Category: 2 Peter

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2 Peter

Because this world isn’t forever

Man in prayer

If there’s one thing that’s crystal clear in this passage, it’s that this world will not last forever.

Peter says,

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare…

That day will bring the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. (2 Peter 3:10, 12)

Most of the time, we don’t even consider this. Instead we waste our lives on things that don’t matter. We waste our lives on temporary pleasures, on work, on money. But in the end, all these things will burn.

Yet not only will the earth be laid bare, so will our hearts. And God will judge us for how we lived our lives here.

And so Peter says,

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. (2 Peter 3:11-12)

In short, keep your priorities straight. Since these things will be destroyed, don’t set your hearts on them.

Instead set your heart on God and his kingdom. Live lives pleasing to him. And each day, seek to expand his kingdom. Touch the lives around you, sharing the love of Christ with them.

It’s hard to imaging that we can “speed” the day of Christ’s coming. But in a sense, we can.

For when the final person God has called receives Jesus as Savior and Lord, the church’s work is done, and there is no reason left for God to delay Christ’s coming.

Before we worry about bringing peace between God and mankind, however, we need to make sure that we ourselves are at peace with him. As Peter puts it,

Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. (2 Peter 3:14)

But we cannot be at peace with God if we are living merely to please ourselves. Nor can we be at peace with God if we distort his teachings.

That’s apparently what some people were doing with Paul’s writings as well as the other scriptures, “to their own destruction.” (16)

Too many people pick and choose what they like from the Bible. And if something God teaches makes them uncomfortable, they ignore it or try to explain it away. In some cases, they outright change it.

But we can’t do that and be at peace at God. We need to accept him as he is, not as we would like him to be.

So Peter tells us to be on our guard against people who would distort God’s word in that way.

And then he closes the same way he started, saying,

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:18)

Put aside any teachings that would diminish Jesus or his Word. Rather draw near to him and learn from him, and as each day passes, he will seem bigger to you than he ever was before.

And grace and peace will abound to you.

To him be the glory both now and forevermore. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18b)

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2 Peter

The patience of God

Judgment and salvation

We talked a couple days ago about the complaint people have that God seems to be doing nothing about all the evil and injustice in this world.

And we saw that justice will come, and that it is certain. It is the hope of those who believe and the fear of those who have rejected Christ.

But there are some for whom thoughts of judgment hold neither fear nor hope. And Peter addresses them here. He says,

First of all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4)

Two thousand years later, things have not changed. And perhaps, the reason for scoffing has only increased for unbelievers. But Peter tells us,

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word, the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction on ungodly men. (5-7)

In other words, though the people of Peter’s day said that God never seems to intervene and that nothing seems to change, they were wrong. For in creation, God intervened and brought all of the continents out of water, and created an atmosphere that was conducive to life.

And then when evil permeated throughout the earth, God once again intervened, destroying all the people of the earth through the great flood, saving only Noah and his family.

And now Peter warns us that God will intervene yet again. But this time the judgment will come through fire.

He says,

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (10)

And again,

That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. (12)

How literal this is, I don’t know. What is clear is that all that we know will be done away with. Either completely transformed, or destroyed and recreated. For Peter goes on to say,

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (13)

Why then the long wait? Why hasn’t God long since done away with this world and made all things new?

Peter tells us,

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (8-9)

And again,

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation. (15)

Basically, Peter is telling us God is giving more time because of his patience. But that patience is a double-edged sword.

On one hand, it gives more time for people to believe, and many more will believe and be saved before the day of judgment.

But by waiting, God is also giving people more rope to hang themselves with. By giving them more time, they truly have no excuse when he comes and passes judgment on them for their unbelief.

The question is, what will you do with the time has given you?

The choice is yours.

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2 Peter

Underestimating Satan

2 Peter

C.S. Lewis once said about demons, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

I would add to that one more. To underestimate them.

