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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! Read it all

2 Peter 2:1-14, 19-21

Deception among God’s people is nothing new (2 Peter 2:1). Neither is it something that the New Testament church is immune to.

As those who have been bought, redeemed, and rescued from perdition (2 Peter 2:1), let us beware lest we ourselves go back into it (Hebrews 10:39). May the way of truth never be blasphemed because of our living (2 Peter 2:2).

God provided Noah a way of escape (2 Peter 2:5), provided Noah believed and obeyed. Noah is a great example of faith at work doing the work of faith.

We live in a time when the example of Sodom and Gomorrha (2 Peter 2:6) is forgotten or ignored, explained away or shrugged off.

“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked” (2 Peter 2:7). For me, this is one of the Bible’s great astonishing and convicting statements. I look at the witness of Scripture against Lot and I see a man who went further and further among the ungodly. Eventually he even offered up his virgin daughters for the sexual pleasure of perverted men! The time came when angels had to forcibly remove him from Sodom. “Just Lot” and “righteous man” indeed! And yet the licentious behavior around him wore at him. Read it all

2 Peter 1:1-11

Obtaining faith is essential, but I must not remain static in my faith (1).

To experience God’s grace and peace, develop your relationship with Him (2).

He has empowered us for life, godliness, glory, and virtue. If it has to do with real life and with being godly, He has given it to us! We get this by knowing Jesus (3).

His promises make me a partaker of His own nature. Those who are sharers of His divine nature will live according to that nature (4).

What I do must be part of adding to my faith (5).

We are called to growth (5).

We aren’t saved by the skin of our teeth (11)!

Our life here should be fully engaged in being faithful followers of Jesus (11).

Some words in 5-7 and 10 Read it all

1 Peter 5:1-14

Am I Resisting?

What the devil is up to today:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

What I am up to today?

“Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:9).

What God is up to today!

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Peter 5:10).

Unless I remember — continually, consciously — life consists of far more than I can see, I frequently will be lunchmeat for the roaring lion. And not only I, but also those for whom I am responsible — primarily my wife and children and, as patriarch, grandchildren.

Let me also remember — continually, consciously — to live by God’s grace. May I put behind me my careless, self-sufficient, ego-centric ways of dealing with life. Read it all