Pe 1:16. Now there were only the three following disciples there, Peter, John, and, James. The last of these had been dead some time when this epistle was written, and it was never ascribed by any to the Apostle John, and therefore it remains that Peter must be the writer of it. As for Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, that succeeded James, whom Grotius would suggest as the author of it, the character does not agree with him; he was not with Christ on the holy mount, nor heard the voice from heaven, asserting the sonship of Christ, and the divine complacency in him: moreover, this epistle is called a "second epistle", 2Pe 3:1 and supposes a first, and manifestly refers to the former epistle of Peter's, about which there never was any doubt, as the authors before mentioned observe. It was written by the apostle in his old age, when upon the decline of life, just as he was about to put off his tabernacle, 2Pe 1:13 a little before his martyrdom, in the year 68, though Dr. Lightfoot places it in 66; and it is sent to the same persons as his first, namely, to the believing Jews scattered throughout several parts of Asia, he being the minister of the circumcision; see 1Pe 1:1 compared with 2Pe 3:1. The scope and design of it are, to put them upon a concern for a larger increase of grace and spiritual knowledge; to confirm and establish them in the present truth of the Gospel; to warn them against false teachers, which he largely describes; and he puts them in mind of the dissolution of all things, and of what will precede and follow it; from whence he draws several useful hints and inferences.

Gill: 2 Peter 3 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 2 PETER 3

In this chapter the apostle makes mention of the end and design of his writing this second epistle; foretells that there would be scoffers at the coming of Christ in the last days; describes the coming of Christ and the burning of the world; and closes with the use saints should make of these things. The end of his writing both this and the former epistle was to put the persons he writes unto in mind of the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel, delivered by the prophets and apostles, 2Pe 3:1; and then, agreeably to what the prophets had said, he predicts that there would be scoffers in the last day; who are described by their sinful course of life, and by their words, what they would say concerning the coming of Christ, and their reasoning about it, 2Pe 3:3; which arose from their ignorance of the creation of the heavens and the earth, and of the situation of them; and is refuted by showing that things have not remained as they were from the creation; that the earth standing in and out of the water, as it was capable of being overflowed with a flood, so it perished by one; and that the present heavens and earth are reserved and prepared for a general burning at the day of judgment, in which wicked men will be destroyed, 2Pe 3:5; but let these men scoff as they will, the length of time since the promise of Christ's coming was made should be no objection with the saints to the performance of it; since the longest term of time is nothing with God, however considerable it may be with men, 2Pe 3:8; besides, the reason of the coming of Christ being deferred, is not owing to any dilatoriness in the performance of the promise, but to the longsuffering of God towards his elect, being unwilling that anyone of them should be lost, but that all should be brought to repentance, 2Pe 3:9; but as for the coming of Christ, that is certain, and will be sudden; at which time will be the general conflagration, which is described in a very awful manner, 2Pe 3:10; and the use to be made of such a tremendous dispensation by the saints is to live a holy and godly conversation, 2Pe 3:11; to be eagerly looking for the coming of Christ, 2Pe 3:12, and to expect, according to his promise, new heavens and a new earth, in which will dwell righteous persons, 2Pe 3:13; and to be diligent to be found in peace at that day, 2Pe 3:14; and to account the longsuffering of God salvation; and the whole of this account, and the use of it, is strengthened by the testimony of the Apostle Paul, of whom, and of his epistles, a character is given, 2Pe 3:15; and the epistle is concluded with some cautions and exhortations to the saints, to beware lest they should be carried away with the errors of wicked men, and so fall from any degree of steadfastness in the faith; and to be concerned for a growth in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, to whom glory is to be ascribed for ever and ever, 2Pe 3:17.

College: 2 Peter (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THIS COMMENTARY

This commentary is written for serious students of the Bible, including Bible class teachers, preachers, college students, and other motivated readers. However, it is written on a popular rather than a scholarly level, so that readers need not be familiar with Greek or scholarly methods or jargon.