As we’ve seen in chapter 2, Peter is writing against the false teachers. And in this passage, we see that one of their problems was that they refused to recognize authority, those who were greater and in higher positions than they were.

First and foremost that would refer to God. Secondly that would refer to the apostles and true leaders of the church. But there is a third category. Peter says,

Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.

But these men blaspheme in matters do they not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish. (2 Peter 2:10-12)

In talking about “celestial beings,” Peter seems to be referring to Satan and his demons. For even the good angels, who are stronger and more powerful than we are, refuse to slander or blaspheme them in front of God, though Satan and his demons will be judged by God someday.

Yet these false teachers apparently took Satan and his demons lightly. How? It’s not clear. But perhaps when they were accused of being used by Satan by their teaching, they replied, “Satan? He has no control over me. I’m free. I’m my own master. I spit on him.”

It’s a dangerous thing to take a being more powerful than you lightly. Peter and the apostles never did so. Peter told these Christians in his earlier letter to be alert, because Satan is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. (I Peter 5:8)

You don’t take roaring lions lightly. If you do, you will find yourselves consumed. And Peter warns them of this.

That’s why you shouldn’t play around with fortune tellers. Or horoscopes. Or Ouija boards. Or anything occultic.

That’s why you don’t get involved with anything to do with idols. The idols in themselves are nothing, But Paul tells us there are demons behind those idols. (I Corinthians 10:20)

On the flip side, remember that you don’t have to be afraid of Satan and his demons either. For John tells us,

The one who is in you (the Holy Spirit) is greater than the one who is in the world (Satan). (I John 4:4)

And as we saw in that passage in I Peter, we are told to resist Satan. (I Peter 5:9)

But don’t ever underestimate him or take him lightly. He is a powerful foe. More powerful than you.

So as Paul said,

Be strong in the Lord and in his might power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. (Ephesians 6:10-11)

In short, take Satan seriously. Don’t fool around with him. Instead stand close to Jesus. Stand in his power and strength. Only by uniting yourself fully with Christ can you stand victorious over Satan.

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2 Peter

A destruction that is not sleeping

2 Peter

Sometimes we wonder why God allows so much evil in the world. We wonder why God doesn’t do something now about the people who are doing evil.

And in addressing the false teachers and their fate, Peter gives us an answer to this.

He says,

In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction is not sleeping. (2 Peter 2:3)

In short, though it seems like God isn’t doing anything and that justice will never come, it will come. Condemnation is hanging over the wicked, ready to drop. And their destruction is sure.

Peter then gives three illustrations of this from the Old Testament.

First there were the angels that sinned whom God sent straight to hell.

This is actually kind of unusual, because for the most part, demons are not bound. They are free to roam the earth and wreck havoc.

But apparently some demons were so bad that they were bound up and are now being held for final judgment. (We’ll talk more about this when we come to Jude).

Second, there were all the people on the earth in the time of Noah. People who were so bad that, “every inclination of the thoughts of [their] hearts was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5)

And for all the years that Noah built the ark, warning these people to repent, they continued on in their sin, seemingly unpunished. But when the flood came, judgment fell and they all perished. Noah and his family, however, were saved.

Third was the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. For years they lived in utter depravity, such that Lot was afraid that two visitors to the city (who turned out to be angels) would be raped if they stayed out in the open.

Ultimately, his neighbors’ actions proved him correct. And so God judged that city, destroying it. But again he spared Lot from that destruction.

And so Peter concludes,

If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. (9)

Some points here.

First, though it says that the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials, it does not mean we will never go through them. That bad things will never happen to us.

But through them all, God will be with us and see us through. And ultimately, we will find rest with him in heaven.

But as for the evil, they will be judged. Peter tells us that they are being held for the day of judgment, and in the meantime, their punishment has already started.

Nobody likes the idea of hell and eternal punishment. I certainly don’t. But it is reality.

Now, the final judgment won’t come until after the millennium in which Christ reigns. But until that time, those who have died apart from God are undergoing punishment for their sins.

