Remember How You’re to Wait

Peter uses the word salvation four other times in his two letters, and all of them refer to ultimate deliverance from sin and death at the end of life (1 Pet 1:5,9,10; 2:2). This understanding is consistent with the general idea of salvation in the New Testament. We’ve already seen in this book that Peter evidently thought that at least some of his readers were in danger of buying into the deceptive words of the false teachers and thereby showing themselves to be truly unregenerate (see 1:3-11). Consequently, he wants each of us to take the opportunity we have, while waiting for Christ’s return, to confirm our relationship with Jesus (Moo, 2 Peter, 208–9).

Regardless of whether Peter’s talking about bold evangelism or assurance of salvation (or both!), he reinforces his exhortation by saying the apostle Paul warned his readers about the same things: “Just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him” (v. 15). His reference to Paul as “our dear brother” underscores the affection and graciousness he felt toward him as a colaborer in the gospel. These two apostles were the primary leaders in the early church. Both had been present at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:6-21), and both had ministered with Silas (cf. Acts 15:40; 1 Pet 5:12). Over two decades earlier, Paul had even confronted Peter for refusing to eat with Gentile believers (Gal 2:8-9,11-21; cf. 1 Cor 1:12; 3:22). These two men had been through some stuff together, so Peter appeals to Paul’s writings to corroborate his plea.

If—as some have argued—Peter wrote his second letter to the same people in Asia Minor as his first letter (cf. 1 Pet 1:1; 2 Pet 3:1), his readers likely would have been familiar with a number of Paul’s letters since he had written many of his letters to people in the same area (e.g., Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians). Regardless, Peter’s reference to “these things in all his letters” (v. 16) suggests his readers are somehow familiar with a lot of what Paul had written. While we can’t be entirely sure about which letters Peter is referring to, we can conclude that the themes of the necessity of godly living and the certainty of God’s patience are found in a number of Paul’s letters.

Before going any further in verse 16, I think it’s best to reach down to the end of the verse and note that Peter considers Paul’s writings to be of the same nature as “the rest of the Scriptures.” In the language of the New Testament, the word translated “rest” or “other” refers to other of the same kind, evidenced by instances in the New Testament where it’s used as an adjective (e.g., Matt 25:11; Acts 2:37; 2 Cor 12:13; Gal 2:13; cf. Rom 1:13; 1 Cor 9:5; Phil 4:3). Additionally, the term “Scriptures” (graphe) occurs fifty times in the New Testament and consistently refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. It comes from the verb meaning “to write” (grapho) that occurs about 180 times in the New Testament, half of which refer to the written Word of God. Consequently, we’re on solid ground in concluding that Peter considered Paul’s writings to be Scripture on the same level as the Old Testament Scriptures (Moo, 2 Peter, 212). Having this understanding helps us feel the weight of what Peter is saying in the rest of this verse.

Knowing that Peter’s talking here about inspired Scripture, his next words are a great encouragement to me. He acknowledges that “there are some matters [in Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand.” The term “hard to understand” is used of things that are difficult to interpret (Bauckham, 2 Peter, 331). Let me be really transparent for a moment and say that I’m super glad Peter makes this observation. I’m encouraged that I’m not the only one who doesn’t understand everything he reads in the Bible! Even at several places in this epistle we’ve run across words or phrases or verses where we don’t have all the information we’d like to have, or where we’ve just had to admit that we simply don’t know the exact meaning that’s intended. We have to be OK with those times, being confident that none of the “unknowns” rob us of anything that’s essential for “life and godliness” (1:3). But we can be encouraged that Peter—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—concedes that at times some of the stuff Paul wrote is difficult to interpret.

Although some things in the Bible are difficult to interpret, misinterpretation of Scripture is never excusable (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 396). It’s better for us to admit that we don’t know what a text means than to distort the meaning of a text and make it say what we want it to say. That’s what the false teachers and their converts were doing. Peter says these “untaught and unstable will twist” both Paul’s writings and the rest of Scripture to justify their immoral behavior. And in so doing they were undermining both the commission to bold evangelism and the assurance of salvation. The word “untaught” denotes a lack of information, and “unstable” indicates a vacillating spiritual character. The verb “twist” speaks of wrenching someone’s body on a torture rack, painting a vivid picture of how the false teachers manipulated certain issues in order to confuse and deceive the undiscerning (MacArthur, 2 Peter, 135).