The goal is to help the modern reader to hear the message of 2 Peter as its first readers heard it. Our assumption is that we must know what it meant before we can know what it means . Peter wrote for a particular group of Christians facing a particular set of problems. The letter was therefore not written to us (although we believe that it was written for us). To be faithful to Peter's intent, we must attempt to place ourselves in the shoes of the earliest readers.

This is a difficult task for a couple of reasons. First, this "book" of the New Testament is a letter. This means we are reading someone else's mail. The problem is that both Peter and his readers knew the situation, so that Peter only makes allusions to what was going on. For example, we would like to know much more about the false teachers. However, Peter had no need to discuss in detail what both he and his readers already know. We are left to read between the lines in order to reconstruct the situation. Second, we are dealing with literature written in an ancient language to an ancient culture. They had a very different worldview, lived very different lifestyles, and practiced very different customs from those with which we are familiar.

Our task is therefore difficult, but it is not hopeless. We will never grasp the details of this letter exactly as the first readers did, but we can have confidence that we are understanding the larger picture. Greek scholars, historians, specialists in ancient Jewish and Christian literature, and others have spent countless hours studying this and other ancient documents. We are fortunate to stand on their shoulders.

Finally, we must mention the nature of this letter. Many dislike it because it is largely negative. After all, it is Peter's scathing denunciation of false teachers. Everyone prefers the message of grace to the message of judgment. However, it is sometimes necessary to expose error, even if the task is not enjoyable. This letter ought to remind Christians of the importance of guarding the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. As Peter makes painfully clear, bad doctrine leads to bad living, which leads to sure judgment. Christians must never shrink from the unpleasant task of fighting heresy.

The reader will quickly discover that I am greatly indebted to the fine commentaries of Douglas J. Moo and especially Richard Bauckham. Moo offers excellent comments from an evangelical perspective. Bauckham's detailed discussion of linguistic, historical, and literary matters is without equal. The reader is referred to his commentary in numerous footnotes simply because his discussion is the most thorough available.

AUTHORSHIP AND DATE

Second Peter claims to have been written by Simon Peter, the apostle of Jesus (1:1) and eyewitness to his transfiguration (1:16-18). Since he writes of his approaching death (1:14-15), Peter must have written this letter by the mid-60s of the first century A.D. (The tradition that Peter was martyred in Rome under the emperor Nero is probably reliable.)

A large number of modern scholars, however, are convinced that Peter could not have written this letter. In fact, this New Testament writing more than all others is believed to be pseudonymous (written under a false name). A number of reasons are given for this belief.

First, there is the language and style of the original Greek. Second Peter is written in elaborate Greek, often using rare and poetic terminology. Many believe that a Galilean Jew could not have written in this style. More significantly, 2 Peter is very much unlike 1 Peter. Most argue that the writer who wrote 1 Peter could not have written this letter. In response it must be admitted that this is an argument of some weight. However, conservative scholars are not convinced. First, no one can really know what Peter could and could not have written at different times in life and to different audiences. The style argument always involves considerable subjectivity. Second, many conservative commentators admit that the style of 2 Peter disallows thinking that Peter wrote it himself. They suggest that an amanuensis probably wrote the letter for Peter, as Silvanus may have done in 1 Peter (5:12). A trusted "secretary" may well have written Peter's thoughts in a different style from that of Peter.

A second argument against Petrine authorship is that even some of the early Christians had their doubts about this letter. The evidence is quite complex and difficult to analyze, but a few facts are fairly clear. Origen (3rd century) notes that 2 Peter was a disputed letter, although he believes that Peter wrote it. Eusebius (4th century) rejects its authenticity, although he suggests that the majority accepted it. Jerome (end of 4th century) writes that many rejected it because it was so unlike 1 Peter; yet he contends that Peter probably used two different amanuenses (secretaries). In response, it must again be granted that this is a substantive claim. More than any other New Testament book, 2 Peter was late in being universally accepted. However, evangelical scholars underscore the fact that it was accepted; and it was accepted at a time when a number of works falsely attributed to Peter were being rejected. The evidence from the early church is not unanimous, but it is clearly for the authenticity of 2 Peter.

