But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 8. But be not ignorant of this one thing.…
8. But be not ignorant of this one thing. He now turns to speak to the godly; and he reminds them that when the coming of Christ is the subject, they were to raise upwards their eyes, for by so doing, they would not limit, by their unreasonable wishes, the time appointed by the Lord. For waiting seems very long on this account, because we have our eyes fixed on the shortness of the present life, and we also increase weariness by computing days, hours, and minutes. But when the eternity of God's kingdom comes to our minds, many ages vanish away like so many moments.
This then is what the Apostle calls our attention to, so that we may know that the day of resurrection does not depend on the present flow of time, but on the hidden purpose of God, as though he had said, “Men wish to anticipate God for this reason, because they measure time according to the judgment of their own flesh; and they are by nature inclined to impatience, so that celerity is even delay to them: do ye then ascend in your minds to heaven, and thus time will be to you neither long nor short.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv8–14 The taking away of an objection: in that he…
The taking away of an objection: in that he seemeth to defer this judgment a long season, in respect of us it is true, but not before God with whom there is no time either long or short.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv8–14 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one…
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.
Ver. 8. One day is with the Lord, &c.] Nullum tempus occurrit regi; how much less to the Ancient of days! In God there is no motion or flux; therefore a thousand years to him are but as one day.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv8–14 Be not ignorant of this one thing; i.e. be…
Be not ignorant of this one thing; i.e. be sure of it: the same word is here used as 2Pe 3:5; and so he cautions them against the ignorance of scoffers, and to prevent it, would have them certainly know this one thing, which is extant in the Scripture, which foretells Christ’s coming.
That one day is with the Lord; the Lord Jesus Christ, of whose coming he speaks.
Read full note →
As a thousand years; by a synecdoche, a thousand years is put for any, even the longest revolution of time; and the sense is, that though there be great difference of time, long and short, with us, who are subject to time, and are measured by it; yet with Him who is eternal, without succession, to whom nothing is past, nothing future, but all things present, there is no difference of time, none long, none short, but a thousand years, nay, all the time that hath run out since the creation of the world, is but as a day; and we are not to judge of the Lord’s delay in coming by our own sense, but by God’s eternity.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv8, 10, 11, 12, 13 Our apostle here answers the cavil and objection of…
Our apostle here answers the cavil and objection of the fore-mentioned scoffers, namely, That if Christ intends to come to judgment, why does he so long defer his coming?
To this our apostle replies,
Read full note →
1. By assuring them that this delay ought not to be judged according to our sense and apprehension of things, for God does not measure time as we do, but a thousand years, which seem so long to us, are but a day, yea, but a moment to him who is eternal, and inhabiteth eternity. To the eternity of God no finite duration bears any proportion; to eternity all time is equally short; God does not measure time by our pole, nor cast up years by our arithmetic.
2. He assures them farther, that God’s delay of judgment did not proceed from slackness, but from divine patience and goodness. He delays his coming, on purpose to give men time to repent, and by repenting, on purpose to give men time to repent, and by repentance to prevent their own eternal ruin.
Learn hence, 1. That God’s delay of judgment is no ground for sinners to conclude that he will not come to judgment, for our Saviour has now here fixed and determined the time of it. We can neither be sure when our Lord will come, nor certain when he will not come.
Learn, 2. That the true reason why God defers judgment is, to give sinners opportunity for repentance, if this be not complied with, he reserves those who are incorrigibly bad to a more remarkable ruin, condemning them that will not be saved, but obstinately destroy themselves.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 11 The apostle comes in these words to instruct and…
The apostle comes in these words to instruct and establish Christians in the truth of the coming of the Lord, where we may clearly discern the tenderness and affection wherewith he speaks to them, calling them beloved; he had a compassionate concern and a love of good-will for the ungodly wretches who refused to believe divine revelation, but he has a peculiar respect for the true believers, and the remaining ignorance and weakness that the apprehends to be in them make him jealous, and put him on giving them a caution. Here we may observe,
I. The truth which the apostle asserts - that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day. Though, in the account of men, there is a great deal of difference between a day and a year, and a vast deal more between one day and a thousand years, yet in the account of God, who inhabits eternity, in which there is no succession, there is no difference; for all things past, present, and future, are ever before him, and the delay of a thousand years cannot be so much to him as the deferring of any thing for a day or an hour is to us.
Read full note →
II. The importance of this truth: This is the one thing the apostle would not have us ignorant of; a holy awe and reverential fear of God are necessary in order to our worshiping and glorifying him, and a belief of the inconceivable distance between him and us is very proper to beget and maintain that religious fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. This is a truth that belongs to our peace, and therefore he endeavours that it may not be hidden from our eyes; as it is in the original, Let not this one thing be hidden from you. If men have no knowledge or belief of the eternal God, they will be very apt to think him such a one as themselves. Yet how hard is it to conceive of eternity! It is therefore not very easy to attain such a knowledge of God as is absolutely necessary.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv8–14 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,....…
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,.... Here the apostle addresses the saints he writes unto, and for whom he had a tender affection and regard, and for whose welfare he was concerned, lest they should be stumbled at the length of time since the promise of the coming of Christ was given, and which these scoffers object; and therefore he would have them know, observe, and consider this one thing, which might be of great use to them to make their minds easy, and keep up their faith and expectation of the coming of Christ:
that one day is, with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; referring either to Psa 90:4; or to a common saying among the Jews, founded on the same passage, , "the day of the holy blessed God is a thousand years" (z); suggesting, that though between thirty and forty years had elapsed since the promise was given out that Christ would come again, and should even a thousand, or two thousand years more, run off, before the coming of Christ, yet this should be no objection to the accomplishment of the promise; for though such a number of years is very considerable among men, ye not "with God", as the Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, with whom a thousand years, and even eternity itself, is but as a day, Isa 43:13. Unless this phrase should be thought to refer, as it is by some, to the day of judgment, and be expressive of the duration of that: it is certain that the Jews interpreted days of millenniums, and reckoned millenniums by days, and used this phrase in confirmation of it. Thus they say (a),
Read full note →
"in the time to come, which is in the last days, on the sixth day, which is the sixth millennium, when the Messiah comes, for the day of the holy blessed God is a thousand years.''
And a little after,
""the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man". This is in the time of the Messiah which is in the sixth day.''
And elsewhere (b),
"the sixth degree is called the sixth day, the day of the holy blessed God is a thousand years. And in that day the King Messiah shall come, and it shall be called the feast of gathering, for the holy blessed God will gather in it the captivity of his people.''
So they call the sabbath, or seventh day, the seventh millennium, and interpret (c).
""the song for the sabbath day", Psa 92:1 title, for the seventh millennium, for one day of the holy blessed God is a thousand years.''