Beloved, don’t miss the haunting negative influence of false teaching that’s being revealed here at the end of Peter’s letter! The ignorance and instability of the people being described here wasn’t merely due to the lack of instruction. Peter began his letter by referring to believers as firmly “established” (esterigmenous, 1:12) in the truth. But then he said the false teachers enticed “unstable” (asteriktous, 2:14) souls. Now we are being told here that the “unstable” (asteriktoi) distorted Paul’s writings (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 397). There will always be those within the community of faith who aren’t established in the gospel. They become the targets of false teachers. And when the unstable fall prey to heresy, they themselves begin to do the same thing with the Bible that their teachers do—they twist it to justify their immoral lifestyles. May God give us grace to zealously establish every man, woman, boy, and girl in the glorious gospel!

This errant use of Paul’s writings—or any part of the Bible for that matter—is no innocent offense. Both the false teachers and their disciples twist the Scriptures “to their own destruction.” Both the verbal and noun forms of the word “destruction” are used frequently in 2 Peter to refer to God’s judgment against the wicked (2:1,3; 3:6-7,9). These hermeneutical gymnastics landed these heretics in hell! They were twisting and distorting Paul’s writings to justify their licentious lifestyles. They were dulling the sharp edge of gospel mission as well as the confidence of its adherents. Luther reasonably suggests they were abusing Paul’s teaching on justification by faith and freedom from the law to enjoy a life of moral laxity (Luther, Commentary, 286). This wasn’t a question of minor doctrinal errors but of using misinterpretations to justify immorality. And Peter is consistent in identifying eschatological condemnation as the destiny of those who choose such ungodliness (Bauckham, 2 Peter, 334).

When all is said and done, it’s clear that we don’t need to spend a lot of time trying to determine whether Peter wants us to turn up the heat on our bold evangelistic efforts or to give concentrated time to solidifying the assurance of our salvation. Why? First of all, both exhortations are common to the New Testament, including Peter’s writings (e.g., 1 Pet 2:9-12; 2 Pet 1:8-11) and Paul’s writings (e.g., Rom 2:4; cf. Rom 3:25-26; 9:22). Second, if we think about it closely, the same issue is at the heart of both exhortations: true salvation! Peter wants all people to hear the gospel and be saved and to be sure they’re saved. And that includes those of us inside the church who already believe we’re saved but are being bombarded with false teaching, tempted by a sexually licentious and materialistic culture, and living day after day wondering when Jesus is coming back. So let’s hear Peter as saying both: use this time to leverage our lives to get the gospel to every person who hasn’t heard it and intentionally lean in to growing in Christlikeness in order to confirm our calling and election. “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” Carpe diem! Seize the day, Peter says!

2 Peter 3:17-18

I think human pyramids are fascinating to watch (and I underscore the word watch!). I must admit that the sinister side of me likes to watch them because of the possibility that they may fall down in a mound of mangled bodies! If you’ve seen one of these acrobatic formations, you know they’re made up of three or more people in which two or more people support a tier of people on top of them, who in turn may support rows of people on top of them. The brave souls up top usually kneel or stand on the shoulders, backs, or thighs of the people below them. Crazy, huh? For obvious reasons, they usually put the people who don’t weigh very much higher in the formation, and they put the bigger and stronger people closer to the base. That way the chances of falling are reduced!

Peter was concerned about the weight of false teaching on the Christ followers he was shepherding. He didn’t want them to fall. So his third application—which actually doubles as the conclusion of his letter—calls on believers not to cave in under the weight of the scoffing of the wolves who wore sheep’s clothing. The apostle’s closing thoughts are marked first in verse 17 by the emphatic “You” at the beginning of the verse in the original language (see NASB, ESV), a construction that underscores the urgency and necessity of the reader’s response. That’s followed by the transitional “therefore,” which identifies everything that’s been said up to this point as the reason for what he’s about to say. And what he’s about to say is couched in two imperatives that provide a simple yet pointed summary of the entire letter. First, the readers must be on guard so that they don’t fall prey to the false teachers and prove themselves to be imposters when Jesus comes (v. 17). Second, they must grow in Christ Jesus in order to remain on that crucial watch (v. 18).

Peter’s first appeal is for his readers to be on guard. He wants his readers to take care “so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position.” The word translated “fall” refers to apostasy (cf. Rom 11:11,22; 14:4; 1 Cor 10:12; Heb 4:11; Rev 2:5), and the participle translated “led away” serves to indicate how that can actually happen to people. Apostasy happens when someone lets their guard down, so they end up being swept away by the “error” taught by rebellious false teachers and, thereby, fall away (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 400; cf. 2:18). These teachers are called “lawless” people, which literally means “without law or custom” and came to mean “morally corrupt” (MacArthur, 2 Peter, 136). Apostasy happens when these peddlers of perversion are successful in luring someone to adopt their same perverted moral character.

This deadly proselytizing is the reason Peter is so zealous for us never to let our guards down. He suggests that believers have a biblical responsibility to watch themselves so they don’t depart from the Christian faith. And his entire letter is clear that those who depart—like the false teachers—are destined for eternal damnation. Again, as we’ve previously noted, any person who ultimately does turn aside and fall away reveals that they were never truly saved in the first place (see the discussion on 2:5-13; cf. 1 Cor 11:19; 1 John 2:19). His plea here is similar to the one he made earlier in his letter:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. (2 Pet 1:10-11)

He wants all his readers to make it to the finish line in full stride, proving the authenticity of their faith.

So how do professing believers avoid falling away? The opposite of falling away is to maintain our “own stable position”—or secure situation. And we do that by paying attention to instructions and heeding warnings. Doing so doesn’t quench confidence but actually is the means to it. Peter wasn’t trying to throw cold water on our assurance but to strengthen it by calling us to heed what we’ve been taught. The phrase “you know this in advance” refers to the advance warning his readers had been given through the Old Testament prophets and the teaching of the apostles (1:16-21; 3:2), as well as what Peter had previously written in this letter (Moo, 2 Peter, 213). Today we have all this in our Bibles. If we fall away, Peter reminds us, it won’t be because we haven’t been warned. We will be without excuse. So it’s important for us to keep this on our radar because, if we’re not careful, it’s possible for us to stumble at false teaching. And the longer Christ delays, the easier it will be for us to trip up and cast our lot in with the scoffers and doubters.

Endurance doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You can only keep your guard up so long if that’s all you’ve got. The negative of saying no to false teaching has to be partnered with a positive. So Peter makes a second appeal to us: grow in Christ. The idea of growing in Christ is broken down into two facets. The noun “grace” and the phrase “knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” are best understood as separate but related ideas (Moo, 2 Peter, 214). In other words, the first part of Peter’s admonition is simply to “grow in grace.” The second part is to grow in the knowledge of Christ.

Peter begins his ending by telling us to “grow in . . . grace.” Like many believers, I grew up thinking grace was something that was limited to my conversion. We sang, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!” I learned the little acronym G-R-A-C-E, which represented God’s Redemption At Christ’s Expense. And all of that is good and right, but it’s not enough. From the outset of his letter, Peter presents grace not as a static reality limited to the time we first confessed Christ and were forgiven of our sins but as a dynamic infusion of God’s help for living the gospel life from beginning to end. He rightly began his letter by highlighting grace as the saving righteousness that gives faith to believers (1:1). But he didn’t stop there. He immediately prayed that the grace of Christ would be multiplied in our lives (1:2). Then he declared that Jesus’s grace has granted us everything we need to live godly lives (1:3-4) so we will experience God’s saving promises to the max.

Grace is the amazing gift of God’s resources given to believers in order that they might live out the gospel. It’s the foundation of the Christian life, and Scripture constantly and consistently calls us to grow in it, to be nurtured in it, and to be strengthened by it (e.g., 2 Cor 6:1; 9:8; 12:9; 2 Tim 2:1; 1 Pet 4:10). Maybe we need an additional acronym for G-R-A-C-E—God’s Resources Applied to the Christian Experience! God has given us all the resources of heaven to grow in the image of Christ and remain steadfast in him. If we don’t grow and progress in grace our entire lives, we run the risk of being carried away by the lawlessness of false teachers (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 401).

Not only do we need to grow in grace, but we need to grow in the “knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” as well. The language of the New Testament indicates that Jesus is the object of the phrase—he is the one we are to know. As we’ve seen, the knowledge of God in Christ is a major theme in 2 Peter. We’ve learned that grace and peace will be amplified in knowing Jesus Christ as God and Savior (1:2). Everything we need for life and godliness is available through knowing him (1:3). Growing in the knowledge of Christ is necessary for living the gospel life (1:5-6). Only the people who grow in godliness demonstrate that their knowledge of Christ is fruitful (1:8). We’ve seen that the opposite is true as well. People who deny Christ after coming to a knowledge of him are worse off than those who never confessed him (2:20-21).

Peter is intentional about closing his letter with this theme of growing in the knowledge of Christ. He understands that knowing Christ is one of our primary goals for Christian development as we move toward a full knowledge of him—“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). But he also knows that as believers we need to be able to distinguish between true knowledge of Christ and “irreverent and empty speech and contradictions from what is falsely called knowledge” (1 Tim 6:20), which was championed by the false teachers. Both knowing Christ and knowing about Christ not only help us grow in grace, but they help us keep our guard up against heresy and apostasy. Michael Green says, “The more we know Christ, the more we will invoke his grace. And the more we know about Christ, the more varied will be the grace we invoke” (2 Peter, 176). Growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ is absolutely essential for maturing in Christ and warding off false teaching.

Peter concludes his letter—and his exhortation to grow in Christ—with a doxology. He says, “To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” A doxology is an ascription of glory, offering renown to one to whom it is due. Although Peter uses some familiar terms here, his ending is somewhat unusual for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he ends with a doxology. Most New Testament letters end with greetings, references to fellow workers, requests for prayer, or blessings for grace (for other exceptions, see Rom 16:25-27; Phil 4:20; Jude 24-25). But neither the uniqueness of Peter’s ending nor the familiar terms he uses should deflect our attention from the weight of his words. Consider some other distinctive qualities of the way Peter brings his letter to a close, as well as the reasons he likely did so.

Notice that Peter’s doxology is to Christ (see also 2 Tim 4:18; Rev 1:5-6), while most doxologies in Scripture normally ascribe glory to God. This shouldn’t surprise us, however, because he presents a high view of Jesus, starting with the beginning of his letter (Moo, 2 Peter, 215; cf. 1:1). Peter held a conviction that glory should be attributed to Christ because both our salvation and our perseverance ultimately are his doing. He didn’t call on us to exercise self-effort in order to save ourselves. He told us that God grants grace so we can grow in our knowledge of him. Peter simply believes that the one who does the work deserves the glory (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 402).

Another uncommon characteristic of Peter’s ending is that he ascribes glory “to the day of eternity.” Most New Testament authors usually ascribe glory to God with something like “forever” (e.g., Jude 25). But the context of Peter’s letter—and especially of this last chapter—helps us understand this different slant. His reference to the “day” likely has an eschatological meaning, namely “the day of the Lord” or “the day of God.” He’s been telling us that when Christ comes back he will inaugurate a new age, an age (or “day”) that will last forever. The false teachers denied that this day would ever come, but Peter has reminded us that it will and that it will be characterized by glory to Jesus Christ forever and ever. So the glory belongs to Jesus Christ both now and forever. We glorify him as we long for that day, and as we wait for it with anticipation and holiness (Moo, 2 Peter, 215; Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 402).

So we say with Peter, Amen: So let it be!

That seasoned pastor taught me to begin a wedding rehearsal with the end in mind. Start where you’re going to end up, he told me. It seems that Peter did the same thing in this letter—he ends up where he started. He started by praying, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (1:2). He ends by exhorting us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18). He began by acknowledging the God who “called us by his own glory and goodness” (1:3). He ends by blessing that same God and saying, “To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity” (3:18). He started by calling believers to mature in Christ so they will never fall under the weight of false teaching (1:5-11). He ends by appealing to us to do the same thing (3:17-18).

In some respects that’s the way it is with the gospel—it starts and finishes at the same place. It was inaugurated at the first coming of Christ; it will culminate with the second coming of Christ. These two advents certainly have some things in common, not the least of which is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies about the coming King. But the two comings also are different. The first time Jesus came, he came as a suffering and humiliated servant to die for the sins of the world. But when he comes again, he will come as the reigning Lord in all of his glory and honor, and he will punish the wicked and gather his followers to himself. Jesus is the coming King of kings and Lord of lords! And until he comes, he expects his followers to live worthy of his arrival and subsequent reign. Since we are assured of the certainty of Christ’s return, we must live this life in light of it. As the apostle Paul said,

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 3:1-4 ESV)

This is the gospel, beloved. Remember it . . . and live it.