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Scripture Reading: 2 Pet. 3:13-18
In this message we shall consider 3:13-18. In verse 13 we have the expectation of the new heavens and the new earth filled with God’s righteousness; in 14 to 16, the preparation for the coming judgment; and in 17 and 18, the conclusion, where we are told to be on guard and grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord.
In 3:13 Peter says, “But according to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” The Greek word rendered “dwells” may also be translated “makes its home.” Because this Epistle is on the government of God, eventually it tells us that there will be a new universe where righteousness will dwell. This indicates that everything will be altogether under God’s government. Nothing will be wrong; nothing will be unjust or unrighteous. Thus, there will be no need for any further governmental judgment of God.
After all the material things are dissolved, God’s promise as His everlasting word will still exist for His redeemed people to trust in and stand upon, with the expectation of a new universe. We should not set our hope on the visible elements, but on what the word of God promises as our destiny, that is, the new heavens and a new earth, which have not yet come into our view.
The new heavens and new earth will be the old heavens and old earth renewed and transformed through the burning of God’s judging fire, just as the new man is our old man renewed and transformed (Col. 3:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:18).
Righteousness is the main factor based upon which God’s governmental judgment is meted out to all creatures in His old creation. Hence, in these two books concerning God’s government this matter is stressed repeatedly (1 Pet. 2:23, 24; 3:12, 14; 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:1; 2:5, 7-8, 21; 3:13). The main thing we see in John’s writings is God’s love expressed in His life; in Paul’s writings, God’s grace distributed in His dispensation; and in Peter’s writings, God’s righteousness maintained in His government. God’s life, dispensation, and government are the basic structures of the ministry of these three apostles. Life is of love, dispensation is by grace, and government is based upon righteousness. This righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and earth and it will saturate God’s new universe prevailingly to maintain it absolutely under God’s righteous order, so that there will be no need ever of any further judgment.
In verse 14 Peter goes on to say, “Wherefore, beloved, since you expect these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and without blemish.” To be found by the Lord in peace is to be found right in His eyes with both God and man at His coming. Peace is the fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12:11; Isa. 32:17). Because this book emphasizes righteousness for God’s governmental dealing, it charges the believers who are walking in the way of righteousness (2:21) to pursue peace (Heb. 12:14), so that they may be prepared for the Lord’s coming with judgment. In 3:14 Peter exhorts us to be found by the Lord in peace “without spot and without blemish.” The heretics, who forsake the straight way and follow the way of unrighteousness (2:15), are spots and blemishes among the believers (2:13). But the believers, who are pursuing peace as the fruit of righteousness in God’s government, should be without spot and without blemish, like the Lord, who is the Lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Pet. 1:19).
In order to prepare for the coming judgment, we should not only be found in peace, but we should also be saved from destruction. Concerning this, Peter says in 3:15 and 16: “And count the longsuffering of our Lord to be salvation, even as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them concerning these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” The mockers count, or consider, the Lord’s longsuffering toward the believers as delay, tardiness, or slackness (v. 9). This is their twisting of the Lord’s word spoken by the prophets in the Scriptures and the apostles in their teachings. Hence, Peter charges the believers to count the Lord’s longsuffering as salvation instead of delay, not twisting the prophets’ prophecies nor the apostles’ teachings, including Peter’s and also Paul’s, that they may not be judged unto destruction, as the heretics will at the Lord’s coming. It is by doing this and by being diligent to be found by the Lord in peace that the believers prepare themselves for the Lord’s coming with judgment.
The Lord’s longsuffering in the delay regarding His promise should be counted as prolonged opportunity for the believers to repent unto salvation. Salvation in 3:15 is not salvation in its initial stage, but salvation in its completing stage. The Lord has delayed His coming with the intention that many of His elect may not miss the topmost portion of His full salvation.
In 3:15 and 16 Peter refers to Paul’s writings. Peter was not the only apostle to teach that the Lord’s longsuffering should be counted salvation instead of delay, with the confirmation of the prophets’ prophecy. Paul as another of the apostles also teaches the same thing in his writings, which are based upon the prophetic word of the Old Testament. Peter refers to this fact to strengthen his writing.
