The Writer’s Purpose Restated
3:1 After his lengthy tirade against the false teachers and their perverted life-style so dangerous to the well being of his readers, Peter turns—one senses, with warm relief—to address his dear friends directly. He now reverts to his opening exhortation to them to foster their spiritual life (1:5–8).
This is now my second letter to you, he declares, although whether he means 1 Peter or some other letter, now lost, is uncertain. Since Peter is evidently not able to visit his friends in person, his pastoral concern impels him to do the next best thing and commit his message to writing. That in any case has the advantage of greater permanence, and the reminders it contains (1:12, 13, 15) will continue to be on hand to do their work. Moreover, a letter can be copied and distributed, and its message thus accurately conveyed to others. Teaching passed on by word of mouth might not achieve this so well.
Peter is writing a second time—reiteration is the mark of a good teacher (Phil 3:1)—to stimulate you to wholesome thinking (Phil. 4:8). The NIV translation obscures the fact that Peter is, again like an experienced tutor, paying his readers a compliment, for the latter words are literally “your pure minds,” i.e., your spiritual discernment, uncontaminated by the heretical efforts of the false teachers. It is as if he is saying: “Keep on reminding yourselves what great souls you really are because of Christ’s grace. Don’t let the enemy drag you down into the mud.”
3:2 To that end, Peter bids them recall the words spoken by God’s messengers in the past, and in particular, as the following verses indicate, on the subject of the return of Christ in glory and its implications for the moral requirements of the gospel. He bases his appeal (as he did in 1:16–21) on the twin authorities of OT prophets and NT apostles. Both convey the divine message. Peter is thus already at this early date viewing both the Hebrew Scriptures and the apostolic writings as a unity, with our Lord and Savior as their basis and focus.
The use of the expression your apostles, which 3:15 implies included Paul, has been taken by some to betray the fact that the author is not Peter but someone pretending to write in his name. But your apostles can equally mean either that Peter speaks as a representative of the apostolic band, or that he refers to “the particular apostles who evangelized your area, and who are therefore held especially in esteem by you.” At all events, Peter’s emphasis is on apostolic reliability in matters of faith, by contrast with the false teachers.
Additional Notes
3:1 Dear friends translates agapētoi, beloved ones, i.e., beloved by God (see Additional Note on 1 Pet. 2:11). The term also occurs in 2 Pet. 3:8, 14, 17.
My second letter most naturally refers to 1 Peter. But this is uncertain, especially since the contents of 1 Peter are not readily described as a “reminder,” nor does that letter deal pointedly with false teaching, as does 2 Peter. Furthermore, 1 Peter addresses readers across five Roman provinces, without suggesting that the writer knows them well—which is certainly the case in 2 Peter. The previous letter that Peter mentions here may well not have survived, as happened with some of Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 5:9).
Reminders: “It is not sufficiently considered that men more frequently require to be reminded than informed” (Dr. Samuel Johnson).
Stimulate (diegeirein; dia, thoroughly; egeirein, rouse up): as in 1:13 (“refresh your memory”). Here in 3:1 the wording lit. runs: “I rouse your pure mind by a reminder” (cf. Jude 5).
To wholesome thinking (tēn eilikrinē dianoian): The adjective eilikrinēs (pure, unalloyed, unadulterated) means that which is flawless even when held up to the sunlight (heilē, heat of the sun; krinein, to examine); see Turner, pp. 416–17; TDNT, vol. 2, pp. 397–98. Paul employs eilikrinēs in Phil. 1:10 to describe the purity required of believers on the day of Christ (the corresponding noun appears in 1 Cor. 5:8; 2 Cor. 1:12; 2:17). The precisely opposite notion occurs in Eph. 4:18, “darkened in their understanding (dianoia).” Plato uses Peter’s phrase to mean pure reason, i.e., thinking unaffected by the senses. But in Christian writings dianoia usually does not refer to the mind in the intellectual sense but to the faculty of spiritual discernment (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21; 1 John 5:20).
3:2 This verse has a succession of genitives in the Greek, making translation difficult. The problem is often eased in English versions by the addition of through (NIV, RSV; not in the Greek). But the general sense is clear. Possibly a word has dropped out of an early MS, or the expression tou kyriou sōtēros, of the Lord and Savior, may have been added by the writer as an afterthought: “the command of your apostles, or, rather, I should say, of the Lord” (Bigg, p. 290).
Holy prophets … apostles: The way Peter here associates the OT with the apostolic writings is reminiscent of 1 Pet. 1:10–12; 2 Pet. 1:19–21. The phrase holy prophets occurs elsewhere in the NT only in Luke 1:70 and, perhaps significantly for the question of authorship, in a speech of Peter’s in Acts 3:21.
The Second Coming Promised
3:3 One of the signals of the nearness of the last days before the return of Christ in power and great glory will be the appearance of those who jeer at the very idea of a second coming. From NT times right up to the present day, there have always been those who scoffed at this subject. So how can this be a sign of the impending Parousia? The scoffing that Peter warns about goes beyond the utterance of mere words, for the Greek terms imply physical persecution. This antagonism is the result of such scoffers following their own evil desires, an expression which suggests that Peter particularly has in mind the false teachers of his own time. But the principle holds for all generations. Other scoffers will come. If derisive words alone fail to have their intended effect in discouraging believers, then those who scoff will not hesitate to go further in their hostility, for they too are following their own evil desires, that is, they are driven by what Judaism called “the evil inclination.” To deny the fact of Christ’s return, and so the judgment that goes with it, is to weaken moral incentive and to invite careless conduct.
The scoffing of religious truths and practices can easily lead to despondency among believers, especially if it is uttered by those (the false teachers in this case) who know something of the Scriptures but imply that they are superior in understanding. So Peter seeks to forestall the adverse effects of such derision upon his readers. So, far from discouraging believers, the arrival of these scoffers is itself a fulfillment of prophecy and proof of the approaching end, when the faith of Christians will thus be justified.
3:4 The scoffing specifically denies the reality of the return of Christ. “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?” But it also challenges the veracity of Christ’s own word by scorning the truth of a clear promise he made on a specific subject (Matt. 10:23; 24:3). Such an attitude to his word will not be confined to one doctrine. It inevitably promotes doubts and disbelief of other aspects of Christ’s teaching, to the point that an individual feels free to pick and choose what suits and fits in with personal desires. In the case of the second coming of Christ, the argument of the false teachers is that ever since our fathers died things have continued as they always were. The years have gone by and nothing dramatic has happened. In any case, common sense surely indicates that some cataclysmic end to history is unthinkable. The unhindered daily round since the beginning of creation “proves” it. Such naive comments can be made, of course, only by those who have never been caught up in some terrifying (even if local) natural upheaval—earthquake, hurricane, volcanic eruption, tidal wave.
3:5 Their reasoning is fallacious. Such people, says Peter, deliberately forget what is recorded in the Scriptures. They choose to shut their minds to what did indeed once happen—even if it was long ago. The book of Genesis narrates the story of the original creation. Peter paraphrases that account: long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. According to Genesis, there was originally a kind of watery waste (Gen. 1:2). Then by divine fiat (“Let there be …”), the world was formed by the separation of land from water (Gen. 1:6–10). Furthermore, life in that world was sustained by water (Gen. 2:6).
3:6 But that was not the end of the story. Because of the wickedness of those who then inhabited the earth, God intervened in judgment. And he did so by using the same element: by … waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed (Gen. 6:17; 7:23). The moral of the event is that God is not only creator but also judge, for the sins of the occupants of his world will not continue to go unpunished. Jesus himself used the incident to point out that lesson, and at the same time linked it with his own future return (Matt. 24:37–39), a possibility that the false teachers were ridiculing.
3:7 However regular and unchanging conditions may appear, however solid and immovable the world itself may seem, especially to those who willfully ignore what has happened in the past, God does from time to time decisively intervene, as he sees fit. Having created the world, he destroyed that world by water. By the same word, just as the Scriptures told of the Flood judgment, so they foretell another judgment, still to come. The present heavens and earth will be destroyed too—this time by fire. The “coming” that Christ promised (v. 4) is no less certain, whatever the false teachers may assume to the contrary. And all these events of divine intervention are bound up with the judgment and destruction of ungodly men, such as the false teachers. God has, in effect, said, “Thus far, and no further,” as those who leave him out of their calculations will one day suddenly and fatally discover. The whole scenario is being kept, as if in an impregnable prison under secure guard, for the day of judgment.