And on the day of final judgment, John tells us that they will be thrown into a lake of burning fire.” (Revelation 20:15)

Sadly, if the judgment of Satan is any indication, they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)

It’s not a pretty picture. But it’s the truth. And it’s justice.

Justice will be done someday. That’s the hope of judgment. And that’s the fear of judgment.

It’s the fear of those who have rejected Christ.

But for those who have put their faith in him, Jesus says,

I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)

How do you see judgment day? With hope? Or fear?

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2 Peter

Our need to know God’s word

Bible

We saw yesterday that our faith is based not only on our experiences with God, valuable as they are, but also on God’s word. And now in chapter 2, Peter tells us why it is so vital to know God’s word well.

The reason? False teachers that slip into the church.

Peter wrote,

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Sovereign Lord who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves. (2 Peter 2:1)

What were these teachers teaching? Basically, they were saying that as Christians, you can live however you want. That you can live for your sinful lusts and God won’t care.

These teachers themselves lived that way, doing sinful things in broad daylight, perhaps even getting drunk at the Lord’s table, and sleeping around with as many women in the church as they could. (13-14).

More, they were in love with money, and when they taught, that was their aim: to rob the people of God. (14)

And they justified all this by saying that when you live that way, you find true “freedom.” (18-19)

But as Peter said,

They themselves are slaves of depravity — for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. (19)

And Peter tells us that these false teachers are now worse off than before they had heard the truth about Jesus. Why?

Because when they heard the truth, they temporarily ran away from the things that had enslaved them, but now they were right back where they started.

At least when they didn’t know the truth, there was hope that when they heard it, they could be saved.

But now they’ve come to know the truth. They’ve tasted the goodness of it. Yet despite all this, they have now rejected it.

What hope is there for them now? Precious little. None if they do not repent. And God will judge them even more harshly because they didn’t sin in ignorance, but in full knowledge of the truth. (20-21)

And Peter says,

Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.” (22)

The problem is, of course, that if we fall in line with their teaching, we’ll fall into the same pit they do.

So the question is, “How well do you know your Bible?”

Do you know it well enough that if someone teaches something that is false, you can detect it?

How do you detect false teaching? The same way bankers detect false money. Not by studying the counterfeit, but by becoming so familiar with the real, that when a counterfeit touches their hand, they recognize it immediately.

Are you that familiar with the Word of God? You should be.

And if you are, you never have to fear being deceived by false teaching.

How well do you know your Bible?

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2 Peter

What our faith is built on

2 Peter

What is our faith built on? Why do we believe what we believe?

At the very base, it’s built on God himself and who he is. And it’s built on our experience of him. We’ve experienced God; we’ve tasted the Lord and seen that he is good.

The problem, of course, is that God is invisible. We can’t literally touch him or have conversations where we actually hear his voice. So how do we know that we are actually experiencing God in our lives? That it’s not just our imagination?

And people from all over the world claim to have  had spiritual experiences as well, all the while denying the things we believe as Christians.

How can we know that our experiences are superior to theirs? That it is our experiences, not theirs, that are based on reality and not on mere emotion or myth?

That is what Peter addresses here.

He says,

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16)

Many people today try to deny that Jesus ever even existed. Or that if he did actually exist, we can’t possibly know the truth of what he actually said and did.

They claim that the whole Jesus story was built on pagan sources and jump through hoops to try to prove that claim.

But Peter says, “No. That’s not what we did. We were there. We saw Jesus. When he was on the mountain of transfiguration, we saw his glory and heard the voice of God himself. (16-18).”

More Peter tells us,

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain. (2 Peter 1:19)

This verse is apparently a bit vague in the Greek. It’s possible that Peter’s saying that their experience had increased their confidence on the Old Testament writings. But the new NIV translates the verse this way:

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable. (19)

In which case, Peter is saying, “Not only do we have our experience, but we also have God’s word to back up our experience and show that there is reality behind it.”

But either way, we base our faith not only on our experience but on God’s word.