To which agrees the tradition of Elias, which runs thus (d);
"it is the tradition of the house of Elias, that the world shall be six thousand years, two thousand years void (of the law), two thousand years the law, and two thousand years the days of the Messiah;''
for they suppose that the six days of the creation were expressive of the six thousand years in which the world will stand; and that the seventh day prefigures the last millennium, in which will be the day of judgment, and the world to come; for
"the six days of the creation (they say (e)) is a sign or intimation of these things: on the sixth day man was created; and on the seventh his work was finished; so the kings of the nations of the world (continue) five millenniums, answering to the five days, in which were created the fowls, and the creeping things of the waters, and other things; and the enjoyment of their kingdom is a little in the sixth, answerable to the creation of the beasts, and living creatures created at this time in the beginning of it; and the kingdom of the house of David is in the sixth millennium, answerable to the creation of man, who knew his Creator, and ruled over them all; and in the end of that millennium will be the day of judgment, answerable to man, who was judged in the end of it; and the seventh is the sabbath, and it is the beginning of the world to come.''
(z) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 8. fol. 7. 3. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 19. fol. 160. 2. Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 216. 1. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 20. 1. Zohar in Exod. fol. 60. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 157. 1. & Nishmet Chayim Orat. 1. c. 5. fol. 12. 1. (a) Zohar in Gen. fol. 13. 4. (b) Ib. fol. 16. 1. (c) Bartenora in Misn. Tamid, c. 7. sect. 4. (d) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1. & Avoda Zara, fol. 9. 1. (e) Ceseph Misna in Maimon. Hilchot Teshuva, c. 9. sect. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv8–14 But be not ye ignorant - Whatever they are.…
But be not ye ignorant - Whatever they are. Of this one thing - Which casts much light on the point in hand. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day - Moses had said, Psalm xc, 4, "A thousand years in thy sight are as one day;" which St. Peter applies with regard to the last day, so as to denote both his eternity, whereby he exceeds all measure of time in his essence and in his operation; his knowledge, to which all things past or to come are present every moment; his power, which needs no long delay, in order to bring its work to perfection; and his longsuffering, which excludes all impatience of expectation, and desire of making haste. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years - That is, in one day, in one moment he can do the work of a thousand years. Therefore he "is not slow:" he is always equally ready to fulfil his promise. And a thousand years are as one day - That is, no delay is long to God. A thousand years are as one day to the eternal God. Therefore "he is longsuffering:" he gives us space for repentance, without any inconvenience to himself. In a word, with God time passes neither slower nor swifter than is suitable to him and his economy; nor can there be any reason why it should be necessary for him either to delay or hasten the end of all things. How can we comprehend this? If we could comprehend it, St. Peter needed not to have added, with the Lord.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv8–14 Verse 8. Be not ignorant] Though they are wilfully…
Verse 8. Be not ignorant] Though they are wilfully ignorant, neglect not ye the means of instruction.
One day is with the Lord as a thousand years] That is: All time is as nothing before him, because in the presence as in the nature of God all is eternity; therefore nothing is long, nothing short, before him; no lapse of ages impairs his purposes, nor need he wait to find convenience to execute those purposes. And when the longest period of time has passed by, it is but as a moment or indivisible point in comparison of eternity. This thought is well expressed by PLUTARCH, Consol. ad Apoll.: "If we compare the time of life with eternity, we shall find no difference between long and short. Τα γαρ χιλια, και τα μυρια ετη, στιγμη τις εστιν αοριστος, μαλλον δε μοριον τι βραχυτατον στιγμης· for a thousand or ten thousand years are but a certain indefinite point, or rather the smallest part of a point." The words of the apostle seem to be a quotation from Ps 90:4.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 2Pe 3:8. Be not ye ignorant — Whatever they…
2Pe 3:8. Be not ye ignorant — Whatever they are; of this one thing — Which casts much light on the point in hand; that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day — This is an allusion to Psa 90:4, where Moses had said, A thousand years in thy sight are as one day, which words St. Peter applies with regard to the period intervening between the time when he wrote, and the last day; denoting thereby, 1st, God’s eternity, whereby he exceeds all measure of time in his essence and in his operation: 2d, His knowledge, to which all things past, or to come, are present every moment: 3d, His power, which needs no long delay in order to bring his work to perfection: and, 4th, His long-suffering, which excludes all impatience of expectation and desire of making haste. But it must be observed, that neither the apostle nor the psalmist meant that God does not perceive any difference between the duration of a day and that of a thousand years; but that these differences do not affect either his designs, or actions, or felicity, as they do those of finite creatures. So that what he brings to pass on the day he declares his purpose, is not more certain than what he will bring to pass a thousand years after such declaration. In like manner, what is to be brought to pass a long time after his declaration, is not less certain than if it had been done when declared. See Abernethy’s Sermon’s, vol. 1. p. 218. The apostle’s meaning is in substance, that in one day, yea, in one moment, he could do the work of a thousand years; therefore he is not slow, he is always equally able, equally ready to fulfil his promise; and a thousand years, yea, the longest time, is no more delay to the eternal God than one day is to us: therefore he is longsuffering; he gives us space for repentance without any inconvenience to himself. In a word, with God time passes neither slower nor swifter than is suitable to him and his economy. Nor can there be any reason why it should be necessary for him either to delay or hasten the end of all things. How can we comprehend this? If we could have comprehended it, St. Peter needed not to have added, with the Lord.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv8–14 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,…
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years - This 2Pe 3:8-9 is the second consideration by which the apostle meets the objection of scoffers against the doctrine of the second coming of the Saviour. The objection was, that much time, and perhaps the time which had been supposed to be set for his coming, had passed away, and still all things remained as they were. The reply of the apostle is, that no argument could be drawn from this, for that which may seem to be a long time to us is a brief period with God. In the infinity of his own duration there is abundant time to accomplish his designs, and it can make no difference with him whether they are accomplished in one day or extended to one thousand years. Man has but a short time to live, and if he does not accomplish his purposes in a very brief period, he never will. But it is not so with God. He always lives; and we cannot therefore infer, because the execution of His purposes seems to be delayed, that they are abandoned. With Him who always lives it will be as easy to accomplish them at a far distant period as now. If it is His pleasure to accomplish them in a single day, He can do it; if He chooses that the execution shall be deferred to one thousand years, or that one thousand years shall be consumed in executing them, He has power to carry them onward through what seems, to us, to be so vast a duration. The wicked, therefore, cannot infer that they will escape because their punishment is delayed; nor should the righteous fear that the divine promises will fail because ages pass away before they are accomplished. The expression here used, that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, etc.,” is common in the Rabbinical writings. See Wetstein in loc. A similar thought occurs in Psa 90:4; “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10–11 The heavens, &c. He puts the faithful in mind…
The heavens, &c. He puts the faithful in mind not to regard these profane scoffers, but to be convinced of the truths revealed, and that the world shall be destroyed a second time by fire. Reflect that the time of this life, and all the time that this world shall last, is nothing to eternity, which has no parts, no beginning, nor end; so that in the sight of God, who is eternal, a thousand years are no more to be regarded than one day, or one moment. The long time that hath hitherto passed, must not make you think that God is slack as to his promises, or that they shall not infallibly come to pass at the time and moment appointed by his divine providence. God’s infinite mercy, and his love for mankind, bears patiently with the provocations of blind and unthinking sinners, not willing that any of them should perish, but that they should return to him by a sincere repentance and true penance, and be saved. But watch always, according to the repeated admonition of our blessed Redeemer. (Mark xiii. 37. &c.) For both the day of your death, and the day of the Lord to judge the world, will come like a thief, &c. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v10 10 But the day12 of the Lord will come…
2Pe_3:10-18
10 But the day12 of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,13 in the which the14 heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt15 with fervent 11heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.16 Seeing then17 that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye18 to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hastening19 unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements 13shall melt with fervent heat?20 Nevertheless21 we, according to his promise,22 look for new heavens and a new23 earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in 15peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him24 hath written unto you; 16As also in all25 his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which26 are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own de struction.27 17Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.28 18But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.29
Read full note →
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Pe_3:10. But the day of the Lord will come.—The Apostle having made mention of the long-suffering of God, now says, as it were, let none deceive himself, the day of the Lord will not fail to appear, but it will come surely and suddenly. Ἤξει δὲ ἡ ἡμέρα κυρίου; it is called the day of God in 2Pe_3:12; hence κυρίου is here doubtless=θεοῦ, as in 2Pe_3:9. So Joe_1:15; Eze_13:5; Isa_2:12. The day of Jehovah; cf. Jam_5:7. Elsewhere the day of the Lord Jesus, 2Co_1:14. The day of Christ, 2Th_2:2; also the day of the Lord’s coming, Mai. 2Pe_3:2. The last expression contains an intimation that the beginning of that great period of judgment must be distinguished from the Lord’s coming in the same. The former sets in unexpectedly and without notice. The Lord’s coming will be unexpected, but not unnoticed by the ungodly; it will be attended by a war-cry, the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, 1Th_4:16.
As a thief in the night.—The same figure is used by the Lord Himself in the Gospels, Mat_24:43; Luk_12:39. Paul also compares the coming of that day to the burglarious entry of a thief. The passages in Rev_3:3; Rev_16:15, which contain this description of the Lord’s coming, give prominence to the suddenness and surprise of His coming, not to its being unnoticed. His coming is free from surprise and terror to those who watch and observe the signs of the times; it is to them rather a joyful event, Luk_21:28.—The figure of the thief contains also the secondary thought, that those who are held fast in the sleep of sin and security, shall lose in that catastrophe whatever they have, Mat_13:12; Joh_10:10.
In which the heavens shall pass away with a crashing roar; ῥοιζηδόν fromῥοιζέω, ῥοίζω, to rush, to whiz, to crash; a word formed to resemble the sound, rushing, whizzing, crashing, here only in the New Testament. Oecumenius understands it of the crackling noise of a destructive fire; de Wette, of the crash of falling houses. The Apostle probably thinks of both, (Huther).—Παρελεύσονται; our Lord uses the same word, Mat_24:35; cf. Psa_102:27; Isa_34:4; Rev_20:11.—Οὐρανοί, the sky and the starry heavens, as in 2Pe_3:7; cf. Psa_72:7; Psa_102:26; Isa_34:4; Isa_51:6; Isa_65:17.
But the elements shall be dissolved in fire, and—shall be burned up.—Στοιχεῖα; the rudiments of speech, then the constituent elements of the universe; of course not the elements in the sense of chemistry, but in the sense of antiquity, which since the time of Empedocles assumed the existence of four elements or rudiments of things; cf. Wis_7:17; Wis_19:17.—Calov restricts the word to water and air, because the earth is specifically mentioned afterward. But de Wette rightly observes that the earth is referred to first as an element, and afterward as a totality. There is nothing contradictory in the idea that this elemental fire shall be suspended in its action by a stronger and supernatural fire. A total annihilation of the elemental constituents is out of the question; the reference is rather to the supposition of Gennadius and Oecumenius, that “the old heavens and the old earth shall be changed and renovated into better.”—A reference to 2Pe_3:12, where the στοιχεῖα are mentioned, and not the earth expressly, shows plainly that στοιχεῖα relates primarily to the earth. δὲ, moreover intimates as much. Bengel, on the other hand, sees here, with many of the fathers, a reference to the sun, the moon and the stars. The sense= θεμέλια, foundations of the earth, given by others, cannot be verified. [The view of Bengel is that of Justin, Theophilus of Antioch, Polycrates, Mede, Hammond, Whitby and Alford. The last named author, after quoting Justin, argues that δὲ followed presently by the καί when reference is made to the earth, necessarily belongs to the heavens, and that the mention of the heavenly bodies as affected by the great day is constant in Scripture, cf. Mat_24:29; Isa_13:9-10; Isa_24:23; Isa_34:4, etc. On the other hand, the view propounded in the text is that of Wordsworth, who says that “St. Peter’s meaning seems to be, that the στοιχεῖα, elements or rudiments, of which the universe is composed and compacted, will be loosed; that is, the frameworks of the world will be disorganized, and this is the sense of στοιχεῖα in the LXX., Wis_7:17; Wis_19:18, and in Hyppolyt. Philos. pp. 219. 318. The dissolution is contrasted with the consistency described by the word συνεστῶσα in 2Pe_3:5. The heavens are reserved for fire (2Pe_3:7) and will pass away with a rushing noise, and, being set on fire, will be dissolved (2Pe_3:12) the elements will be on fire and melt (2Pe_3:12), and be reduced to a state of confusion; the earth and the works therein will be burnt up.—There does not seem, therefore, to be any cause for abandoning the common meaning of στοιχεῖα, the elemental principles of which the universe is made.”—M.] Λυθήσονται. Gerhard: “When the preserving and supporting power of God, which is, as it were, the soul of the world, shall separate itself from the macrocosm, it will fall together like a soulless corpse.”
The works.—To wit, the works of nature and of art [Bengel: operæ naturse et artis.—M.] trees, plants, minerals, animals, cities, houses, provisions, instruments, etc., cf. Hab_2:13.
[Shall be burned up.—The variation εὑρεθήσεται of Cod. Sin. B. and K. is difficult to account for.—M.]
2Pe_3:11. Since then all these things are being dissolved.—Λυομένων, not λυθησομένων. The Apostle vividly enters into the catastrophe and mentally anticipates it according to the characteristic, which has been noticed in 2Pe_2:10; 2Pe_3:3, and especially also in the first Epistle. Winer, p. 358, explains it as follows: “These things, by their nature intended to be dissolved—the destiny of dissolution is already inherent in them.” Calov applies the Present to the certainty of the event. [The reading οὔτως accords with the abrupt style of Peter, and makes the scene all the more vivid.—M.]
As what sort of persons ought ye to evidence yourselves? etc.—Ποταπός or ποδαπός from τόπος or δάπεδον, land, soil, signifies properly, from what country, where born, whence in point of origin, not equivalent to ποῖος. Cf. Mat_8:27; Luk_1:29; Luk_7:39; 1Jn_3:1. It often denotes a question of surprise, to which no answer is given; but here the answer is added in 2Pe_3:12. Sense: “Ye must evidence yourselves as persons of more noble origin, as citizens of the heavenly kingdom that are only strangers here on earth.” This seems to be an echo of the first Epistle. The common use of ποταπός in the New Testament as connected with an exclamation, is not decisive against our interpretation. Huther wants to supply before ποταποὺς, “consider then,” but this is arbitrary. De Wette takes ποταποὺς in the sense of quantus, how great, how strong, how diligent ought ye to be in holy conversation. But this is ungrammatical. The connection is this: Considering that this entire world-system, with whatever it contains, is doomed to perish, it becomes us Christians to tear our hearts from all inordinate love of the world, and to qualify ourselves even now as citizens of the celestial world. Augustine: “If there is an end of the world, if we have to move away from this world, we must not love the world;” and in another passage: “Seeing that Christ shall come to judgment the very day in which the world shall be dissolved, and that all must appear before His judgment-seat, let us live in the true fear of God, serve Him in holiness and righteousness, and carefully guard against sins.”—Ἀναστροφαῖς. The Plural as in 1Pe_1:15; 1Pe_2:1, to mark the different forms and directions of a holy walk and piety, cf. 2Pe_2:2; 2Pe_1:3.
Ver.12. Expecting and hastening the coming of the day of God.—Προσδοκᾶν.—Not with Luther: To wait as contrasted with haste, but looking for, expecting something while enduring the pressure of evil, cf. 2Pe_3:14.—Σπεύδοντας. Some commentators arbitrarily supply εἰς; the sense of yearning or longing for cannot be verified; it signifies to urge, to press, to hasten, and applies therefore not only to earnest occupation, but, as Bengel asserts, to inward struggling, to perseverance in prayer for the hastening of the Kingdom of Christ, and to preparation for it in repentance and holiness. At the same time the remark of Richter is true, that “in a certain respect it is visionary, dangerous and passionate to pray for the hastening of the end of the world and the termination of the æon of Gospel-calling.”
[Trench (Bible Revision, p. 112) pronounces for the marginal reading in E. V., “hasting the coming” (accelerantes adventum, Erasmus), and explains: The faithful, that is, shall seek to cause the day of the Lord to come the more quickly by helping to fulfil those conditions, without which it cannot come—that day being no day inexorably fixed, but one the arrival of which it is free to the Church to help and hasten on by faith and by prayer, and through a more rapid accomplishing of the number of the elect.” De Wette, followed by Alford: “They hasten it by perfecting, in repentance and holiness, the work of the Gospel, and thus diminishing the need of the μακροθυμία, 2Pe_3:9,” to which the delay of that day is owing. Alford, in reply to Huther’s objection, says, “It is true that the delay or hastening of that day is not man’s matter, but God’s: but it is not uncommon in Scripture, to attribute to us those Divine acts, or abstinences from acting, which are really and in their depth, God’s own. Thus we read, that ‘He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief,’ Mat_13:58, compared with Mar_6:5-6; thus repeatedly of man’s striving with, hindering, quenching God’s Holy Spirit.”—Wordsworth considers this remarkable thought as compared with St. Peter’s speech in Acts 3, as another silent evidence of the genuineness of this Epistle.—M.]
Τὴν παρουσίαν. See 2Pe_3:10, cf. Tit_2:13; Rev_16:14; Act_17:31. The term “day of God” cannot excite surprise, if respect is had to the Old Testament. Lachmann’s notion that the author had given up the hope of Christ’s coming, I and mixed it up with God’s future day of judgment, is incongruous, for he treats of the Lord’s παρουσία in 2Pe_3:4.
For the sake of which the heavens being on fire, shall dissolve (themselves), and the elements shall melt away with fervent heat; δἰ ὴ̔ν. It is best to connect ῆν with παρουσίαν, and to take διά as indicating the occasioning cause. Winer, p. 418, [who sanctions however the construction recommended in Appar. Crit., which is also that adopted by Alford.—M.] Dietlein renders “in honour of which, as it were,” but this rendering is inapposite. If the plan of God is to be carried out, this sin-stained world must perish. Augustine says of the succession of the events, “After the judgment the world will be on fire; that is, it will be entirely burned up.” This is also thought probable by Gerhard, who holds moreover that the burning of the world will take place before the wicked are cast into hell and the godly received to heaven.
Καυσοῦσθαι and τήκεσθαι, to melt like wax, are ἅπαξ λεγ. The Present is used here for the same reason, as in 2Pe_3:11, above. [The note of Wolfius, (Curæ Philologicæ et Criticæ) on the force of these Presents will be found useful: “Interim nihil est mutandum. Patet enim, Apostolum in duobus his commatibus, data opera, nunc præsenti λυομένων et τήκεται, nunc futuro λυθήσεται, de ea ru uti, quæ tam certa futura erat, ac si jam fieret.”—M.]
2Pe_3:13. But we, according to His promise, expect new heavens and a new earth.—The Apostle, for the comfort of believers, contrasts the destruction of the present world system with the expectation of new heavens and a new earth. This hope is founded on the word of prophecy, Isa_65:17; Isa_66:22; Isa_30:26; cf. Rev_21:1. This does not denote an ideal state of blessedness, but a real spirituo-corporeal body-world. So Anselm: “The whole earth, which carried in its lap the body of the Lord, will be a paradise.” Augustine: “The promises of God are apprehended by faith; hope cannot reach them, love cannot understand them; they surpass our longings and desires; they may be obtained, but cannot be estimated.” Grotius mentions that Plato also speaks of a pure earth and a pure heavens. Calov suggests a substantial recreation of heaven. More correctly even Irenæus: “Neither the substance, nor the existence of the creature will be annihilated.” According to His promise, κατὰ τὸ ἐπάγγελμα αὐτοῦ sc. God.
In which dwelleth righteousness.—Not abstr. pro concreto, the righteous, but true righteousness itself or a perfect agreement with the will of God, cf. Rev_21:27; Rev_21:3. This is added partly for the encouragement, partly for the consolation of believers with reference to their unrighteous oppressors. Huther produces similar passages from the book of Enoch, in which reference seems to be made to our Epistles. [The passages are Enoch 2:27; 55:5; 54:4, 5; 90:17.—Wordsworth says, that the Apostle “does not represent the heavens as destined to destruction, but as hereafter to be transformed (ἀναστοιχειουμένους) to a more glorious condition. As the mortal bodies of the saints are dissolved by death, and will not be reduced to annihilation, but will, by reason of Christ’s resurrection, and of their incorporation in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, be renewed to immortality, so the heavenly bodies will be renewed by fire and delivered from the bondage of corruption. See Rom_8:20-22.—The material creation has sympathized with us in our fall, and it will rejoice with the righteous in their redemption and revivification, when their mortal bodies will rise and bloom anew like vernal herbs and flowers, in the glorious spring-tide of the resurrection. See Eusebius, Severus and others here in the Catenâ, Cramer, p. 100.—Thus the benefits of the incarnation and the redemption wrought by the second Adam extend also to the natural world. He has restored already the free use of the creatures to us (cf. 1Co_3:23), and He will raise the Creation itself to a more glorious state of being.”—M.]
2Pe_3:14. Wherefore, beloved, expecting these things, be diligent, etc.—The Apostle founds here an exhortation to holiness on the last named circumstance [i. e., the expectation of the new heavens and the new earth.—M.], as in 2Pe_3:11, on the expectation of that catastrophe.—Ἄσπιλοι; cf. 1Pe_1:19; 1Ti_6:14; Jam_1:27.—Ἀμώμητοι, Php_2:15, like ἀμύμων, blameless; that you cannot be blamed; for the opposite, see 2Pe_2:13.—Αυʼτῷ, in His judgment, before Him, connect with εὑρεθῆναι; cf. 2Co_12:20.—Εὑρεθῆναι, 1Pe_1:7; 1Pe_2:22, in His day.—Ἐν εἰρήνῃ. De Wette explains it: For your peace=εἰς εἰρήνην; but in that case the Apostle would certainly have expressed it. Better Calov: “In peace with God and with men.” [Alford suggests, that considering the familiarity of the Eastern tongue with the expression ἐν εἰρήνῃ, the phrase may have an onward as well as a present meaning, as in πορεύεσθαι ἐν εἰρήνῃ and εἰς εἰρήνην, Act_16:36 : Jam_2:16; Luk_7:50; Luk_8:48; and denote that eternal peace of which all earthly peace is but a feeble foretaste.—M.] More specific definition of ἄσπιλοι καὶ ἀμώμητοι. Gerhard: “Strive that the Lord at His coming may find you peaceful and reconciled.” The thought is connected with δικαιοσύνη, 2Pe_3:13. Dietlein thinks that it is added with reference to the subject about to be stated by the Apostle, viz., the peace-destroying animosity of the deceivers, and refers to Judges 19. But Peter states first something else. It has a good meaning with reference to the many internal and external peace-breakers, especially at that time, Heb_12:14.
2Pe_3:15. And account the longsuffering of our Lord your salvation, [see Appar Crit.—M.]; μακροθυμίαν, cf. 2Pe_3:9; Rom_2:4; Rom_9:22. Every postponement of the day of judgment is also an extension of grace for believers, as far as they may make further progress in holiness. Dietlein: “Apart from it, every converted Christian, reviewing his conversion, is constrained to admit that unless the longsuffering of God did insert a development-process of sin and redemption between apostacy and judgment, his conversion would have been impossible and the merited judgment would have overtaken him also.” To this must be added the observation that since the text reads σωτηρίαν in general, not σωτηρίαν ὑμῶν, the salvation of many others also is founded on this longsuffering. [After this exegesis, it is difficult to understand why Fronmüller retains the old Lutheran rendering.—M.] Roos: “The passage must not be limited to those persons who live at that time, but rather be extended to those who may still be born, if the long-suffering of God preserves this present world for a long time.”
Even as also our beloved brother Paul—hath written unto you.—The deceivers, to whom Peter refers, probably abused the Epistles of the Apostle St. Paul, and represented Peter and Paul as contradicting each other; on this account Peter cites the testimony of Paul as confirmatory of his doctrine, and shows that between Paul and himself there is an intimate communion of spirit, and that the incident, mentioned Gal_2:11, was unable to extinguish his love.
As also, relates, not to what immediately precedes, but to the whole exhortation, 2Pe_3:14-15, to holiness in view of the coming of Christ. Dietlein supposes that since the μακροθυμία of God is treated of only in Rom_2:4; Rom_9:22, the reference is evidently to the Epistle to the Romans, but the supposition that καθώς is to be thus limited, is wrong, and ἔγραψεν ὑμῖν is decidedly opposed to it. Peter must allude to an Epistle of Paul, which, like the present Epistle of Peter, is addressed to the Christians of Asia Minor. To say that the Epistle to the Romans was addressed to Gentiles in general, is no sufficient explanation. Hence Bengel, Gerhard, al., think it to be the Epistle to the Hebrews on account of Heb_9:26, etc.; Heb_10:25; Heb_10:37; others, the Epistle to the Ephesians, on account of Eph_4:30; Eph_6:8; Eph_3:4. The reference is perhaps to all these; de Wette conjectures 1Th_4:13; 1Th_5:11, and 2Th_2:16; but the above named reason is against this view [which is also that of Alford, who meets the objection founded on ὑμῖν, by saying that this Epistle is addressed to all Christians alike, cf. 2Pe_1:1; and that all that can be inferred from ὑμῖν amounts to this, that this Epistle belongs to a date when the Pauline Epistles were no longer the property only of the Churches to which they were written, but were dispersed through, and were considered to belong to the whole Christian Church.—Benson considered the reference to be the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians, because addressed to Asia Minor Churches; this is also the opinion of Wordsworth, who notices also that this text is quoted by Origen de Recta Fide, sect. II., and ascribed by him without any hesitation to St. Peter.—M.]
Our beloved brother.—Brother must be taken in the narrow sense of “fellow-apostle.” How beautiful is this trait of Peter’s character, that he harboured no unkind remembrance of the sharp rebuke which Paul, who excelled him in his labours for the kingdom of God, had administered to him, and that he joyfully acknowledged his Apostolic calling.
According to the wisdom.—Dietlein: “Not so much preëminence in knowledge as aptitude in teaching, knowledge which peculiarly qualifies for teaching; hence ministerial grace accorded to him.” Chrysostom does not hesitate to prefer Paul as a teacher to all others and to call him the teacher of all wisdom. [Polycarp ad Philipp. I. 3; “No one like me can equal the wisdom of the blessed Paul, who being absent wrote to you Epistles (ὑμῖν ἔγραψεν ἐπιστολὰς) into which, if you look diligently, you will be enabled to be built up unto the faith.”—M.]
2Pe_3:16. As also in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these things.—Ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς. Even if the Article is retained, which is probably spurious, there is no necessity to suppose here a reference to all the Epistles of Paul as a finished whole. It cannot be determined which and how many of the Pauline Epistles were known to Peter.—Ὡς sc. ἔγραψε; περὶ τούτων; of the coming of Christ, the end of the world and of what is connected with those events; stedfastness in faith and zeal in good works. Here Peter might refer more particularly to the Epistles to the Thessalonians.
Among which are some things difficult to understand.—ἐν οἰς Gerhard: “Peter here makes no direct reference to the Pauline Epistles, but to the subjects of which they treat, among which are some hard to understand,” which belongs to the nature of the last things.—Ἃ στρεβλοῦσιν; στρεβλόω; from στρέβλη, an instrument of torture, a rock, a screw, a press, hence to screw, to strain, to wind, to twist or distort. A very striking word, peculiar to Peter, to describe the perversion of the Scriptures. As to the things themselves Bengel refers to 2Ti_2:18; Gerhard, to false views of the millennium, of justification by faith, of Christian liberty, of the coming of Antichrist, and especially to the justification and excuses of lawless extravagancies.
The ignorant and unstable.—The reference is perhaps rather to the deceived than to the deceivers and scoffers, for whom these two words would be too mild. On ἀστήρικτοι, cf. 2Pe_2:14.
As also the other Scriptures; ὠς καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς γραφάς. Here again the reference is not to a completed collection of the writings of the New Testament, from which the inference might be drawn that this Epistle is of a comparatively late origin. De Wette, without sufficient reasons, understands passages of Scripture. The reference is probably to the Pauline Epistles, the Epistle of James and the prophetical writings, which, according to 2Pe_3:2 and 2Pe_1:20, must not be excluded.
To their own perdition.—Cf. 2Pe_2:2; Deu_4:2; Deu_12:32; Rev_22:19. Huther: “The perversion of the Scriptures has this consequence, since they use their distorted sayings in order to harden themselves in their carnal lusts.” We have only to add, that they also bring perdition on themselves because they deprive others of salvation.
2Pe_3:17. Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing it before, beware, lest being led away together with the error of the lawless.—Final exhortation not to suffer themselves to be made to waver in their hope by the error of the ungodly, and to grow in grace and knowledge.—Προγινώσκοντες. Bengel supplies: the danger. Dietlein refers it to the imminent attempts of deception. The Lord Himself set great value on the foretelling and fore-knowing of the future. Cf. Joh_14:29; Joh_16:4.—Φυλάσσεσθε, ἵνα μή. Take heed, be on your guard that ye—fall not from.—Thus taken, the construction is not singular; cf. Luk_12:15; Act_21:25; 1Jn_5:21.—Ἀθέσμων, 2Pe_2:7; 2Pe_3:3; πλάνη, 2Pe_2:18, error, delusion, not deception, as Dietlein maintains;—συναπαχθέντες. Cf. Gal_2:13. Similar to what is said of sins, that, like the wind, they have taken us away, Isa_64:6. [Alford notes the remarkable coincidence, that Peter, well acquainted as he was with the writings of Paul, should have written this word, which is the very one used by that Apostle of Barnabas, at Antioch, when he συναπήχθη with the hypocrisy of Peter and the other Jews.—M.];—συναπαχθέντες, together with them and others which they had long since deceived.
Ye fall from your own stedfastness.—ἐκπίπτειν. Cf. Gal_5:4, to fall from, to be banished;—στηριγμός, standing fast, stedfastness in faith and hope; contrast to 2Pe_3:16, above. He refers to 2Pe_1:12 where he declared his readers to be established in the truth. Roos: “The state of grace is the fortress. There God Himself is the stronghold and castle; Christ the rock on which we are builded; there we are assured by the privilege, that all things must work together for good to them that love God; there we are, by the power of God, kept unto salvation. A Christian falls from this his own fortress, if he loses grace, and neglecting to watch and pray and to attend to the word of God, gradually yields to the commission of intentional sins, which, whether by some thoroughly matured dogma or only by hasty judgments, he erroneously regards now in a very different light, and consequently excuses or even justifies.”—Ἰδίου Gerhard: “Not, as though they could of their own strength persevere in faith, but because only true believers continue firm to the end.”—There is no reference here to continuance in communion with the Church.
2Pe_3:18. But grow in the grace, etc.—Gerlach: “The best preservation is continual practice of faith, continual growth in grace and knowledge: then we are proof against all assaults.” Similarly Calvin. [“Haec unica est perseverandi ratio, si assidue progredimur”.—M.]; αὐξάνετε Cf. 1Pe_2:2; 2Pe_1:5; Eph_4:15; Col_1:10. We grow in grace, if we apprehend it with ever increasing faith and keep it, and thus we are privileged to enjoy it more and more richly. Cf. 1Pe_5:10.—Κυρίου belongs only to γνώσει not to χάριτι, [This is doubtful, since the preposition extends to both. There is no difficulty if the subjective force of χάριτι and the objective force of γνώσει as connected with Christ is brought out. “Grow in the grace of which Christ is the Author, in the knowledge of which Christ is the object.”—M.].—Great value is set here at the close, as before at the beginning of the Epistle, on the knowledge of the person, the office, and the benefits of Christ, cf. 2Pe_1:2.—Αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα. The doxology refers to Christ in proof of His Divinity. [Alford suggests Pliny’s letter, “hymnus Christo quasi Deo.”—M.]. Cf. Jude 25; Rev_1:6; Rev_4:9; Eph_3:21.—Εἰς ἡμέραν αἰῶνος not found elsewhere. Bengel explains ἡμέρα in contrast with night: “Eternity is a day without night, purely and perpetually enduring.” Huther: “The day in which eternity begins as contrasted with time, but which day is likewise all eternity itself.” The selection of this expression is best explained by reference to 2Pe_3:8. Eternity counts with God as one day. Augustine: “It is only one day, but an everlasting day without yesterday to precede it, and without to-morrow to follow it; not brought forth by the natural sun, which shall exist no more, but by Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.”
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Unbelief is generally blind to the grossest contradictions in which it is entangled, even as those scoffers do neither see the folly of affirming a beginning of the world and to deny the end of the world, nor the absurdity of the conclusion: “That which has not yet happened until to-day, will happen nevermore.” “God has not made the worlds for eternity, like Himself, but they come and pass away. In the case of each world there was a time when it did not exist, and there will be a time, when its place shall not be found. How distant soever the day of the destruction of our earth may be, when it does come there will be men on earth, like ourselves, occupied, as we are, with expectations and hopes of a long future. He that rolls up the heavens like a garment and scatters suns and earths like dust, He only is the Lord. Our science will never reach the laws which bring about the destruction of our earth.” Schleiermacher.
2. Although loving gratitude to Jesus, who gave up His life as a sin-offering for us, must after all remain our strongest motive to holiness, Scripture teaches us that the thought of death and the judgment, of the end of the world and eternity, should move us to vigilance, seriousness, soberness, and to be on our guard against the security of the world. If the disciples in their time needed the pre-announcement of Christ’s coming and the end of the world, it is doubly and trebly needed in our time. “Hastening the coming of Jesus must not degenerate into an impatient drawing near of the Judge by murmuring against others; we ought the rather be occupied with clearing away and preparation in our own affairs, in order that we may be found in peace.” Rieger.
3. “The new earth is the eternal and chief scene of the Kingdom of God, Psalms 37; Revelation 21. It will not be uninhabited. As the nature of the earth has been made to correspond and conform to man in his fallen and corrupt condition, so it will be made to correspond and conform to man purified, recovered and transfigured into glorious righteousness. Augustine already teaches that the renovated world will answer to the bodies of men which will likewise be renovated.” Richter.
4. Even the older theologians held that the day of the Lord, in which such great and decisive events are to be transacted, in which so many millions are to be judged, must not be made to denote a day of twelve or twenty-four hours. It ought rather to be taken in the sense of a diet [In German, Reichs-tag, Land-tag, Fürsten-tag, literally, day or diet of an empire, county or princes, i. e., a congress of the representatives of an empire, a country, or of princes. The reference in the text is to the name of such assemblies, which although referring to a day, continue in session for weeks or months. So the day of the Lord denotes not a single day, but an indefinite period of time.—M.].
5. The Roman Catholic Church charges the Scripture with obscurity, and founds her charge on 2Pe_3:16. In reply we may notice,
a. The correct interpretation of the passage shows that Peter refers immediately to the difficulty of understanding the subjects treated in those Epistles.
b. These are difficult to understand because they relate to future events, and because the soul-man [so called in respect of the predominance of the ψυχή.—M.] finds it so difficult to understand the things of the Spirit.
c. Chrysostom’s assertion concerning the Scripture is irrefutable, viz.: “Whatever is necessary [to be known and to our salvation.—M.] is plain and sure in it, so that all, even the unlearned, may understand it.”
d. There are good reasons why many things in the Scriptures are hard to understand.
“Many parts of the truth of God must be clothed in concealment in order to prevent aversion to it, to prompt diligent inquiry, and in order to be reserved as a reward of the fidelity exhibited in such search.” Rieger. These difficulties contain a peculiar attraction, a stirring up to prayer, a confounding of our vanity, a concealing of the truth from the eyes of the meddling.
6. If the genuineness of this Epistle be admitted, it affords us a clear proof of the futile pretences of the critics of the Tubingen school in respect of the Pauline Epistles, e. g., of Zeller, who says in the Theol. Jahrb., 1846, II.: “Of the twenty-seven writings contained in our Canon, there is not one for which can be shown credentials of its origin reaching up to the pretended date of its composition.”
[7. Augustine says concerning the question arising from 2Pe_3:16 : ‘Which are the things hard to understand in the Epistles of Paul?’ “Even in the times of the Apostles, certain persons, who did not understand some of Paul’s rather obscure (sub obscuras) sentences, alleged that he said, ‘Let us do evil, that good may come,’ because he had said, ‘that the law entered in, that sin might abound; and where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound,’ Rom_3:8; Rom_5:20.—When the Apostle Paul says that a man is justified by faith (per fidem) without the works of the law, he does not mean thereby, that, when a man has received and professed the faith, he may despise the works of righteousness; but that every one may know that he may be justified by faith, although works of the law have not gone before his faith. For works follow him that is justified, ‘Seguuntur justificatum, non precedunt justificatum.’—Since, however, the notion above mentioned had arisen at that time (viz., that works were not requisite), the other Apostolic Epistles of Peter, John, James and Jude, specially contend against that notion; in order to maintain earnestly, that faith without works does not profit. Indeed Paul himself has defined faith to be not any kind of faith by which man believes in God, but he defines true faith to be that healthful and evangelical faith, whose works proceed from love: ‘Faith which worketh by love,’ Gal_5:6. And he asserts, that the faith which some men think sufficient for salvation is so worthless, that ‘If I have faith (he says) so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing,’ 1Co_13:2; and doubtless that man’s life is good, where faithful love works, for he says, ‘the fulfilling of the law is love,’ Rom_13:10.—Evidently, therefore, for this reason St. Peter in his second Epistle, when he was exhorting to holiness of life, and was declaring that this world would pass away, and that new heavens and a new earth are looked for, which are to be assigned as dwellings to the righteous; and when he was admonishing them to consider what ought to be their life in this world, in order that they may be made meet for that future habitation; and being also aware that many ungodly men had taken occasion from certain rather obscure sentences of the Apostle Paul, to be reckless of living well, and to presume of salvation by faith, has noted that there are some things hard to be understood in St. Paul’s Epistles, which men wrested, as they did the other Scriptures, to their own destruction; whereas, in truth, that Apostle (St. Paul) entertained the same opinions as the rest of the Apostles concerning eternal salvation, and that it would not be given to any but to those who live well. Thus therefore Peter writes.” Augustine then quotes this chapter, 2Pe_3:11-18.—Augustine, de fide et operibus, c. 22, ed. Bened. 6, p. 308.—M.]
[8. Wordsworth, who cites the foregoing passage from Augustine, gives also the following useful table of the testimony of prophets and Apostles to the authority of Holy Scripture:
The prophet Malachi closes the Canon of the Old Testament by a solemn appeal “to the law of Moses, and to the statutes and judgments.” He says: “Remember them,” (Mal_4:4.)
The Apostle and Evangelist St. John closes the four gospels with a similar reference. “These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through His name,” Joh_20:31.
St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentile world, closes his Epistles with a testimony to the sufficiency and inspiration of Holy Scripture: “Abide thou in those things which thou hast learned, and wert assured of, knowing from whom thou didst learn them; and that from a child thou knowest the Holy Scriptures, which are the things that are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Jesus Christ. Every Scripture, being divinely inspired, is also profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, in order that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto every good work,” 2Ti_3:14-17.
St. Peter, here, in like manner closes his Epistles with a similar exhortation, and with a warning against perversion of Scripture.
St. Jude also closes the Catholic Epistles with a memento to his readers: “Remember ye the words spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Judges 17.
Lastly, the Apostle and Evangelist St. John closes the Apocalypse with a promise of blessing to those who keep its sayings, and a curse on those who take from it or add to it, Rev_22:7; Rev_22:18-19.
Thus the duties of the Christian Church, as the Guardian of Holy Scripture, and the duties of every member of the Church, as bound to receive, to meditate upon, and to obey the written word of God, are solemnly inculcated by the farewell voices of prophets and Apostles.
Prophets and Apostles pass away to another and a better world. But the word of God, written by their instrumentality, endureth forever, 1Pe_1:25.—M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
There is a twofold day of the Lord, a day of His mercy in which He still causes sinners to be bidden to His Kingdom by the word (preached), 2Co_6:2, and a day of righteousness and wrath (Act_17:31), which has its various gradations and divisions.—What is necessary to watching and being prepared for the coming day of the Lord? Luk_12:39; 1Th_5:6; 1Th_5:4; Mat_24:38; Rev_16:15.—We cannot be translated, into a state of peace, rest and happiness, unless we have been purified within by sanctificalion of the Spirit, and there arise a cessation of the reproaches and accusations in respect of the transgressions of which we were guilty.—If by carelessness or indiscretion we contract once more spots or blemishes, let us hasten to the opened fountain for all uncleanness, that we may be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.—If all things shall dissolve into fire, the idols of secure men will also perish. How ill is it with us, if we have nothing that is fire-proof!—The only means of escaping the terror of the coming of Christ, is a holy walk and godliness. The former relates to other men and earthly things, the latter to our conduct towards God.—Who does sufficiently realize the end of all things, which has come nigh, and which after the death of the body we shall quickly be made to meet?—According to Tertullian, the primitive Christians were wont to pray for a postponement of the end. The Church sings:
Hasten, Lord, the judgment-day,
Thy glorious countenance display;
Ei, lieber Herr, eil zum, Gericht,
Lass seh’n Dein herrlich Angesicht;
both sentiments are well founded.—The hope of that new world, wherein dwelleth perfect righteousness and constant joy, a chief means of consolation among all the trials and afflictions of this world.—It is one of the chief aims of believers to strive that hereafter they may be found without spot before the Lord.—Who will hereafter be found without spot?—The long-suffering of God our salvation and that of many others.—Beautiful example of Peter in his attitude towards Paul.—Harmony among the teachers of the Church is as necessary as the joint operation of the members of our body.—To honour the gifts of God in others, is to honour God Himself.—If the, forgery of a testament (will) which disposes of an earthly inheritance is a great crime, how much greater is the sin of those who forge and distort the Testament of the Eternal God.—The grace of stedfastness should be daily implored with earnest prayer.—The grace of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ are indissolubly united.—Christ is duly glorified by us, if we acknowledge, praise and publish His benefits.