Additional Notes
3:3 In the last days scoffers will come: Matt. 24:3–5, 11, 23–26; 2 Tim. 3:1–5; James 5:3; Jude 18.
Scoffers … scoffing (empaigmonē empaiktai, lit. the Hebraism “scoffers with scoffing”): The vocabulary used implies that more than the mere expression of words is involved. The Hebrew equivalents of the Greek terms indicate that scoffers (empaiktai) engage in violent persecution of believers. The noun empaigmos, scoffing, is used for the force with which Egyptians tyrannized the Israelites (Exod. 1:13) and for the ruthlessness forbidden to a master overworking fellow Israelites who were his slaves (Lev. 25:43, 46). In the NT, empaigmos refers to the suffering of the Maccabees (Heb. 11:36). See Turner, pp. 141–42.
Evil desires (epithymias): as in 1 Pet. 1:14; 2:11; 4:2, 3; 2 Pet. 1:4; 2:10, 18; also in the parallel passages, Jude 16, 18. The Greek term sometimes translates the Hebrew yēṣer hā-rā’, “the evil inclination.”
3:4 “Where …?” The scoffers pour scornful doubt upon the truthfulness of the divine word, written or spoken. They are not the first: see Ps. 42:3; 79:10; Isa. 5:19; 28:14; Jer. 17:15; Ezek. 12:22; Mal. 2:17.
‘Coming’ (parousia): the technical term for the return of Christ in power and glory. See Additional Note on 1:16.
Our fathers could mean the first Christian leaders, such as Stephen, James son of Zebedee, and James the Just, all of whom had died by the date of this letter. But more probably the reference is to OT figures, as with all other passages mentioning “the fathers” in the NT (Acts 3:13; Rom. 9:5; Heb. 1:1) and especially in view of the words since the beginning of creation.
Died prosaically translates ekoimēthēsan, lit. and more strikingly “have fallen asleep,” the usual biblical expression for the passing on of believers (Mark 5:39; John 11:11; 1 Thess. 4:13–14), even in the case of their violent death (Acts 7:60).
3:5 Creation by God’s word is a frequent theme (Gen. 1:3; Ps. 33:6–9; 148:5; Wisd. of Sol. 9:1; John 1:3; Heb. 11:3; 1 Clement 27.4; Shepherd of Hermas, Visions 1.3.4).
The earth was formed out of (ex hydatos) and with water (dia hydatos) is a problem in the Greek. The preposition dia with the genitive, as here, basically means extension through (Mark 9:30, “through Galilee”). So here Peter may be meaning “continuous land, rising out of and extending through water” (Moule, Idiom-Book, p. 55).
3:6 The world (kosmos) of that time was destroyed by the Flood. The Greek kosmos here means its human inhabitants (as in 2:5).
Deluged translates kataklyzein (cf. Eng. cataclysm), to inundate, overwhelm; the Greek verb occurs in the NT only here.
3:7 Reserved (tethēsaurismenoi) for fire: The verb thēsaurizein, to lay up in store, is behind the Eng. word “thesaurus,” a storehouse (of information). See TDNT, vol. 6, pp. 928–52. The association of fire with divine activity is a frequent biblical theme (Exod. 3:2; Ps. 50:3; Isa. 29:6; 30:30; 66:15–16; Nah. 1:6; Mal. 4:1). The future destruction of the world by fire is mentioned in the Bible only in this verse. Our contemporary world with its atomic bombs is the first generation to see one way in which the fiery destruction of heavens and earth could be feasible on such a scale.
Being kept, as under guard (1 Pet. 1:4; 2 Pet. 2:4, 9, 17). The expression emphasizes the absolute certainty of judgment to come, since no power in heaven or earth or hell can possibly interfere with what is divinely ordained.
Toward the end of the second century A.D., Melito of Sardis may well have 2 Peter in mind when he writes: “There was a flood of water.… There will be a flood of fire, and the earth will be burned up together with its mountains … and the just will be delivered from its fury as their fellows in the ark were saved from the waters of the Flood.” A similar idea also appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QH 3.28), though not, of course, with reference to 2 Peter.