Through God’s word, we see how he has worked in the lives of people in the past, and we see there is consistency when we compare their experiences with our experiences of him today.

We also see the words of the prophets and how the things they prophesied actually came true. We see this especially in their prophesies of Jesus.

How can we know that the things in the Bible were actually true?

Well archaeology has gone a long way to proving a lot of the historical facts of the Bible. But how can we know that the things written about God are true? That they actually got God’s words right?

Peter tells,

Above all, you must understand that no prophesy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.

For prophesy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

In other words, when people wrote the scriptures we had, they weren’t just writing what they thought was true about God. Rather, the Holy Spirit guided their thoughts and words.

This is not to say that he dictated everything they said (although there are some examples of dictation). But God used each person according to their personality, education, and writing styles.

He used shepherds, fishermen, kings, priests, tax collectors, and doctors, among others.

There were 40 different authors, from three different continents, using three different languages, and who lived over a period that spanned 1500 years.

And yet their testimony all agree as to who God is and what he has done.

How can we not have confidence that our faith is true?

And so Peter says,

You will do well to pay attention to [God’s Word], as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our heart. (2 Peter 1:19)

The day dawning refers to Christ’s return, and the morning star is Christ himself. And so what Peter is saying is, until Christ, the true light of the world appears, pay attention to the light he has left us.

His word is a lamp to our feet in this dark world. It shows us who God is and it shows us the path we are to walk in order to please him. So that’s what we are to build our faith on.

How about you? Is your faith based merely on your experience? Or on God’s word?

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2 Peter

If we truly know him and love him

3 Servants

I’ve been reading Luke 19:11-27 in preparation for a message I’ll be giving in a few weeks at church. And as I read this passage in II Peter, it caused me to reflect on that passage in Luke.

In Luke 19, Jesus tells the parable of the minas. And in it, Jesus talks about three servants who were given money by their master to invest. Two did, and were richly rewarded. The third merely hid the money. And in giving his excuse, he showed just how little he knew his master.

He portrayed his master as a hard man, a man who exacted much from his servants, and who profited off of others’ labors while doing nothing himself. And for these reasons, he refused to do anything with the money his master had entrusted him with.

Many people today are the same way. They may go to church and call themselves Christians, and yet they carry grave doubts about the very character of God. They think him harsh and unfair. And they find it hard to believe that God actually knows what is best and is looking out for their best.

In short, they doubt in their hearts that God is good. And because of that, they refuse to live for him and his purposes. Instead, they live only for themselves.

But for the person who truly knows and loves God, can they live that way?

No.

Certainly, as a young believer, you don’t know God very well, and your love for him is far from developed. But as you grow in your faith, these things should change.

And as Peter says in this passage, as you come to know God more, grace and peace will be multiplied to you. Why? Because you will see that God is good. And you’ll see all the gifts that he has given you. The gift of forgiveness. The gift of eternal life. The gift of his Spirit.

And as you see these things, you can’t help but to love him all the more and to long to be like him.

  • You see the utter goodness of God and long for that goodness in your life.
  • You see the wisdom of God and long to learn from him.
  • You see the self-control that Jesus displayed when facing temptation, and long for that in your life.
  • You see how he persevered even to the cross, encouraging you to persevere under trial too.
  • You see how Jesus related to his Father, listening to and following his voice, and you long to do the same.
  • You see the kindness of God, and his love for you, and it causes you to want that kindness and love to be reflected in your life as well.

And Peter says,

If you possess these these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of Jesus Christ. (Nahum
2 Peter 1:8)

And like the faithful servants in Jesus’ parable, Peter says,

You will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (11)

But Peter also tells us,

If anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed of his past sins. (9)

That’s what the third servant was like. He had forgotten all about the goodness of his master. And because of that he was nearsighted and blind, totally oblivious to the cliff he was about to fall off of when his master returned.

How about you? How do you see God? Do you see him as he truly is? Or do you have a warped view of him?