In verse 16 Peter gives a warning not to twist the Scriptures. We should twist neither the writings of the apostle Paul nor the writings of the apostle Peter, for both are part of the Scriptures of the New Testament. Those who twist the Scriptures will suffer destruction.
Since Peter’s antidote to inoculate against the heretical teachings of the apostasy is the holy word spoken by the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles, he cannot miss the writings of the apostle Paul, which are the greatest part of the apostles’ teachings for constituting the New Testament. In his writing, which is also a part of the apostles’ teachings and the constituents of the New Testament, Peter has repeatedly in both his Epistles referred to the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles (1 Pet. 1:9-12; 2 Pet. 1:12-21; 3:2). Now he refers to the apostle Paul in the strongest way, saying that Paul in all his writings speaks some things which are hard to understand, concerning the things of which Peter speaks in his writing, and that to twist Paul’s writings is equivalent to twisting the Scriptures as the heretics do, resulting in destruction, that is, in being judged by the Lord at His coming back.
This is a strong warning to both the believers and the heretics in the apostasy.
In 3:16 Peter speaks of “these things.” In his two Epistles of only eight chapters Peter has covered the entire economy of God, from eternity past before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:2, 20) to the new heavens and new earth in eternity future (2 Pet. 3:13). He unveils the crucial things related to God’s economy, which the prophets prophesied and the apostles preached (1 Pet. 1:10-12), from four sides as follows:
(1) From the side of the Triune God:
God the Father has chosen a people in eternity according to His foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2:9) and has called them to His glory (1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3). Christ, foreknown by God before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times, has redeemed God’s chosen people (2, 1 Pet. 1:18-19) by His vicarious death (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18) through His resurrection in life and ascension in power (1 Pet. 1:3; 3:21-22). The Spirit, sent from heaven, has sanctified and purified those whom Christ has redeemed (1 Pet. 1:2, 12, 22; 4:14). (The angels long to look into these things — 1 Pet. 1:12.) The Triune God’s divine power has provided them with all things relating to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4), guarding them unto full salvation (1 Pet. 1:5). God also disciplines them (1 Pet. 5:6) by some of His varied governmental judgments (1 Pet. 1:17; 2:23; 4:5, 6, 17; 2 Pet. 2:3, 4, 9; 3:7), and He will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground them by His all grace (1 Pet. 5:10). The Lord is longsuffering toward them that they all may have opportunity to repent unto salvation (2 Pet. 3:9, 15). Then Christ will appear in glory with His full salvation for those who love Him (1 Pet. 1:5, 7-9, 13; 4:13; 5:4).
(2) From the side of the believers:
The believers, as God’s possession, have been chosen by God (1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2:9), called by His glory and virtue (1 Pet. 2:9; 3:9; 2 Pet. 1:10), redeemed by Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19), regenerated of God through His living word (1 Pet. 1:3, 23), and saved through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 3:21). They are now being guarded by the power of God (1 Pet. 1:5), being purified to love one another (1 Pet. 1:22), growing by feeding on the milk of the word (1 Pet. 2:2), developing in life the spiritual virtues (2 Pet. 1:5-8), and being transformed and built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to serve God (1 Pet. 2:4-5, 9). They are God’s chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, peculiar people for His private possession to express His virtues (1 Pet. 2:9), being disciplined by His governmental judgment (1 Pet. 1:17; 2:19-21; 3:9, 14, 17; 4:6, 12-19; 5:6, 9), living a holy life in an excellent manner and godliness to glorify Him (1 Pet. 1:15; 2:12; 3:1-2), ministering as good stewards of His varied grace for His glorification through Christ (1 Pet. 4:10-11) (under the elders’ exemplary shepherding — 1 Pet. 5:1-4), and expecting and hastening the coming of the Lord (1 Pet. 1:13; 2 Pet. 3:12) to be richly supplied with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord (2 Pet. 1:11). They are expecting further the new heavens and new earth with God’s righteousness for their eternity (2 Pet. 3:13), and they are growing continually in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18).
(3) From the side of Satan:
Satan is the believers’ adversary, the Devil, as a roaring lion walking about, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).
