2 Peter 3:11-18 - Living a godly and holy life
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[Intro]
Last time we went through 2 Peter 3:1-10 and focused on the second coming of Christ. This day that it will take place is not one that anybody knows, it’ll come like a thief in the night. There are times where we may get impatient as we look forward to the day. The delay is God’s patience for those who’s hearts have not turned to Christ. For the nonbelievers they are called mockers, because they look around and mock those who believe that Christ will return. They are like the people in Noah’s day, not looking to God and only trusting in their own judgement on what they see and know.
Today we are going to be going through the rest of 2 Peter, closing with 3:11-18. Peter’s focus here in this closing is to live righteously for God. Committing your life to Him until the day he returns.
[Body]
11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
14 And 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.
15 And remember, our 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—16 speaking 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.
17 You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. 18 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.
Focusing on verses 11-13 here. Peter exhorts that we should live godly lives. Not pretty godly, he presents it in a way to say godly and holy lives beyond excellence. Our savior, Jesus Christ, is going to come back again to judge the whole world. Both the godly and the ungodly will be judged for everything we’ve done. We will all be held accountable. And when that day comes it won’t just be the fact that you can’t take your possessions with you to heaven, the fact is the entire earth will be destroyed. Any works done that did not advance the Kingdom will be burned up with the earth.
17 “Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth,
and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.
So in light of all that, put your focus on Christ and your heavenly reward on the day of his return.
Verse 12 says we can actually hurry the day along. Now since God is all-powerful and all-knowing, he’s never reacting to anything we do. Every event from beginning to end has been set in place by his sovereignty from the beginning of time. God the Father knows when the Son will return. So hurrying the day to come, some interpret this as the fact that since God is the one who calls us into a relationship, he knows all who will follow him, and therefore we can hasten the day by getting the message out to those people. We are to be active ambassadors for Him and for us it will be hastening the day. But for God, it’s what he had planned all along.
As destructive as this all sounds with the heavens and earth being set on fire, this is a redeeming process. God is making a new heavens and a new earth. That is his promise. And it will be filled with God’s righteousness. Us and the earth will no longer be tainted and cursed by sin. What a day to look forward to.
Verse 14 emphasizes the holy and godly living from verse 11. This does not imply a works based gospel in any way. We know all glory is to God for saving us. Peter is not saying do this to receive salvation, but do this in response to what God has done and is going to do when his promises are fulfilled. When God calls us into a relationship with him, we must seek him and grow in faith. One of Jesus’ parables was the good and wicked servants.
45 “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. 46 If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 47 I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. 48 But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ 49 and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? 50 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, 51 and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Peter is exhorting us to be the faithful, sensible servant that Jesus’ talked about in this parable. Like we read last week, and which also aligns with the lazy servant here, there will be scoffers about the Lord and his return. “He’s been taking forever.” “Is he really coming back?” “I have plenty of time to get myself right with God.” And some of these scoffers will be false teachers who twist the truth to justify their own sinful desires. As one of the points Larry brought about last week, for some the Gospel of Jesus is just head knowledge while others will be called into a real relationship with Him, receiving the gift of eternal life.
Let’s re-read verses 15-16 again.
15 And remember, our 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—16 speaking 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.
This is mostly summarizing what we just talked about. Why hasn’t the Lord came back yet? He’s giving time for the unbelievers to be saved. Which align with what Peter mentioned in verse 12, we can hasten the day by spreading the Good News. So all may hear the Good News, and if they are one of God’s chosen, they will believe.
Peter refers back to false teaching again in verse 16. He mentions that some writings are just hard to understand and discern. This is true to this day. There are a lot of topics in the Bible that many will not agree upon. Now there are some secondary issues that are okay to have different perspectives and opinions on. However, we must always make sure it is not something that alters the Gospel of Christ. And that’s what Peter is talking about here. Because he says their twisting of scripture in this way will result in their destruction. They are creating and following a false gospel. One that justifies there sinful actions. We’ve mentioned it in the past, but many believe Peter is referring to what we now call Antinomianism today. That message is claim Freedom in Christ and do whatever you want. Basically disregarding everything Peter has talked about in this letter and much of the scriptures as a whole in terms of being called to live a holy life for God.
What we discussed a couple months ago was, how we can live a holy and godly life? We have a sinful nature after all and we will always carry at least some of these fleshly desires until the Lord returns. The solution that we discussed was back in 2 Peter 1:3
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
Those that God has called into a relationship were justified at that very moment. From that moment on they have eternal security. The Holy Spirit is given to those who believe and the work of sanctification has started within them. That is God’s divine power working within us. He provides everything we need for living a godly life. It is dependence on God and glory to Him for the life we live for Him. Worship Him in Spirit and Truth and he will renew you day after day. That’s the beauty of God’s wonderful grace and mercy. He provides the gift of salvation and then after that provides everything we need for living a godly life. Without Him you have nothing. With him you have everything. Not a little, a lot or most of what you need, but everything you need in Him.
Whenever you’re struggling and seem to keep stumbling, ask yourself, when is the last time you really prayed to God, alone in quietness. And when did you last dig into the Word and really search to know Him more.
One thing I heard a pastor say which I think is very true is, communing with God and remaining in Him is simple but not easy. He’s always there for us whenever we need to call out to Him. Doesn’t have to be a specific place or perform any sort of ritual. And he has given us his very Word to know his character. But it’s so easy to get distracted, bogged down, busy with everything in the world and we burden ourselves or lose site of Him. And sometimes it’s even good things that are keeping us busy. But we must always remember to prioritize our relationship with Christ.
Let’s read the last two verses again:
17 You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. 18 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.
Be on guard. Don’t lose focus. Remain in Christ and He will remain in you. This last closing here seems to align well with the message that Don spoke about a couple weeks ago. Don’t let Satan get a foothold. You open up just a little room for him and you can lose your own secure footing. You can be persuaded and deceived by the message of wicked people. Fill your life with more of Christ. Pray for the work of sanctification to continue in you. Be on guard.
We live in a world where so many people, including some churches, are saying “the Bible is too old, we need to align more with the current culture so we can be more loving to others”. This is an argument used to justify all sorts of fleshly desires. Unbelievers will try to make you feel bad for standing up for the Word of God. God doesn’t make mistakes, He is just, and He never changes.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
If we were supposed to ignore certain parts of God’s Word depending on the current culture, there would never have been a flood in Noah’s day. There would never be a reason for any punishment because culture would always be the reasoning.
God’s Word should drive culture, not the other way around. God has given us his perfect Word, and it stands true without error to this day and will forevermore.