4:2Many believers want an abundance of God's grace and peace, but they are unwilling to put forth the effort to get to know him better through Bible study and prayer. To enjoy the privileges God offers us freely, we must grow in our knowledge of God and Jesus our LORD.
Life Application Study Bible2 PeterChapter 3
2 Peter 3
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 2141, 2142
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
32 Peter 3
The Day of the LORD Is Coming
1This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. 2I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our LORD and Savior commanded through your apostles. 3Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” 5They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed. 8But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the LORD, and a thousand years is like a day. 9The LORD isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10But the day of the LORD will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.* 1+Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will meit away in the flames. 13But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. 14And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. 15And remember, the LORD’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— 16speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.
Peter's Final Words
1717I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. 1®Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.
Textual footnotes
- 3:10 Other manuscripts read will be burned up; still others read will be found destroyed.
Life Application Notes 11 notes
4:3,4The power to lead a godly lite comes from God. Because we con't have the resources to be truly godly, God allows us to “share his divine nature” in order to keep us from sin and help us live for him. When we are born again, God by his Spirit empowers us with his own goodness. See John 3:6; 14:17-23; 2 Corinthians 5:21; and 1 Peter 1:22, 23.
3:3,4“In the last days” scoffers will say that Jesus is never coming back, but Peter refutes their argument by explaining God’s mastery over time. The “last days” is the time between Christ's first and second comings; thus, we, like Peter, live in the last days. We must do the wark to which God has called us and believe that he will return as he promised.
3:7In Noah's day the earth was judged by water; at the Second Coming it will be judged by fire. This fire is described in Revelation 19:20; 20:10-15.
3:8,9God may have seemed slow to these believers as they faced persecution every day and longed to be delivered. But God is not slow; he just is not on our timetable (Psalm 90:4). Jesus is waiting so that more sinners will repent and turn to him. We must not sit and wait for Christ to return, but we should realize that time is short and we have important work to do. Be ready to meet Christ any time, even today; yet plan your course of service as though he may not return for many years.
3:10,11The day of the LORD is the day of God's judgment on the earth. Here it is used in reference to Christ's return. Christ's second coming will be sudden and terrible for those who do not believe in him. But if we are moraily clean and spiritually alert, it won't come as a surprise. For other prophetic pictures of the day of the LORD, see Isaiah 34:4; Joel 3:15, 16; Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21; Revelation 6:12-17. Realizing that the earth is going to be burned up, we should put our confidence in what is lasting and eternal and not be bound to earth and its treasures or pursuits. Do you spend more of your time piling up possessions or striving to develop Christlike character?
3:13God's purpose for people is not destruction but re-creation. (see isaiah 66:22; Revelation 21-22). God will purify the heavens and earth with fire; then he will create them anew. We can joyously look forward to the restoration of God’s good world.
3:14We should not become lazy and complacent because Christ has not yet returned. Instead, we should live in eager.expectation of his coming. What would you like to be doing when Christ returns? That is how you should be living each day.
3:15,16By the time of Peter's writing, Paul's letters already had a widespread reputation. Notice that Peter spoke of Paul's letters as if they were on a level with “other parts of Scripture.” Already the early church was thinking of Paul’s letters as inspired by God.
3:15-18Peter and Paut had'very different backgrounds and personalities, and they preached from different viewpoints. Paul emphasized salvation by grace, not law, while Peter preferred to talk about Christian life and service. The two men did not contradict each other, however, and they always held each other in high esteem. The false teachers intentionally misused Paul's writings by distortirig them to condone lawlessness. No doubt this made the teachers popular, because people always like to have their favorite sins justified, but the net effect was to totally destroy Paul's message. Paul may have been thinking of teachers like these when he wrote in Romans 6:15: “Since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!” Peter warned his readers to avoid the mistakes of those wicked teachers by growing in the special favor and knowledge of Jesus. The better we know Jesus, the less attractive false teaching will be.
3:18Peter concludes this brief letter as he began, urging his readers to grow in the grace and knowledge of the LORD and Savior Jesus Christ; that is, they were to get to know him better and better. This is the best way to discern false teaching. No matter where we are in our Spiritual journey, no matter how mature we are in our faith, the sinful world will always challenge our faith. We still have much room tor growth. Every day we need to draw closer to Christ so that we will be prepared to stand for truth in any and all circumstances.