1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. 3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:1-4)
The great hope of the Christian is: Jesus Christ is coming back. In 2 Peter 3 Peter redirects us back to the theme of 2 Peter 1, namely, that God has given us His promises, so that we will have power to resist temptation and remain in His way. Second to the subject of faith, the Second Coming of Christ is mentioned most in the Bible. God speaks of His Second Coming 1845 times.
In v.1, Peter literally desires to wake up his hearers. Interesting concept. Like these believers, we need awakening. We have so much truth, we tend to become
After our family recently went through a very difficult time, I found myself much more alert to the presence of God in my life. After that period of difficulty, I have found my awareness of His presence is different. It is the fallen human default mode to be less aware of the presence of God in our lives.
The principle that emanates out of 2 Peter 3:1 is:
the cure for spiritual lethargy is biblical prophecy.
In v.1 Peter uses the word "wholesome" to describe the thinking that he wants them to have. The Greek word used for "wholesome" is "eilikrinē" which means that which being viewed in the sunshine, that which is found clear and pure, spotless, sincere, ingenuous.
This is to say, when we see things through the eyes of God, we will have the fuel to endure any difficulty, understanding that the difficulty is a means to the end which is the truth.
In today's text, Peter confronts the denial of these false teachers about the second coming of Christ. They got the Second Coming wrong due to the fact that they got Jesus wrong (see 2 Peter 2).
In v.3-4 Peter points out these false teachers are part of prophetic fulfillment. He quotes them: “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
These false teachers were as they were because they were enslaved to their evil desires or evil lusts. Have you ever noticed that the more you give in to sin, they further you experientially remove yourself from the Lord? In my life, I have seen this principle played out over and over.
This introduces another very important point: we must be very careful to not feed the flesh, the evil desires within. In Joshua 1:8, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."
Instead of meditating on our flesh we must meditate on God's Word day and night! Not just on Sundays....but all the time....then we will recognize the wisdom within.
Tomorrow, we will consider Peter's response to this question.
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