A third argument for the pseudonymity of 2 Peter concerns the time references regarding the false teachers. At times the writer speaks of false teachers who will come, but at other times he makes it clear that they are already present. The argument is that the actual writer attempts to write as if Peter is predicting the future. In reality he betrays the fact that he is actually living during the times of the false teachers. In response, conservatives note that there are many possible reasons for the changing tenses. The possibility that the pseudonymous writer forgot to continue his fiction is not the most likely. Perhaps the false teachers had not arrived yet but were known because they were already present in other locations. The full discussion is found in the comments on 2:1.

Fourth, many think that the inference in 3:16 that Paul's letters are "Scripture" betrays a late date. Paul's letters, it is argued, were not considered Scripture until at least the late first century. Those who accept Petrine authorship must admit that Peter's words are somewhat surprising. However, it cannot be ruled out that the written words of one regarded as an inspired apostle would be called Scripture. Scholars are often too sure that they know what early Christians could and could not think.

Fifth, many who deny that Peter wrote this letter do so on the basis that it is a "testament," a final address of a leader before his death to the group which reveres him (see comments on 1:11). Most often, a testament was written well after the death of the hero whose name is attached to it, and it addressed the needs of the later generation. Many believe therefore that someone wrote this testament in Peter's name in order to lend his authority to the crisis provoked by the false teachers. Conservatives have responded that there are certainly some elements of the testament genre in 2 Peter, but that these elements do not make 2 Peter a testament like others. Furthermore, testaments need not be pseudonymous. Peter certainly could have written this way at the end of his life.

Sixth, many scholars reject 2 Peter on the basis of the false teaching it opposes. Many think that the heresy is Gnosticism, which developed in the second century. However, while there are minor similarities to that heresy, there is nothing in 2 Peter that would identify the false teachers as second-century Gnostics. The sort of false teaching in 2 Peter is already seen in Paul's letters.

Finally, some also argue that the apostle Peter would not have borrowed from the letter of Jude (see section on "Relation to Jude"). However, this argument is really quite weak. It is not clear why Peter would not have borrowed useful material from another source. Neither is it certain that Peter borrowed from Jude. Jude may have borrowed from Peter, or both may have borrowed from another source, whether oral or written.

In the final analysis, most conservative scholars argue that the apostle Peter wrote 2 Peter. They know that this can never be proven and that the decision is in part based on faith and tradition. Nonconservative scholars make significant arguments against Petrine authorship, but they wrongly claim that they have proven that Peter did not write this letter. We find their arguments weighty but not conclusive. In this commentary we will assume that Peter wrote 2 Peter.

OCCASION

Peter wrote to a specific church (or group of churches) facing specific problems, namely the coming of false teachers. Second Peter may have been written to the same churches as 1 Peter (churches in Asia Minor, according to 1:1), since 2 Peter mentions an earlier letter to this group (3:1). However, the fact that he may have written letters to other churches means that we cannot be sure.

Peter wrote this letter primarily because false teachers were 1) denying the Second Coming of Jesus, and 2) living without moral restraint and encouraging others to do so. Peter writes that they denied the teachings of prophets and apostles and that they arrogantly slandered spiritual beings. They denied the Second Coming, arguing that the world was simply continuing on its course as it had since the creation.

Their belief that there would be no Second Coming (and therefore no final judgment) led these false teachers into ungodly lifestyles. They willfully satisfied their sinful desires, including greed, sexual immorality, and gluttony. They encouraged others to follow their sinful examples, especially recent converts who were just escaping these very sins.

Readers of 2 Peter would like to know more about these teachers of error. There is much that we do not know, because of the nature of a letter. (Both author and recipients knew the situation, so there was no need to rehearse the details.) It would be helpful to know more precisely the identity of the false teachers, their background, their practices, and their teaching. This lack of information has led scholars to speculate regarding the identity of the troublemakers. Many have theorized that they were Gnostics, a group of second-century heretics who argued that knowledge was the key to salvation. They believed in a strict dualism between the spiritual and the physical worlds. Therefore they did not believe that Christ was actually human. They also tended to discount the importance of sins involving the body, such as sexual sin. The body, they claimed, belonged to the evil physical world that was created by an inferior god.