The Certainty of the Second Coming
3:8 We can readily appreciate that the false teachers’ denial of the veracity of the promised return of Christ could expect to gain a certain amount of credence among church members, for it was true enough that some time had gone by since the resurrection of Jesus, a number of Christians had died, and there was still no sign that the Parousia was about to take place. But Peter seeks to encourage his readers by drawing attention to a fundamental distinction between divine and human viewpoints. People’s outlook is limited by time. Not so God’s perspective. Prompted by the wording of Psalm 90:4, Peter reminds believers that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years. But there is an interesting difference in the application of those words. The Psalmist is contrasting the insignificance of time, the brevity of human life, with the eternity of God. Peter uses the OT words to highlight the impatience of human expectations, compared with the infinite and purposeful patience of God. Peter then repeats the saying, but reverses the terms (a thousand years are like a day), in order to underline the fact that in the purposes of God, a delay of even a millennium is, from his standpoint, like no more than the passage of a single day. Therefore believers should not be disturbed, if nothing seems to be happening in fulfillment of divine promises. God’s word is his bond. The timing of its being carried out must be left to him.
3:9 The explanation of divine delay? The Lord is not slow (the Greek word means to loiter, be slack, be late) as some charge. He is indeed able to fulfill his word and is not indifferent about doing so. The reason for the delay is that he wants to give every possible opportunity to all to come to repentance (1 Tim. 2:4). The Lord has no pleasure in wanting anyone to perish. Some are going to perish (v. 7), but it is certainly not God’s will that they should do so.
3:10 The day of the Lord, when Christ returns in glory, to judge or to bless, is not only certain to take place, whatever may be the professed view of the false teachers. Its arrival will also be without warning and totally unexpected (Matt. 24:42–44), like a thief breaking into a house. Believers, therefore, should watch and be alert at all times (Matt. 25:13; 1 Thess. 5:6). As for those who disbelieve Christ’s word on the subject, such as the false teachers of Peter’s day, there will be no second chance then for a change of heart.
That day will be marked by a cosmic catastrophe on a cataclysmic scale, involving the heavens and the elements and the earth. But Peter’s thought is not limited to the notions of destruction and annihilation. He is looking beyond all this to the renovation of heaven and earth (v. 13; cf. Rev. 20:11; 21:1).
In making a distinction between the heavens, the elements (stoicheia), and the earth, Peter is apparently not using the term stoicheia in its sense of the four elements (fire, air, water, earth), which were considered in antiquity to be the basis of all known phenomena. The Greek word can also refer to the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars; as in Justin, Apology 2.5). Judaism (1 Enoch 60:12; Jubilees 2:2) and Paul (Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20) both imply that hostile cosmic forces are behind these bodies, and this is probably Peter’s meaning here. The sequence of terms (heavens … elements … earth) forms a trio in descending order, none of which will be excluded from the consequences of the advent of the day of the Lord.
The whole passage is a ringing declaration of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his redemptive purpose, which is not limited to justified human beings, but extends to the whole of creation (Rom. 8:19–21).
Additional Notes
3:8 Do not forget: lit. “do not let [this] be hidden from you”—as was happening in the case of the scoffing false teachers. They were deliberately allowing the fact of the difference in divine and human viewpoints not to enter their calculations. It was culpable ignorance on their part, as in the matter of the second coming (v. 4).
With the Lord a day is like a thousand years was evidently a saying that registered with the apostolic age, for it is quoted in Barnabas 15.4–7. Peter’s words gave rise to Millenarianism (or Chiliasm), the belief that at the end of the present age Christ will reign on earth for one thousand years (Rev. 20:1–10); see NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 52–53.
3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise about the second coming. The delay in the Parousia worried Paul’s friends at Thessalonica (1 Thess. 4:13–15; 2 Thess. 2:1–2), but it did not disturb Peter. He had been warned that he himself would not live to see the Parousia (2 Pet. 1:14; John 21:18–19).
He is patient (makrothymein: see Turner, pp. 315–18; TDNT, vol. 4, pp. 374–87). The corresponding noun (makrothymia) is used in 1 Pet. 3:20 in connection with God’s delaying the Flood in the days of Noah.