(4) From the side of the universe:
The fallen angels were condemned for eternal judgment (2 Pet. 2:4); the ancient ungodly world was destroyed by a flood (2 Pet. 2:5; 3:6); the ungodly cities were reduced to ashes (2 Pet. 2:6); the false teachers and heretical mockers in the apostasy and the living mankind will all be judged unto destruction (2 Pet. 2:1, 3, 9-10, 12; 3:3-4, 7; 1 Pet. 4:5); the heavens and the earth will be burned up (2 Pet. 3:7, 10, 11); and all the dead men and the demons will be judged (1 Pet. 4:5). Then the new heavens and the new earth will come as a new universe, in which God’s righteousness will dwell for eternity (2 Pet. 3:13).
Paul in his writings also speaks “these things” (except the new heavens and the new earth). Hence, Peter refers to Paul’s writings to strengthen his writings, especially concerning God’s governmental and disciplinary judgment upon the believers. Paul also strongly and repeatedly emphasizes this matter in his writings (1 Cor. 11:30-32; Heb. 12:5-11, 12:29; 2:3; 4:1; 6:8; 10:27-31, 39; 1 Cor. 3:13-15; 4:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10). This should be the reason that Peter highly commends Paul’s writings.
What beauty and excellency are in this commendation! Although the Corinthians attempted to divide Peter and Paul according to their own divisive preference (1 Cor. 1:11-12), Peter commends Paul, and says that both of them teach the same things, “these things,” and that Paul’s writings should not be twisted, but be regarded as “the rest of the Scriptures” and receive the same respect as the Old Testament. For Peter to make such a commendation is a great thing, for it was he who was rebuked by Paul to his face regarding the New Testament faith (Gal. 2:11-21). This indicates that Peter was bold in admitting that the early apostles, like John, Paul, and himself, although their style, terminology, utterance, aspects of their views, and presentations of their teachings differed one from another, participated in the same unique ministry, the ministry of the New Testament (2 Cor. 3:8-9; 4:1). Such a ministry ministers to people, as its focus, the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, who, after passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, dispenses Himself through the redemption of Christ and by the operation of the Holy Spirit to His redeemed people as their unique portion of life, life supply, and everything, for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the full expression, the fullness, of the Triune God, according to the eternal purpose of the Father.
In 3:16 Peter says that the unlearned and unstable twist Paul’s writings and also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. This indicates that the mockers (2 Pet. 3:3) and their followers must have twisted the Scriptures and the apostles’ teachings.
According to the context, “destruction” in verse 16 refers not to eternal perdition, but to the punishment of the divine governmental discipline.
In 3:17 and 18 we have the conclusion of this Epistle. In verse 17 Peter says, “You, therefore, beloved, knowing these things before, be on your guard lest being carried away by the error of the lawless, you fall from your own steadfastness.” Here Peter tells us to be on our guard because of the apostasy, the heretical teachings, that may carry us away to destruction by twisting the apostles’ writings or the Scriptures. The Greek word rendered “carried away” here is the same word used in Galatians 2:13 concerning Peter, Barnabas, and other Jewish believers. In verse 17 “the lawless” must refer to the false teachers and mockers (2 Pet. 2:1; 3:3) as the early heretics. Peter is concerned lest the saints fall from their own steadfastness. To fall from our steadfastness is to become unstable.
In verse 18 Peter concludes, “But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.” The word “grow” indicates that what Peter has written in his two Epistles is a matter of life. To grow in grace is to grow by the bountiful supply of eternal life provided by the divine power (1:3-4), and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord is to grow by the realization of what Christ is. This is to grow by the enjoyment of grace and realization of truth (John 1:14, 17).
Grace is the Triune God being life and the life supply to us. We need to grow in this life supply, in this nourishment. Therefore, to grow in grace means to grow in this inward source of the supply of life. At the beginning of this Epistle Peter speaks of grace, and now at the end he charges us to grow in this grace.
Peter also encourages us to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The realization of the knowledge of our Lord equals truth, the reality of all that He is, as in John 1:14, 17. Peter charges the believers to grow not only in grace but also in this truth.
Peter ends this Epistle with the word, “To Him be the glory both now and unto the day of eternity.” The pronoun “Him” refers to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Since such a praise is one that is rendered to God (Rom. 11:36; 16:27), this indicates that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is God.
