The Word Made Fresh
1This is my second letter to you, friends. In them I am trying to make your intentions sincere by reminding you 2to remember the words of the sacred prophets of old and the commandments of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles.
3First, know that scoffers will come in the last days. They will scoff and indulge in their own lusts. 4They will say, “What has happened to the promise of his coming? Since our ancestors died everything has just kept on from the beginning of creation.” 5They simply ignore the fact that it was by the word of God that the heavens existed long ago, and that the earth was shaped by water 6through which the world at that time was flooded and perished. 7By that same word the heavens and the earth have been reserved for fire until the day of judgment and the destruction of the godless.
8But don’t ignore this, friends, that one day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years are like a single day. 9The Lord is not slow to keep his promise as some think, but is patient with you, not wanting any of you to perish but rather to repent. 10The Lord’s Day will sneak in like a burglar. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and everything will be melted in fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.
11Since everything will be destroyed like this, what kind of people should you be in living lives of holiness and godliness? 12You are awaiting and deeply desiring the arrival of the Lord’s Day. On that day the heavens will be set afire and dissolved, and everything will melt in the heat. 13But, because of his promise we await a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness is at home.
14So, my friends, while you await these things, seek to be found at peace by him, without any blemish at all. 15Accept the Lord’s patience as your salvation, as our brother Paul wrote to you with the wisdom given to him, 16addressing this as he does in all his letters. Some of his words are difficult to understand, and the ignorant and unstable twist his words to their own destruction, just as they do the scriptures. 17So friends, you are forewarned. Be careful not to get carried away by the errors of those lawless ones and lose your own stability. 18Instead, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory now and forever to eternity.
Commentary
1-7: Despite all the scholarly opinions to the contrary, the author of 2 Peter is trying to give every impression that he wrote 1 Peter as well (one early theory for the difference in style was that someone other than Silvanus must have served as the secretary to produce 2 Peter). We see that the criticism being leveled against some in the church has centered on those who claim that there will not be a second coming of Christ, nor judgment, nor new creation. Everything is just like it always was, they are saying. The author reminds them of the “fact” that, just as the world was destroyed by water it will soon be destroyed by fire. It exists as it has for so long because it “is being kept” for destruction. The idea of the world being destroyed by fire is suggested by several Old Testament texts (see, for example, Malachi 4:1) which the author regards as statements of fact.
8-10: Two points are made. First, God’s time is not our time, and we are mistaken if we think the prophecies are wrong just because the predicted day has not yet come. God is allowing ample time for the wicked to turn from their ways and be saved. Second, the day that is coming will be the end of the world as we know it, with the sky exploding and the earth melting.
11-13: Given this, he says, you’d best consider what kind of person you should be, because there will be new heavens and a new earth which will be populated only by the righteous.
14-18: Rather than think of the delay in Christ’s coming as evidence that the promise is vain, instead consider that the delay is God’s way of allowing all to be saved who will. At this point the author mentions Paul and “all his letters,” and seems to elevate the letters of Paul to the status of scripture. This is one of the indications that 2 Peter was written by a second or third generation Christian who was familiar with Paul’s letters. Regarding those, he says, there are certain people who twist Paul’s words for their own purposes, and the author urges his readers not to be carried away with such people. Grow in grace, he tells them. Grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Glory belongs, and always will belong, to Christ.
Takeaway
“The day of the Lord” has always been a difficult subject to understand. Nearly two thousand years have passed since this chapter was written. But each of us can experience the day of the Lord when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. When we do that, we become citizens of the kingdom of God and no calamity can take that away from us, or negate the eternal life that is promised.