A respite to give opportunity for repentance is often associated with the divine patience: Joel 2:12–13; Jon. 4:2; Rom. 2:4; Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes 8.11.1; Clementine Homilies 11.7.2.
3:10 The day of the Lord: Similar expressions in this letter are: day of judgment (2:9; 3:7); day of God (3:12); cf. day of visitation, 1 Pet. 2:12.
Like a thief: The simile of “the thief in the night,” to illustrate an unwelcome surprise, derives from the teaching Peter heard from Jesus (Matt. 24:43–44; Luke 12:39; cf. 1 Thess. 5:2, 4; Rev. 3:3; 16:15).
The heavens will disappear is language reminiscent of Isa. 13:10–13; 34:4; cf. Rev. 20:11.
With a roar translates the onomatopoeic Greek adverb rhoizēdon, which occurs in the NT only here. This is a vivid term, as are the corresponding noun rhoizos and verb rhoizein, used by Greek writers to express shrill rushing sounds, such as the hissing of a snake, the whir of a bird’s wings, the whistle of an arrow or a spear through the air, or the crackling of flames in a forest fire.
The elements (stoicheia): In T. Levi 4.4, invisible spirits are said to “dissolve” on the day of judgment. In modern Greek stoicheia still denotes spirits, angels, or demons. See also NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 451–53; TDNT, vol. 7, pp. 670–87; Turner, pp. 88–91, 392.
The earth and everything in it includes all that is involved in the human occupation of this globe—people, buildings, institutions, systems, deeds.
Laid bare (heurethēsetai, lit. “will be found,” i.e., discovered, exposed) is one textual possibility among many variations in the MSS and is probably the most likely. Among numerous suggested emendations are “will be burned up” (KJV, RV, RSV, JB); “will vanish” (GNB); and “will not be found” (Wand, Moffatt), which assumes that a negative ouk fell out of the text at a very early date and consequently bequeathed a translation problem to those who copied MSS in later times.
Moral Implications
3:11 In view of the fact that the present world, with all its human and spiritual depravity, is to be totally replaced, it follows that God’s people ought to prepare themselves for the new order. This they can do by living holy and godly lives, thus fitting themselves for the righteous environment that the new world will provide. In other words, Peter is using the certainty of the second coming, not to terrify believers, but to spur them to righteous living. If the false teachers had been correct in their denial of the Lord’s return to set up a new order, then life in the present world would be without real purpose. The pagan slogan, “eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19), for extinction is all that lies ahead, would be depressingly true; there would be in reality nothing to live for. Peter knows better. His Master had taught him to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom (Matt. 6:10) and to evangelize the nations: “then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14).
3:12 Such prayer and evangelism by Christ’s followers, backed by their godly lives, will be the means by which they give expression to the way they look forward to the day of God, and so help to speed its coming. Peter is not propounding a novel doctrine. The rabbis declared that “if Israel kept the law perfectly for one day, Messiah would come.” The more profound point behind Peter’s words is that the material world is transient and can be no sure foundation for life. By contrast, a life based on the truths of holy living and trust in a loving God concerned for his people’s welfare here and hereafter is the one eternal reality. The principle is like that of the parable about building on sand or on rock (Matt. 7:24–27).
3:13 The dramatic events associated with the second coming have long been foretold. But they are not an end in themselves, however desirable the destruction of all that is evil may be. God has a much more positive and constructive end in view. In keeping with his (God’s) promise (Isa. 65:17; 66:22), Peter reminds his readers that as God’s people we are looking forward (prosdokan, as in vv. 12 and 14) to what is to replace all that will have been destroyed. By divine act, God will create a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1), fitting spheres for his redeemed people, for there righteousness will be permanently at home, i.e., perfect relationships with God and with others will be the norm, unspoiled by sin or the machinations of evil.
3:14 The consequence of knowing that God is preparing for his people a new heaven and a new earth as their abode, the characteristic of which is righteousness, is that they should even now be fitting themselves for such a prospect. Their priority must be to make every effort in their individual spiritual lives to be found by the returning Lord Jesus Christ to be spotless and blameless. Thus they will be fit to present themselves to God through Christ as a perfect offering (1 Pet. 1:19), in stark contrast to the characteristics of the false teachers (2 Pet. 3:3), and thereby be at peace with him, with nothing to fear (1 John 2:28). Peter began his letter by alluding to the fact that a right relationship with God sets a person on the Christian path (1:3). Now he reminds his readers that they must give their constant attention to maintaining that relationship throughout life, right up to its end—whether that be at death (1:14) or at the second advent (1 Thess. 4:17).
