To Say What Must Be Said ...

Throughout this entire second letter to the church, Peter has attempted to remind his audience; to put the church in remembrance of the transformative power of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  He has offered the scriptures, his own eye-witness testimony, and the sure word of prophecy as evidence to the Truth of Jesus Christ.  While we do not know Peter as a prophet, in what will be his final written words, he again demonstrates a living prophetic gift powered by the Holy Spirit in what will be revealed.  The goal of these parting words was not to be “prophetic”, but prophecy would be a tool to again remind his readers of the transforming power of Jesus Christ.  Our lives were meant to be better than they are.  Our lives were meant to be fuller.  In the death of self, and absence of self-obsession, we find the perfect freedom to love others that ONLY Jesus Christ can create within us.  We are to be made free from our former addictions, and slavery to loving self.  This was the power of the gospel, Peter was so keen for the early church to never lose sight of.  Already false teachers were spreading the seeds of Satanic influence in Christian thinking.  Already there were those who taught the value of “self” in the process of salvation.  This needed correction.

So Peter begins in chapter three of his second letter, the final chapter, his last written opportunity to reach the early church.  This was it.  Consider what you might write, if you knew with certainty your death was near, if you knew it could not be avoided.  What final thoughts would dominate your own priority.  While Peter no doubt loved his wife, perhaps he was more certain of her spiritual fate, and therefore focused his energy of those who he believed were at higher risk.  He begins in verse 1 saying … “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: [verse 2] That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:”  Note the term “beloved” in his address.  Peter has come to truly love these believers.  They are not just numbers to him, a random counting of those who may have been converted at some point or another and now comprise a church of “x” members.  They are not just folks of like-mind.  They are his beloved, and beloved of Christ.  It is not a sexual term, but it is a highly intimate term.  It carries meaning to him, and it is why he chooses to say what must be said.

Peter wishes to stir up remembrance in the church, to cause “pure minds” to consider the value of the gospel message he wants them to remember.  He asks they remember what he has said in times past.  He does not discard scripture, He asks them to build upon it, to be led to its truths.  They are not to become Pharisees obsessed with their own knowledge of the word, but they are not to become heretics that avoid the guidance the word might offer either.  They are to be led because they are willing to be led, to the Truth of Jesus Christ.  They must learn to see all scripture through the lens of Jesus Christ.  He worries they will forget what he and the other apostles have said to them.  This is not an ego trip for Peter.  He is not the sole authority of the gospel, he is merely a voice in it.  He does not discount the words, letters, or teachings of other apostles or leaders in the faith.  He does not defer to them, or assert superiority over them, he UNIFIES with them and acts in concert with them for the betterment of the church.  There is no hierarchy implied here, only a flat-church with Christ as the individual leader of every member.

Peter continues in verse 3 … “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [verse 4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”  Here begins the revelation of the future from the Holy Spirit, inspiring the prophetic words of Peter.  Peter longed for a return of Jesus Christ in his own day.  But he now knows he will sleep until the return of his Lord.  So the Holy Spirit offers Peter a glimpse into human nature, and the temptations of Satan that will plague the church when he is gone.  The words Peter enumerates above have been spoken not just in our own generation, but in nearly every generation between Peter and us.  It is the rally cry of the Atheists in our day.  And it has only ever been made worse by those who claimed to know the exact hour of His returning. They preach a message of fear that the hour of the Lord was near.  When the day and time passed, scoffers only amplified their cries.

You will also note, those who scoff, have not been made free from the slavery of self.  Instead they “walk after their own lusts”.  This is not just a general statement of despair about those who have not yet found the Lord.  It is a profound examination of those within the membership of the church, who have also never been made free from sin, any sin.  There are those who never allow the scoffing words to pass their lips, yet in their hearts, hold these same ideas to be true.  They believe forgiveness will cover their misdeeds, and that they have time to continue committing these sins while God delays his return.  They do not have the courage to utter words of doubt within the body of Christ, but their lifestyles are evident of the desires of their hearts.  Desires that have never been altered or re-created by Jesus Christ, because they would rather prolong His delay and continue in sin, than surrender and live differently.  These scoffers have embraced the idea of responsibility, and the role of self, within the process of salvation.  As such, they have only known failure, and failure has led them to doubt.

Peter continues in verse 5 … “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: [verse 6] Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: [verse 7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”  There is a key reason why Satan must attack the validity of Creation, and the Flood in the Genesis accounting by Moses.  If Christians accept the literacy of Creation, they can acknowledge that Jesus Christ could create in them new desires in harmony with the law of God.  But if we merely evolved, then perhaps our own evolution will save us as well.  If Christians accept the literacy of the Flood where the entire world was destroyed except for Noah who was willing to be saved by God; then the idea that a final end to sin will one day come upon us as well is equally real.  If the Flood never happened, then God has never really asserted His control, and perhaps He never will.

