(11-13) Holy and godly living in anticipation of a new created order.
Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
a. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be: In light of the fact that this world order and the things associated with it will be dissolved, we should live our lives seeking first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness – that is, having holy conduct and godliness.
i. We tend to think that the world is more enduring and will last longer than people. This is not true, and Peter reminds us of it. People will live into eternity, longer than even the earth.
ii. Will be dissolved: “They will all be separated, all decomposed; but none of them destroyed.” (Clarke) “The solar system and the great galaxies, even space-time relationships, will be abolished … All elements which make up the physical world will be dissolved by heat and utterly melt away. It is a picture which in an astonishing degree corresponds to what might actually happen according to modern theories of the physical universe.” (Bo Reicke, cited in Green)
iii. “This world, so far as we know, will not cease to be; it will pass through the purifying flame, and then it may be the soft and gentle breath of Almighty love will blow upon it and cool it rapidly, and the divine hand will shape it as it cools into a paradise more fair.” (Spurgeon)
iv. What manner of persons ought you to be: “The king is coming; he is coming to his throne, and to his judgment. Now a man does not go up to a king’s door, and there talk treason; and men do not sit in a king’s audience-chamber when they expect him every moment to enter, and there speak ill of him. The King is on his way, and almost here; you are at his door; he is at yours. What manner of people ought ye to be? How can ye sin against One who is so close at hand?” (Spurgeon)
b. Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God: Peter says there is a sense in which we can hasten the Lord’s coming. It’s remarkable to think that we can actually do things that will affect the return of Jesus. In the immediate context, Peter says that we hasten the Lord’s coming by our holy conduct and godliness.
i. We can also hasten the Lord’s coming through evangelism. Paul said that God’s prophetic focus on Israel will resume when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).
ii. We can also hasten the Lord’s coming through prayer. Even as Daniel asked for a speedy fulfillment of prophecy regarding captive Israel (Daniel 9), we can also pray “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).
c. Because of which the heavens will be dissolved: Peter tells us that the very elements of this world order will be dissolved. God will genuinely make a new heavens and a new earth, even as Isaiah promised: For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind (Isaiah 65:17).
d. A new earth in which righteousness dwells: The most glorious characteristic of this new heaven and new earth is that it is a place in which righteousness dwells. In God’s plan of the ages, this happens after the millennial earth ruled by Jesus Christ.
i. It is the re-creation of this world order as described in Revelation 21:1: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
2. (14-15a) Keep diligent and do not despise the longsuffering of God.
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—
a. Looking forward to these things, be diligent: If our hearts are really set on the glory of the new heaven and new earth, we will endeavor to walk godly in regard to our brothers and sisters (in peace) and in regard to God (without spot and blameless).
b. The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation: It is easy for Christians to sometimes resent the longsuffering of God; after all, it in some sense delays His coming. Yet, the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation for others, and it is salvation for us.
i. “We are puzzled at the longsuffering which causes so weary a delay. One of the reasons is that we have not much longsuffering ourselves. We think that we do well to be angry with the rebellious, and so we prove ourselves to be more like Jonah than Jesus. A few have learned to be patient and pitiful to the ungodly, but many more are of the mind of James and John, who would have called fire from heaven upon those who rejected the Savior. We are in such a hurry.” (Spurgeon)
3. (15b-16) A note regarding the letters of the Apostle Paul.
—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
a. As also our beloved brother Paul: It is fashionable for some critics to say that the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul aren’t in agreement. These same critics also often say that Peter and Paul aren’t in agreement with Jesus. Yet here Peter affirmed Paul’s teaching in the warmest terms. He called Paul beloved and said that Paul wrote with wisdom.
i. This praise from Peter is even more wonderful when we remember that at one time Paul publicly rebuked Peter for public compromise (Galatians 2:11-21).
b. In which are some things hard to understand: Though Peter praised Paul’s ministry, he admitted that some things in Paul’s writings were hard to understand, and those who were untaught and unstable could use some of the difficulties to their own ends, twisting Scripture.
c. Twist … the Scriptures: Peter reminds us that the Scriptures can be twisted. Just because someone quotes the Bible doesn’t mean that they teach Biblical truth. It’s possible that they twist … the Scriptures. That is why we should be like the Bereans, who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
i. “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)
ii. “I may just add that the verb [twist], 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.” (Clarke)
iii. Destruction: “Peter is very firm. The action of the false teachers in twisting Paul to justify their own libertinism and rejection of the parousia is so serious as to disqualify them from salvation.” (Green)
4. (17-18) Conclusion.
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
a. Since you know this beforehand: We, who know of the Day of the Lord and await it with patient expectation, must persevere lest we fall from your own steadfastness. We must take care to keep abiding in Jesus.
i. “In order that they might know how to stand, and to be preserved from falling, he gave them this direction: ‘grow in grace;’ for the way to stand is to grow; the way to be steadfast is to go forward. There is no standing except by progression.” (Spurgeon)
b. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: We prevent a fall from your own steadfastness by a continual growth in grace and knowledge of Jesus.
i. Grace is not merely the way God draws us to Him in the beginning. It is also the way we grow and stay in our steadfastness. We can never grow apart from the grace and knowledge of our Lord, and we never grow out of God’s grace.
ii. “But you will remark that our text does not say anything about grace growing; it does not say that grace grows. It tells us to ‘grow in grace.’ There is a vast difference between grace growing and our growing in grace. God’s grace never increases; it is always infinite, so it cannot be more; it is always everlasting; it is always bottomless; it is always shoreless. It cannot be more; and, in the nature of God, it could not be less. The text tells us to ‘grow in grace.’ We are in the sea of God’s grace; we cannot be in a deeper sea, but let us grow now we are in it.” (Spurgeon)
iii. We must also grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. This means knowing more about Jesus, but more importantly, knowing Jesus in a personal relationship.
c. To Him be the glory: When we are this ready and this steadfast in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, it gives God glory.
i. Spurgeon noted that this second letter of Peter ends on “two trumpet blasts.” One is from heaven to earth: grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The other is from earth to heaven: To Him be the glory both now and forever.
ii. Amen: This final word in not included in all ancient manuscripts of 2 Peter, yet it is appropriate for a letter affirming the truth in the face of the danger of false prophets and scoffers. We can say there are four meanings to “Amen”:
· It expresses the desire of the heart.
· It expresses the affirmation of our faith.
· It expresses the joy of the heart.
· It expresses the declaration of resolution.
iii. Under the law, Amen was only said at the declaration of the curses (Deuteronomy 27:14-26). Under the New Covenant, we say “Amen” at the announcement of a great blessing and praise to God.
Adam Clarke added this insightful postscript to Second Peter:
“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 of 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.” (Clarke)