Additional Notes
3:11 Destroyed (lyonmenōn, lit. “being loosed, dissolved”): The present tense suggests that disintegrating forces are already at work.
What kind of (potapous) people ought you to be? The use of potapos in such contexts as Matt. 8:27 (“What kind of man is this?” [when Jesus stilled the storm]) and Mark 13:1 (“What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”) implies that God’s people, in Peter’s view, should be outstanding in the quality of their lives.
Holy and godly lives translates en hagiais anastrophais kai eusebeiais, lit. “in holy forms of behavior and godly deeds,” the plurals implying that there are many ways in which these can be practiced. On eusebeia, see Turner, p. 111.
The doctrine of the second coming was used as an argument for godly living in the teaching of Jesus (Luke 12:35–40), Paul (Rom. 13:11–14; 1 Thess. 5:4–11), and Peter in his first letter (1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7–17).
3:12 The elements (stoicheia) will melt in the heat repeats the gist of v. 10; see Additional Note there.
Will melt translates the prophetic present tense tēketai. The verb, used in the NT only here, occurs in Isa. 64:1 LXX, referring to the melting of the mountains at the eschatological coming of God, when also fire burns up his enemies.
3:13 A new (kainos) heaven and a new (kainos) earth: Of the two regular Greek adjectives for “new,” neos means new in relation to time (young, recent). But kainos means new in relation to type (novel, fresh, unused). The NT almost always uses kainos: it is applied to the new commandment (Luke 22:20), Jesus’ new teaching (Mark 1:27), new tongues as a sign of the activity of the Holy Spirit (Mark 16:17 [longer ending]), Jesus’ new commandment (John 13:34), the new creation at conversion (2 Cor. 5:17), a new name and a new song in heaven (Rev. 2:17; 5:9).
The home of righteousness translates en hois dikaiosynē katoikei, lit. “in which righteousness dwells.” Righteousness is virtually personified, as in the messianic passage Isa. 32:16 LXX: “righteousness will dwell in Carmel.” Righteousness as a mark of the new age is frequently mentioned: Isa. 9:7; 11:4–5; Psalms of Solomon 17:40; 1 Enoch 5:8–9; Rom. 14:17. Satan may have control over the present world (John 12:31; 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; 1 John 4:4; 5:19), but his rule is doomed to be brought to an end (John 16:11). Peter’s phrase finds an echo in 1 Enoch 46:3, “the Son of Man, who has righteousness, with whom righteousness dwells.”
3:14 Dear friends (agapētoi): beloved (by God), as in 1 Pet. 2:11; 4:12; 2 Pet. 3:1, 8, 15, 17. This is friendship based not on a social relationship but on a common faith in God through Jesus Christ. See Additional Note on 1 Pet. 2:11.
Make every effort: Spoudazein means “be zealous, be eager, give diligence, make haste” (also used at 1:10, 15). The need is to concentrate urgently on developing one’s Christian manner of life by following the example of Jesus (1 Pet. 2:21).
Spotless (aspilos): Metaphorically “free from censure, irreproachable” (as in 1 Tim. 6:14; James 1:27); and blameless, (amōmētos), without fault; the word is used of sacrificial animals (Num. 28:3 LXX). Neither characteristic can be acquired by self-effort. Both come only through reliance on the finished work of Christ (1 Pet. 1:19, where both adjectives are used of Jesus; cf. Jude 24; Rev. 14:5). On aspilos, see Turner, p. 483.
At peace with him: cf. Ps. 85:10; also Isa. 32:17–18, “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.”
Paul’s Support
3:15 The delay in the second advent is due to two factors. The first has already been implied in Peter’s reference to the need for believers to live godly lives (v. 11), for this will speed the coming of Christ. Now he mentions the second reason for the delay, one he earlier spelled out in verse 9. The delay is due to the merciful goodness of the Lord’s patience in holding back the day of judgment, which gives every possible opportunity for unbelievers to come to a knowledge of salvation before it is too late.