There is no evidence in 2 Peter that the false teachers were Gnostics since there is not a trace of the developed Gnostic systems of the second century. Furthermore, all of the teachings which Peter attacked are also found in Paul's letters. For example, in 1 Corinthians Paul writes against some who deny the resurrection (15:12-34) and others who argue for the right to engage in sexual sin (5:1-2; 6:12-20). The most that can be said is that 2 Peter's antagonists may have been the predecessors of what would later be called Gnostics.

A better and more cautious approach is to call these false teachers simply libertines. Their libertine approach seems to have sprung from their (false) understanding of grace and their denial of the judgment at the Second Coming of Jesus.

Another reason Peter wrote 2 Peter is that he was nearing the end of his life. This may have been his last opportunity to offer his teachings concerning sin, judgment, and false teachers. This was especially important because he was an eyewitness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As an apostle, it was his responsibility to testify to the truth about Jesus and to destroy the efforts of the false teachers.

RELATION TO JUDE

Portions of 2 Peter and Jude are remarkably similar. This applies not only to their contents but also to their order. They use the same examples of destruction for sinfulness: evil angels cast into hell and the judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah. They use similar metaphors, such as clouds or mists driven by a storm. They speak in the same way of the false teachers, including their slander of celestial beings and their following the way of Balaam. They speak of their opponents as "scoffers" and their readers as "friends."

Most scholars think that the resemblance between the two letters is simply too close to be coincidental. It is remotely possible that both may be relying on an oral body of teaching against false teachers. However, it is likely that there is a literary dependence between the two letters. It could be that Peter has used Jude, Jude has used Peter, or that both have used another written source. Very few argue for a third (unknown) source used by both, since this only compounds the problem. Most think that Peter used Jude, and they may be correct. It does seem more plausible that Peter adapted and expanded Jude than that Jude used only a portion of 2 Peter and added very little to it.

However, the fact is that all theories about the literary relationship are conjectural. Fortunately, we need not know the direction of influence in order to interpret the letter. It is obvious that both writers are facing similar problems. Their churches were facing so-called Christian teachers who not only taught false doctrine but lived ungodly lives.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2 PETER

Bauckham, Richard. Jude, 2 Peter. Word Biblical Commentary. Waco, TX: Word, 1983.

Green, Michael. The Second General Epistle of Peter and the General Epistle of Jude. Tyndale New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968.

Hillyer, Norman. 1 and 2 Peter, Jude. New International Biblical Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1992.

Kelly, J.N.D. A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and of Jude . Harper's New Testament Commentary. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1969.

Mayor, Joseph B. The Epistle of St. Jude and the Second Epistle of St. Peter: Greek Text with Introduction, Notes, and Comments. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979 (orig. 1907).

Moo, Douglas J. 2 Peter and Jude. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

Neyrey, Jerome H. 2 Peter, Jude: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: 2 Peter (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. INTRODUCTION - 1:1-15

A. Salutation and Greeting - 1:1-2

B. Preface: Exhortation to Godly Living - 1:3-11

C. Occasion: The Approaching Death of Peter - 1:12-15

II. BODY OF LETTER - 1:16-3:13

A. Reasons for Believing in Christ's Return - 1:16-21

1. Peter's Eyewitness Testimony - 1:16-18

2. The Sure Prophetic Word - 1:19-21

B. Warning against False Teachers - 2:1-22

1. The Coming of False Teachers - 2:1-3

2. The Condemnation of False Teachers - 2:4-10a

3. The Sins of the False Teachers - 2:10b-16

4. The Future Suffering of the False Teachers - 2:17-22

C. The Necessity of Believing in Christ's Return - 3:1-13

1. The Content of the False Teaching - 3:1-7

2. The Sure Return of Christ - 3:8-10

3. Christian Living in Light of Christ's Return - 3:11-13

III. FINAL EXHORTATIONS - 3:14-18

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV