2 PETER 3

"Scripture quotes taken from the NASB".

2 Peter 3:1 "This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,

3:2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

3:3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,

3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."

3:5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

3:6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

3:7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men."

It is my task to communicate to the reader what a great chapter this is. Those of us who have been Christians for a while have probably heard speculation about precisely how soon Christ is likely to return to the earth. I spoke to someone in 1970 who told me he believed Jesus would probably return within the next ten years, but 1980 came and went without the return of Christ. Some of us may also remember the so-called "88 reasons Jesus will return in 1988" or speculation about the new millennium around the year 2000, yet Christ did not return. Though the Bible explicitly tells us in various places, such as Matthew 24-36 and Acts 1:7, that no one on earth knows the precise date and time of Christ's return, some Christians simply can't resist the urge to guess. They nearly always acknowledge, as my friend in 1970 did, that they're just guessing, but guessing for some seems irrisistible. But guessers are not prophets, and all of the prophetic passages of the New Testament which speak about this tell us we don't know the day and time of Christ's return, but we can be quite certain about its eventuality.

That eventuality is the underlying message of this chapter, perhaps even the underlying message of this epistle. What's interesting about verse 3 above is that it says the scoffers in the last days do not doubt Christ's return because of generation after generation of hope and disappointment. Instead, this verse tells us that those who do not believe in the return of Christ are not motivated by his delay, but rather by their desire that he not return, since his return would put an end to their lust, greed and selfish pursuits. Conversely, those who eagerly await the return of Christ do so because we are willing to have him be the Lord of our lives until he returns, and we look forward to eternal fellowship with him. We can either live in such a way that we echo the sentiment at the end of Revelation, "Come Lord Jesus", or we can place our hope in other things which will be destroyed when he returns. But in either case, our problem is not God's slowness, and eternity is a very, very long period of time., and the consequences of our choices are eternal.

Peter asserts that the scoffers of our age cannot rely upon a continuation of the years of God's delay in judgment. Noah's generation was warned about the flood, but they perished because they did not heed the warning. Peter is probably well aware that those who deny the possibility of Christ's return also deny the flood of Noah's day. So the example here is really for believers who acknowledge both.

2 Peter 3:8 "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

3:11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

3:12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

3:13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells."

Verse 8 is very well-known among Christians, but it is probably not well-known that this idea is borrowed from Psalm 90:

Psalm 90:4 "For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.

90:5 You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

90:6 In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away."

In other words, God does not have the same perception of time we do., and our perception is limited by the brevity of our days on earth. So the apparent delay in the return of Christ is only from our limited perspective, not from God's.

More importantly, verse 9 explains that God's motivation for the delay is kindness and patience, because he wishes for all men to have an ample opportunity to come to repentance. This is an important concept, not just because it indicates why Christ has not returned as quickly as many Christians may have expected, but because it answers the question which is often phrased as, "Why does God allow suffering?" or "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

There are essentially two things wrong on earth. One is our own sin, wickedness, rebellion and misbehavior, and the other is that ever since sin entered into the world, the creation itself no longer serves us well, since we are subject to accidents, natural disasters, wild beasts, famine, etc. Of course, we can and should pray about our circumstances, but God cannot rightly reorder everything in the the universe without dealing with our sin. Judging mankind and putting an end to sin would essentially bring an end to the gospel age, since God's call for repentance and faith would seem relatively meaningless to men who are prevented from sin, and who have also not suffered due to the sins of others against them.

So, from a Christian perspective, every day that evil continues to flourish on earth is a day when Christians are asked to fulfill the great commission of making disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe Christ's commands and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20).

Christians ought to be preparing themselves during this age to collectively become the bride of Christ, and it is reasonable to suppose that God has not yet ended this age because some of those he loves and plans to spend eternity with have not yet come to the knowledge of Christ. While we await the return of Christ, God is waiting for us to finish the work of witness, proclamation and evangelism which he has given us.

None of the above changes the fact that the horrors sin has brought into the world are a very heavy burden for us. Men normally respond to suffering by claiming either that God does not exist or that he is unconcerned about our pain and sorrow. But the Bible teaches that God cares a great deal about us, enough to send his Son into the world to die for our sins, enough to make us joint heirs with Christ, provided we are willing to acknowledge him and make him Lord of our lives.

1 John 1:5 "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all."

In spite of whatever physical or emotional pain we may feel, the Bible always challenges our assumption that God does not care about us. In fact, when Jesus teaches in Matthew 10:30 and Luke 12:7 that the hairs of our heads are all numbered, what he is really saying is that he knows our human condition better than we do and he cares about it even more than we do. At the proper time, God will bring both 2 Peter 3:10 and 2 Peter 3:13 to pass.

Jesus himself is impatient, if God can be called impatient, for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Consider the following passage:

Luke 12:49 "I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!

12:50 "But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!"

Jesus clearly indicates here that he is not unconcerned about what is wrong on earth, and he is more than eager to intervene in human affairs. In fact, the question this chapter raises is whether we are eager to have him involved.

Christianity would seem almost useless to us at the present time if we had to wait to make our petitions to God at the close of the age.

Luke 18:1 "Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart,

18:2 saying, "In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.

18:3 "There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.'

18:4 "For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man,

18:5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'"

18:6 And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said;

18:7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?

18:8 "I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?""

In the above passage, Jesus expects us to understand that he is not like the unrighteous judge, who did not want to hear from the widow and did not want to act. God wants to hear and wants to act on our behalf, but he will not create a new heaven and a new earth until the appropriate time.

By the way, prophecy about a new heaven and a new earth is not unique to the New Testament. It is actually an echo of Old Testament passages, such as:

Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind."

In the passage below, Peter tells us how the certainty of Christ's return and the temporal nature of everything which surrounds us should affect our motives and our choices.

2 Peter 3:14 "Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,

3:15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,

3:16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,

3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

Because my parents divorced when I was nine and my mother had to work to support us, without any help from my father, my brothers, my sister and I were often left at home alone after school in the afternoon until my mother returned home from work. We had never heard the term latchkey children, but that's what we were. Of course, we had a pretty good idea when my mother would get home, but the main task of latchkey children is to stay close to home, not to fight and not to make a mess which mom will be displeased with when she arrives. We didn't always do a very good job. In fact, my recollection is that we called her at work almost every afternoon to ask her to resolve some fight among ourselves. But my point is that we are in a sense God's latchkey children, and our job is to conduct ourselves in such a way that Christ will be pleased with us when he arrives.

In this passage, Peter endorses the writings of Paul, though it isn't clear how many of Paul's letters he was familiar with. By implication, he also endorses Paul's ministry, which was primarily a ministry to the Gentiles. Peter probably would have had a difficult time doing so, if it were not for the vision he saw, which Luke wrote about in Acts10:9-16 and Acts 11:5-18. I won't quote those passages here, but the point is that Peter affirmed Paul's apostleship and he agreed with Paul that the gospel is meant both for Jews and for all mankind. The same God who revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ later revealed to him that Christ came to redeem men from all social classes and all ethnic backgrounds.