That explanation of the delay in the Parousia harmonizes with the one put forward by our dear brother Paul (as, for example, in Rom. 2:4). Paul, and by implication Peter himself, was enabled to express such sentiments because they were made known to him from on high, rather than being a matter of personal guesswork: the apostle wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. That, as Peter delicately hints, is his own authority too.
3:16 Paul is consistent in the message he gives on this point: he writes the same way in all his letters. Peter’s readers will have had the opportunity to check up on the truth of this from firsthand knowledge of at least some of Paul’s correspondence, for at an early stage copies of letters in the NT were shared by churches other than those to whom they were first addressed.
Peter cheerfully admits that even as an apostle himself, and one who indeed for three years had the inestimable privilege of hearing Jesus firsthand, he finds that Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand. (Not all Peter’s transmitted words are easy to understand, for that matter.) But it is one thing to come across fish bones on the plate. It is quite another to try to swallow them. Yet such commonsense wisdom is not shared by all. Some ignorant and unstable people distort the teaching of Paul’s writings, twisting it for their own purposes, as they do the other Scriptures. (Peter clearly has the false teachers’ treatment of his own letters in mind.) And what happens? Such distortions of true doctrine lead to the destruction of the perpetrators, for they themselves are thereby led astray from the right road to God. It is noteworthy that Peter puts Paul’s letters on a par with the other Scriptures, i.e., the Old Testament. It was the practice in the early church from the beginning to carry on the Jewish synagogue custom of reading two passages, one from the Pentateuch and one from the Prophets, but then to add a reading from an apostolic writing (Col. 4:16). Although at first sight this may seem surprising to the modern reader, the explanation is not hard to find. The first Christians recognized that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the OT prophets was still at work. Indeed, he was carrying forward his earlier revelations of divine purposes now that Jesus the Messiah had come. There was nothing incongruous in setting apostolic words on a level with the Old Testament (1 Cor. 12:8; 2 Cor. 13:3; 1 Thess. 2:13).
Additional Notes
3:15 Bear in mind (hēgeisthe) that our Lord’s patience means salvation pointedly balances the use of the same verb in v. 9: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand (hēgountai) slowness.”
Peter’s reference to our dear (agapētos, beloved by God) brother Paul employs the regular Christian vocabulary to express the warm, harmonious apostleship that Peter and Paul share; the disagreement between the two men over Peter’s inconsistent attitude toward Gentile Christians (Gal. 2:14) was brief. For his part, Paul mentions Peter in two of his letters (1 Cor. 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:5; Gal. 1:18; 2:7–9; cf. Acts 15:7, 12).
Paul also wrote you. Copies of Pauline letters were sent early on to other churches, quite apart from occasions when the apostle himself gave instructions to that end (Col. 4:16). Peter could be referring to our letter to the Romans (2:4), 1 Thessalonians (chs. 4 and 5), 2 Thessalonians (ch. 2), Ephesians (1:14; 2:7; 3:9–11), Colossians (1:20), or possibly to some other correspondence that has not survived.
3:16 Ignorant (amathēs): In the NT only here, amathēs means uninstructed, unlearned, unscholarly. Such men were probably making their calamitous errors by tearing proof-texts out of context to fit their own ideas.
Unstable (astēriktos): again, in the NT, only in 2 Pet.; lit. “without a staff, unsupported.” This rare term is used by Peter to describe the unqualified teachers who disastrously misinterpret Paul’s writings. Earlier Peter applied the word to the Christian beginner who falls an easy prey to false teaching (2:14). See Turner, p. 484.
Distort (strebloun): Occurring in the NT only here, strebloun means “to twist, torture, dislocate the limbs on the rack,” a singularly vivid term to describe their perversion of Scripture.
To their own destruction (apōleia, as in 2:1, 3; 3:7, referring to the last judgment): “they rush headlong into ruin” (Calvin) by misinterpreting, perhaps even deliberately, what was intended to be for their eternal benefit in salvation.