The doctrines, the truth, of the stories of Creation and the Flood, illustrate the salvation power of Jesus Christ, and the ultimate end of sin.  To discard them in favor of science, is to deny the author of science.  To discard them in favor of modern wisdom, is to trust our own common sense over the word of God, and repeat the errors of Lucifer and Adam.  Our wisdom will never be equal to God, our vision never as long or wide.  There are things we can study.  But when we believe we know “better” than God, we have crossed the same line Lucifer did, and embarked on the same path as well.  Peter here states that the condition of these scoffers, even inside the church, is to be willfully ignorant.  They do not wish to believe.  They do not want to know the truth.  They do not long for an end to evil, but instead a perpetuation of evil.  They want endless time to sin, not an end to sin within them.  This is the nature of scoffers who have never tasted the freedom from sin; the transformation offered by Jesus Christ who alone is able to bring.

Peter continues in verse 8 … “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  Here again the prophetic influence of the Holy Spirit is displayed.  So many students of scripture have used this text to apply timelines to prophetic interpretations of other parts of scripture.  It helps set historical context, and allows timelines to be precisely formed for the beginning and ending of other prophecies.  And it is wonderful to see how the words of Peter here are used to help enhance prophecy in other places, by other authors.  But this was not the intent of Peter when penning these words.  He is simply continuing his thought about the complaint of scoffers as to the delay in the return of our Lord.  This is as much a figurative analogy as a declarative key to unlock other prophetic timelines.  Time has far less meaning when there are no limits to it.  It is our own mortality that feels the weight of passing minutes, months, and decades.  God has never known those limitations.  We had a Genesis.  God did not.  We were created therefore at some point in the infinite timeline of God we came into existence.  But our lives were never meant to be ended by an embrace of sin.  That choice was ours.  The result of that choice was inevitable.  Sin must end.  But in the light of our redemption, once again time has less meaning.  Knowing we will live forever at His return offers us a freedom from the weight of time.

Peter then offers insight into the reason why God would delay His return in verse 9 … “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  This is the fundamental difference in the thinking between God and Satan.  God uses time for the redemption of mankind, working diligently that all men might have time to come to want salvation.  Satan uses time to perpetuate evil and wishes it will never end, so that he can continue to act in evil forever.  Scoffers tend to align with Satan.  Their cries of perpetual delays and challenges to the truth of any end-state of the world, are more meant to validate their own desires to remain in sin.  They do not complain about the plague of sin that endures, they instead relish in it.  While those whose hearts are aligned with God, see each day as yet another opportunity to bring the freedom of Christ to an unreached aching soul; a chance to add one more to the number who will join them in eternity.  This is the consuming passion of the Christian, to love someone enough to find them in the kingdom together.

Peter continues in verse 10 … “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. [verse 11] Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, [verse 12] Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? [verse 13] Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”  Peter echoes the teachings of Christ stating that the day of His return will come as a “thief in the night”.  Or in other words, it comes when few are looking for it.  There are guards or policemen who keep an eye out for thieves at night.  But the mass of citizenry are sound asleep, not on guard, and content in the false knowledge that they are secure.  How many Christians are content and asleep, and not looking to be made free from the sin within them?

But what happens to the wealth of this world, and the combined accomplishments of mankind, when they are dissolved with a fervent heat?  All of the things we spend our time building, for ourselves, for our employers, for our nation, will ALL be melted away.  Our cars gone, our homes, our vacation resorts will be gone in a minute.  If these are things where we have invested so great a part of ourselves, our return on investment is to be disappointing.  Peter points this out, and says that in the light of the meaningless of the wealth of this world, we should invest our time, our conversation, and our actions in the wealth of the next one … namely in loving people to see them there.  Christians are to look past the destruction of this world, not at the wealth of the next one.  Notice he does not call attention to golden streets, but to a place “wherein dwelleth righteousness”.  It is not the structures we should be concerned about, it is the method of HOW we live that matters.  The absence of sin is the ultimate goal, not where we live when that occurs.

Peter summarizes in verse 14 … “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.”  This is the message Peter has so needed to say.  This is the goal of reminding the early church.  The transformation Jesus Christ offers allows us to be found amidst the turmoil of the world, yet in peace.  The transformative power of Love Jesus Christ offers allows us to be found without spot, though surrounded by the most vile sins.  The freedom from loving self, to made free to love only others, allows us to be found blameless in world were all the troubles are blamed upon us.  It is not the conditions of our surroundings that dictate who we are.  It is in allowing the transformation process to occur within us that sees us made perfect in a world filled with imperfection and sin.  The problems have never been on the outside, they have always been on the inside.  This is the message that had to be said.  These are the words Peter must say before his time is ended.  We should cling to the gospel of hope.  We should cling to the transformative power of Jesus Christ to redeem us, and do not allow “self” to enter in and corrupt the process.  With the knowledge of his impending death, Peter chooses to write these words to the church.  It had to be said.  It must be said.  Now will we listen …

And Peter had one more epilogue to write …