2 Peter 3
“Where is the promise of his coming?” (4) “You have a dumb hope. A numbing hope. An opiate hope. Ignorant, really. Regressive.”
- This scoffing led the world to the days of Noah.
- and Sodom and Gomorrah to the days of Lot.
- and the United States to the days of Mark.
Notice the Noah connection in verse 6 and the Lot connection in verse 7.
At the time 2 Peter was written, some 4,000 years had gone by since Creation. To the Lord, that would have been as four days. In four thousand years are over a million days. The scoffers have a problem with God’s “delay.” Four days out of a million just isn’t a troubling delay to me!
God is not slack, late, careless, or forgetful about His promise (9). We are the cause of His “delay.” Actually, it’s His longsuffering that’s the cause. It is of His mercy and compassion that we are not consumed (Lamentations 3:22).
Knowing of the coming day of the Lord (and the end of the heavens and the earth and all the works in the earth) should have an effect on our manner of being (11). How we are and how we live reflect our eternal perspective. May it be the perspective of our hope!
The expectation and anticipation of that new heavenly and earthly order should have certain effects on our being and living in this present order (14,17).
We live in times of great peril and mounting deception. But we have Christian hope! We can survive! We can prosper and thrive! We can be more than conquerors!
“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20).
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24,25).
- Does the Lord seem slack to some because of His longsuffering toward me? (9)
- Whose damnation am I willing to accept? (9)
- Will I lose much of my work? (10)
- How should reality affect my “real living”? (11)
- To what extent do (or should) God’s promises affect my focus and my purpose? (13)
Considering that everything I see will one day be destroyed, I ought to focus my life on being holy and godly. May God teach me and help me to seek first His kingdom and righteousness, laying up treasures in Heaven.
Additional Reading