Summary
3:17 Forewarned is forearmed. Since you already know this—that false teaching is threatening your spiritual well being—be on your guard, stand as an alert sentinel over your understanding and grasp of true doctrine, especially that which concerns the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus Peter’s readers will be kept from being carried away by the powerful current of nefarious error propagated by lawless men, those who preach a false libertinism that claims freedom from all moral constraint by adopting a perverted view of Christian liberty. To be deceived by that ruinous teaching, Peter warns, would mean that you would face spiritual disaster, nothing less than a fatal fall from your secure position in Christ. To guard against such spiritual poison threatened from without, there is one sure antidote: to go on making healthy progress in the Christian life that is within (cf. Ps. 1:1–3).
3:18 But grow—or rather, “Keep on growing”—is Peter’s concluding word to his readers, as he harks back to his opening theme (1:3–8). There must always be constant growth in the believer’s spiritual life, for stagnation spells disintegration. As in the natural world, so in the spiritual sphere, growth is not a matter of a leaf or twig making some strenuous individualistic effort. Growth comes from maintaining a healthy relationship with the parent vine (John 15:1–8). Accordingly, the way to grow spiritually is to maintain a healthy relationship with the source of all spiritual life, God himself through Jesus Christ. The believer will then develop and mature, as surely as sunrise follows the night, by continuously drawing on the free unearned and unearnable grace of Christ, and so increase in the personal knowledge of the Savior (Col. 1:10).
With such a certain and inexhaustible supply of spiritual life to draw upon through the finished and perfect work of Christ, there can be only the response of the glad doxology: To him be glory both now, utterly sufficient for the demands of the present life, and forever (eis hēmeran aiōnos, lit. “unto the eternal day”), i.e., right up to the day of the Lord (3:7, 10, 12) which ushers in eternity.
Amen may well be a later stereotyped addition to the earlier MSS. But its appropriateness (“So it is!”) at the close of Peter’s exhortation finds a ready echo in the believer’s heart.
Additional Notes
3:17 Dear friends (agapētoi): Beloved by God, as in 3:1, 8, 14; 1 Pet. 2:11; 4:12; Jude 3, 17, 20. Even the way Peter addresses his readers is a reminder of their relationship with God in Jesus Christ, and with other believers, for they share in the same love. See Additional Note on 1 Pet. 2:11.
You already know this (proginōskein): see Turner, pp. 178–79.
Be on your guard: The verb is phylassein, a military term. The Christian life is a spiritual warfare against the hosts of evil; cf. 1 Cor. 10:12; Eph. 6:10–18.
Carried away translates synapachthentes, the passive form of a compound verb, syn (together with), apo (away from), agein (to lead or drive). The sense of the danger that Peter warns against is that of “being swept along with the crowd” away from the true Christian way of life. The same verb is used of the defection of Barnabas in Gal. 2:13.
Error (planē): erroneous teaching or, more aggressively, a deliberate leading astray.
Lawless (athesmos): one who breaks the law of nature and conscience in order to gratify lust. The term appears in the NT only here and in 2:7 (regarding the Sodomites). See Turner, pp. 254–55.
Fall (ekpiptein): The verb is used of shipwreck in Acts 27:26, 29.
Secure position (stērigmos): a rare word (only here in the NT, although the corresponding verb occurs in 1:12 and in 1 Pet. 5:10). But the term contrasts nicely with the character of the false teachers and their dupes, whom Peter calls astēriktos, unstable (2:14; 3:16). The verb stērizein is applied to Peter himself in Luke 22:32, “When you have turned back, strengthen (stērixon) your brothers.”
3:18 Grow (auxanete, present imperative: “keep on growing”): “Not only do not fall from your own steadfastness, but be so firmly rooted as to throw out branches and yield increase” (Alford); cf. Ps. 1:2–3.
To him be glory is the only NT doxology (other than 2 Tim. 4:18; Rev. 1:6) indubitably ascribed to Jesus Christ alone. If the letter had been written later than Peter’s lifetime, a more stereotyped liturgical doxology would have been expected. As it is, the expression is almost unique. Furthermore, the Greek behind the translation of the following phrase, and forever (eis hēmeran aiōnos, lit. “unto the eternal day”), is found in the NT only here. Before the end of the first century, stereotyped formulas to round off doxologies were commonplace, so Peter’s unusual expressions imply an early rather than a late date for this letter and offer evidence for its authenticity.