How you see him will shape your life. And it will show in your attitude toward him on judgment day.

What will God see in you on that day?

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2 Peter

That grace and peace may abound

2 Peter

One of my favorite passages in C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian is when Lucy meets up with Aslan, and she says, “Aslan! You’re bigger!”

And Aslan replies, “That is because you are older, little one.”

“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

How true is that in our relationship with God. He is already as big as he ever will be. But as we grow in our knowledge of him, he becomes bigger in our eyes. Not because he actually grows bigger, but because we see him more as he truly is.

I believe that is why Peter says,

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1:2)

He expands on this in verses 3-4.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by sin. (3-4)

How can we know grace and peace in abundance in our lives? Through knowing God more. Through coming to know his glory and goodness more deeply.

That same glory and goodness by which he called us to be his own children. That same glory and goodness through which he has given us his very great and precious promises.

Promises of eternal life. Promises that the Holy Spirit will indwell us, counsel us, lead us, intercede for us, and day by day transform us into Christ’s likeness.

And because of these promises, we can actually participate in his divine nature, such that when people see us, they see our Father in heaven.

Through his grace we have already escaped the corruption in this world that destroys people. (The new NIV translates verse 4 more accurately: “having escaped the corruption in the world.”)

But now his power gives us everything we need to to live life to the fullest and to become the godly children he created us to be.

And as we live this way each day, God’s grace abounds to us and so does his peace.

Do you know that grace and peace today? If not, draw near to God. The word “godliness” has that very connotation in it. It was used of people who kept in close touch with the “gods.”

But here, Peter applies it to Christians and says that we should keep in constant touch with the one true and living God.

Moment to moment, day to day, we should be aware of his presence in our lives, and to let that awareness shape our thoughts, our actions, our very lives.

And as you do, you will know his grace and his peace in your life, multiplied many times over.

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2 Peter

A faith that puts us on equal standing

It’s rare that I ever get stopped by a verse such that I just have to write about it and it alone. Particularly when it comes in a greeting. But this one stopped me.

Peter writes,

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours. (2 Peter 1:1)

I’ve read that verse many times in the NIV, and I’ve always liked it, but as I read the ESV today, that last part struck me. The ESV puts it this way:

To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours.

Think about that a minute. Here is Simon Peter, one of the 12 original apostles of Christ, and one of the inner circle to boot. And he tells a bunch of people who had never even seen Jesus before, “Your faith is of equal standing with ours.”

Perhaps as he said that, he recalled Jesus’ words to Thomas,

Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (John 20:29)

“Yes,” Peter is saying, “I have actually seen him. I saw his glory on the mountain when he was tranfigured before my very eyes, and I heard the very voice of God. I saw Christ’s resurrection.

But your faith is just as precious and of equal standing as mine in the eyes of God. For though you have not seen, yet you have believed.”

So often, we think of ourselves as second-class citizens as Christians. We put ourselves on a lower scale than others. Than the pastors in our churches. Than our Christian friends in the church.

But if our faith is of equal standing with Peter in the eyes of God, then isn’t our faith of equal standing with the other believers around us as well?

That’s also a humbling message for those who have been Christians for a long time. It can be tempting to look down on others for their lack of Biblical knowledge or maturity.

And certainly God calls us all to grow. It is in fact one of the key themes of this book, that we would all grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, becoming more and more like him each day.

But remember, you are no better than anyone else.

Nor are you inferior to anyone else.

We are all saved by grace alone. We weren’t saved because we were any better than the others around us. Rather we were saved by the righteousness of Christ, who lived a perfect life on this earth and then paid the penalty for our sin on the cross.

And now, through him, we are all declared righteous in God’s sight if we will only put our trust in him.

How do you see yourself? As better than other believers? As inferior?

Remember how God sees you. As people who are on equal standing. As people with a faith that is truly precious in the eyes of God.

So let us stop comparing ourselves to others. Rather, let us rest in his love and grace each day.