Reflections on 2 Peter 3

2 Peter 03 (Contemporary English Version)
1. My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to encourage you to do some honest thinking. I don't want you to forget
   
2. what God's prophets said would happen. You must never forget what the holy prophets taught in the past. And you must remember what the apostles told you our Lord and Savior has commanded us to do.
   
3. But first you must realize that in the last days some people won't think about anything except their own selfish desires. They will make fun of you
   
4. and say, "Didn't your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first leaders have already died, and the world hasn't changed a bit."
   
5. They will say this because they want to forget that long ago the heavens and the earth were made at God's command. The earth came out of water and was made from water.
   
6. Later it was destroyed by the waters of a mighty flood.
   
7. But God has commanded the present heavens and earth to remain until the day of judgment. Then they will be set on fire, and ungodly people will be destroyed.
   
8. Dear friends, don't forget that for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years is the same as one day.
   
9. The Lord isn't slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.
   
10. The day of the Lord's return will surprise us like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and the heat will melt the whole universe. Then the earth and everything on it will be seen for what they are.
    
11. Everything will be destroyed. So you should serve and honor God by the way you live.
    
12. You should look forward to the day when God judges everyone, and you should try to make it come soon. On that day the heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat.
    
13. But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that!
    
14. My friends, while you are waiting, you should make certain that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace.
    
15. Don't forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved. This is also what our dear friend Paul said when he wrote you with the wisdom that God had given him.
    
16. Paul talks about these same things in all his letters, but part of what he says is hard to understand. Some ignorant and unsteady people even destroy themselves by twisting what he said. They do the same thing with other Scriptures too.
    
17. My dear friends, you have been warned ahead of time! So don't let the errors of evil people lead you down the wrong path and make you lose your balance.
    
18. Let the wonderful kindness and the understanding that come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help you to keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever! Amen.

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Peter, in this last chapter of his second letter, points out his primary reason for writing both letters: "I awaken your pure understanding with a reminder, so that you can remember the words previously spoken by the holy prophets, and the commandment of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles." (3:1-2) By awakening their pure understanding, Peter wanted them to be able to discern the truth to which various teachers would lay claim, by holding their teaching up to the light of the teaching of "the holy prophets, and the commandment of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles." What he is suggesting is a procedure similar to what was used to detect flaws in pottery being sold in the market. Merchants would sometimes use wax to cover cracks and weak places. But by holding it up to the sun, one could detect the flaws. This was referred to as "sun-judging." So Peter is wanting his readers to be able to "sun-judge" the teaching of false teachers by holding it up to the light of scripture (the holy prophets) and of the commandments of Jesus which was given through the apostles. For us, this is all in scripture.

Peter proceeded to refer to a prominent claim of false teachers, or scoffers, that could be expected. They will claim that Christians wait in vain for Christ to return. To support this claim they state that "ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation." (3:4) This argument is based on the principle of "uniformitarianism," a view that the cosmic processes of both present and future can be understood solely on the basis of how the cosmos has operated in the past. Such an argument rules out divine intervention in the universal order, claiming that the universe is governed by natural laws, leaving no room for miracles. Based on this argument, says Peter, the scoffers claim that Jesus could not come again.

But the scoffers only recall from history what is convenient in support of their claim. They say all things continue as they have since the beginning of creation, but they ignore such events as the flood in Noah's time, which is a clear demonstration of God's intervention in creation apart from the natural laws. It is true that the flood was thousands of years in the past, and it may be thousands of years before Christ returns, but Peter reminds them that "with the Lord one day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years like one day." (3:8) God has a completely different perspective of time, which uses eternity as the point of reference, than do we with our temporal perspective. And if it seems that the Lord is delaying His return as if He were procrastinating, we need to understand that He is instead being patient, giving every opportunity for all to come to repentance so none will perish.

Therefore, as we await Christ's return, we need to wait with patience and "make every effort to be found in peace without spot or blemish before Him." (3:14) Also, we should "regard the patience of our Lord as an opportunity for salvation." (3:15) So, now we have been forewarned, and since we have, we can be on our guard and not led away by the error of these false teachers. Instead, we can "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (3:18)