2 Peter 3

v1 - Sincere Thinking

Verse 1 tells us 2 things:

1st -Peter restates that this is the 2nd letter written to his “dear friends.” (beloved loved ones)

1:2 identifies them as those that have received a just as precious as the apostles. These are fellow believers that he has been warning not to be lead off track or to be discouraged by false teaching or scoffers.

2nd - Peter tells us why he is writing this 2nd letter.

The letter is a reminder to stimulate wholesome thinking. This goes back to 2 Peter 1:13 using the same phrase.

Remind-refresh you memory- stimulate thinking

wholesome thinking - sincere mind. The word for sincere transolates “without wax.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 3:1

Some pottery salesmen would use wax to cover cracks and weak places in pottery. Such a cover-up could be detected only by holding the jug up to the sun to see if any weaknesses were visible. Such a vase was “sun-judged” (the lit. meaning of the Gr. eilikrinēs). God wants His people to have sun-judged minds, not those in which their sin spots have been covered over.

V2 Recall-Remember

Peter states that he wants them to recall or remember 2 things.

“The words spoken in the past by the holy prophets.”

“the command give by our Lord Jesus Christ..”

Just as was happening then, believers today can be confused and discouraged by false teachers and scoffers. Their focus comes off of the gospel. Their minds are distracted by what seems to be a Christian teacher who is preaching something that sounds logical intellectually. They are distracted and become susceptible to the scoffers who say they whole gospel is false.

So here, Peter is telling us, first, what to do to keep it from happening to us and, second, what to do if it does happen to us.

Return to God’s Word.

Faith is believing that what the bible says is true and living based on it.

v3-4 Scoffers in the Last Days

When are “the last days?”

The last days are the period of time between the Lord’s First and Second Advents.

“First of all,” (“above all” depending on translation) used here and in 1:20, is in order of importance.

Peter is writing for the purpose of reminding his readers and the most important thing he wand them to remember is there will be scoffers and false teachers starting from when the Lord ascended and they will continue until he returns.

Scoffers are the false teachers who deny Jesus Christ (2:1) and His return (3:4.)

Jesus said they would come

Matt 24:3-5, 11, 23-36

Paul wrote about them

1 Tim 4:1-3; 2 Tim 3:1-9

Following their own evil desires - Arrogant snobbery and disdain for idea of a coming judgement.

If they can deny a coming judgement, what are the natural results?(ask for a list)

Relative morality

Sexual perversion

??

In order for them to deny the coming judgement, they seek to discredit the word of God that warns us of the coming judgement. What the early christian of Peter’s day were hearing is “where is this coming He promised?”

What do the “scoffers” of today preach?(ask for a list)

Where is this coming?

Evolution explains the origin of all things!

There are many paths to God.

They deny that the Lord came as payment for our sins, he is the only path to salvation and He is returning a judge.

Uniformitarianism - the belief that cosmic processes of the present and the future can be understood solely on the basis of how the cosmos has operated in the past. The universe is governed by natural laws and there has been and will never be any divine intervention. There are no miracles.

V5-7 Deliberate amnesia

The very idea of evolution explaining the existence of all things based on uniformitarianism “deliberately” ignores the fact that their theory starts with with something that already existed, and that it existed in a cosmos operating differently from what they currently observe.

Scoffers start with the assumption that “there is no God.”

What do they deliberately forget?(ask)

Creation

Evidence of a global flood (past judgement)

Evidence of the Resurrection

Future judgement

????

V8-9 The Lord is patient

The scoffers deliberately forget. Peter tells us not to forget this one thing. God does not operate under the principles of uniformitarianism. He was before the cosmos and time began. Therefore, what is time to God?

Don’t forget that God is and was and is to come all at the same time.

He is the great I AM.

Time was created for our benefit.

With God a thousand years are no different from a day. This doesn’t mean that God is on some other timeline where time passes faster. God transcends time altogether.

From our perspective, it seems the Lord is slow in keeping His promise. Peter give a reason for this apparent tardiness.

Not wanting anyone to perish

This is not a statement in favor of universal salvation.

He longs that all would be saved. 1 Tim 2:4

He knows that many will reject Him.

This is one of those places where, not being God, we have a hard time fitting God, who is infinitely greater than we are, into our understanding.

God knew before we were born if we would be saved, yet He waits for those who will not be?

We are saved by grace, apart from anything we do, yet we must accept Him by faith.

There are things we can’t understand, like the creation of something from nothing, or like God existing before time, or any existence outside of time. We can’t even create a sentence without the assumption of time. This is where we cling to what we do know and what we can understand. Above all remember. God created us and God will be our judge.