This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto
you
This is a transition to another part of the epistle; for the
apostle having largely described false teachers, the secret
enemies of the Christian religion under a profession of it,
passes on to take notice of the more open adversaries and profane
scoffers of it; and from their ridicule of the doctrine of
Christ's second coming, he proceeds to treat of that, and of the
destruction of the world, and the future happiness of the saints:
he calls this epistle his "second epistle", because he had
written another before to the same persons; and that the author
of this epistle was an apostle, is evident from ( 2 Peter 3:2 ) ; and
which, compared with ( 2 Peter 1:18
) shows him to be the Apostle Peter, whose name it bears, and who
was an eyewitness to the transfiguration of Christ on the mount,
( Matthew
17:1 Matthew 17:2
) ( Mark 9:2 )
: he addresses these saints here, as also in ( 2 Peter 3:8 2 Peter 3:14
2 Peter
3:17 ) , under the character of "beloved"; because they were
the beloved of God, being chosen by him according to his
foreknowledge, and regenerated by him, according to his abundant
mercy; and were openly his people, and had obtained mercy from
him, and like precious faith with the apostles; and were also the
beloved of Christ, being redeemed by him, not with gold and
silver, but with his precious blood; for whom he suffered, and
who were partakers of his sufferings, and the benefits arising
from them, and who had all things given them by him, pertaining
to life and godliness, and exceeding great and precious promises;
and were likewise beloved by the apostle, though strangers, and
not merely as Jews, or because they were his countrymen, but
because they were the elect of God, the redeemed of Christ, and
who were sanctified by the Spirit, and had the same kind of faith
he himself had. The Syriac and Arabic versions read, "my
beloved"; and the Ethiopic version, "my brethren": his end in
writing both this and the former epistle follows;
in [both] which I stir up your pure minds by way of
remembrance;
that this was his view both in this and the former epistle,
appears from ( 1 Peter 1:13
) ( 2
Peter 1:12-15 ) ; he calls their minds pure; not that they
were so naturally, for the minds and consciences of men are
universally defiled with sin; nor are the minds of all men pure
who seem to be so in their own eyes, or appear so to others; nor
can any man, by his own power or works, make himself pure from
sin; only the blood of Christ purges and cleanses from it; and a
pure mind is a mind sprinkled with that blood, and which receives
the truth as it is in Jesus, in the power and purity of it, and
that holds the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Some
versions, as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic, render the word
"sincere", as it is in ( Philippians
1:10 ) ; and may design the sincerity of their hearts in the
worship of God, in the doctrines of Christ, and to one another,
and of the grace of the Spirit of God in them; as that their
faith was unfeigned, their hope without hypocrisy, and their love
without dissimulation, and their repentance real and genuine; but
yet they needed to be stirred up by way of remembrance, both of
the truth of the Gospel, and the duties of religion; for saints
are apt to be forgetful of the word, both of its doctrines and
its exhortations; and it is the business of the ministers of the
word to put them in mind of them, either by preaching or by
writing; and which shows the necessity and usefulness of the
standing ministry of the Gospel: the particulars he put them in
mind of next follow.