Starke:—That must be a fearful day; who does not tremble at the birth-pangs of the last time? But ye holy ones, rejoice, lift up your heads, for your redemption is nigh. Luk_21:28.—Men, be moderate in providing garments, in building palaces, in purchasing precious things. Every thing, even the most precious, must be consumed by fire in the last day, 1Co_7:30-31.—The constant recollection of the last day, in which Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge, will give to every man his due reward, is a powerful incentive to godliness, Ecc_12:13-14.—When the heavens and the earth shall have passed away, believers will nevertheless come to a most delightful place, although we cannot now name it or describe its glory, 1Th_4:17.—Those who do not pursue righteousness and holiness here, will not be preferred to the abode in the new heaven of glory, and still less be permitted to enjoy its pleasures, 1Co_6:9.—The patience and long-suffering of Christ is our preservation; for we owe it to His mercy that we are not consumed, Lam_3:22.—If there are dark passages in Holy Scripture, the darkness is not intrinsic, but extrinsic, that is, with respect to the reader and his weak understanding. But it is clear enough in the order of salvation and eternal life to silence all excuses, Psa_119:105.—If Holy Scripture seems to be dark here and there, be not offended at it, and take care not to despise it; learn rather therefrom its sublimity and thy lowliness, but ever search more and more and persevere in prayer; thus thou shalt get more light: as for the rest, it will be reserved for the perfect knowledge thou shalt attain in heaven, 1Co_13:12.—A perverted understanding goes generally hand in hand with an evil will.—Try the spirits, whether they are of God; if not, hearken not to them, do not follow them, and let them not deceive thee, 1Co_6:9.—A strong fortress needs a vigilant and lion-hearted commander, else it will be lost.—Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall, 1Co_10:12. Watch!—Those who are minded not to fall from their own stedfastness, must above all things grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, Joh_17:3.
Stier:—If we may sigh in our own case, Lord, come speedily; must we not, on the other hand, pray because of the ungodly, Lord, have patience. Examples: Abraham, Jonah.—Look at all the glory of this poor world with no other thought than the knowledge that all is destined to pass away!
Rieger:—True part of friendship among Christians, to warn one another.—All the notices of the Holy Scriptures concerning future things are given to us that we should be on our guard. Those who only use them to gratify their curiosity, deprive them all of their best properties of salt and light.—The multitude of the wicked and the diversity of the instruments whereby error is conveyed to men, constitute no small power of deception.—How many a possession, the objects of doubt, dispute and contradiction will be saved in the day of eternity!
Richter:—Ye that are fortified in genuine Scripture-truth and in the doctrine in Christ, are in the city of refuge, of which the Jewish city of refuge wag a type! Numbers 35.
Kapff:—In the great process of combustion the earth will experience the fate of ore which contains silver and gold. The gross, light and formless parts are consumed, the precious and light-giving parts are preserved.—The earth will be a great light-bearer corresponding to the light of the glorified resurrection bodies.—In the passages describing the glorification of the earth, it is difficult to determine how much belongs to the renovation of the earth during the millennial kingdom, and how much to the glorification of the new earth.—If the earthly is so unclean before the holiness of God that it must be burned with fire, how dare we suffer our spirit to be linked to the earthly ?
Lisco:—Of the salvation, which we may attain even in this life.—The inner completion of the citizens of the kingdom.—The salutation of departing Christians.—The renovation of the world at the coming of Christ.
[Sharp:—The reflection that our Lord, who came into the world to die for the sins of mankind, is by His resurrection made Judge of the world, doth not afford matter of greater terror to His enemies, than it does of comfort to His friends and followers. How must it revive the heart of every honest Christian, and encourage him to go on patiently and cheerfully in the service of his Master, notwithstanding the many frailties and infirmities under which he labours; notwithstanding the many slips and errors, that after his best endeavours do attend his course of life, to consider that He, who is to take his accounts at the last day, and to pass sentence upon him, is no other than his dear Redeemer! If we look upon the judgment to come only in this view, that then all the hidden works of darkness shall be brought to light; the secrets of all hearts be laid open; the actions of all mankind strictly examined and scanned; and sentence passed upon every one according to his works done in the flesh; if we have no other view of the last judgment than only this, it would not be very comfortable to the best of us, who are all sinners, and therefore cannot plead our innocence at that great tribunal. But when we consider farther, that it is our Saviour who shall then sit upon the throne; that it is our Saviour to whom God hath committed the judging of us; our Saviour who knows our frame, who is sensible of all the difficulties we have to conflict with, as having Himself in the days of His flesh had sufficient experience of them, “He being in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin;” and that this Saviour of ours will not judge us according to the rigour of the Law, but according to that gracious allowance of the Gospel; the consideration of this will prove an effectual antidote against all the fears, and disquietudes, and despondencies we may lie under upon account of our own unworthiness. Let none of us, therefore, that heartily own our Lord Jesus and His religion, and honestly endeavour to live up to the laws of His Gospel, fright ourselves with such thoughts as these: How much shall I, poor wretch, dare to appear before the face of my Judge at the last day: I, who have so many sins to answer for? Let us but go on in the good course we are in: let us but hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, and daily apply to the throne of grace for strength and assistance against our corruptions; and to our prayers let us add our sincere endeavours to increase in virtue, and the longer we live still to grow better; and then I dare say, whatever sins we may have been guilty of, we shall not need to have any apprehension, or fear our condition on account of them, when we come to die: but we may with confidence appear before the tribunal of our Lord; and expect our part in that comfortable sentence, which He will at the last day pronounce to all His true disciples and followers: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” Mat_25:34.—M.]
[Cf. on 2Pe_3:10. H. Blair: On the dissolution of the world. Sermons, III.
2Pe_3:10-14. C. Simeon: The day of judgment. Works, XX., 349.
2Pe_3:11. John Owen: Providential changes an argument for universal holiness. 4 Serm. Works XVI., 220. Holiness urged from the liability of all things to dissolution. Works, (Goold), XVII., 524.
2Pe_3:13. Thomas Chalmers: The new heavens and the new earth. Works, VII., 280.
2Pe_3:15-16. W. Paley: Caution recommended in the use and application of Scripture language. Visit. Serm. Serm. and Tracts, I.
Chr. Wordsworth: Hulsean Lecture for 1847.
W. Barrow: On the mysterious doctrines of Christianity. Bampton Lecture, 221; Serm., I., 173.
C. Benson: Origin of Scripture difficulties. 1. Existence of Scripture difficulties vindicated. 26. Objections to the existence of difficulties in the Scriptures as an inspired work considered. 47. The existence of difficulties in Scripture not incompatible with their object as a religiously instructive work. 69. Classification of Scripture difficulties. 156. Minor difficulties in Genesis. Recapitulation and conclusion. Hulsean Lecture for 1822, 399.
T. Chevallier: The use of historical types authorized by Scripture; the advantages attending an inquiry into them; the danger of abuse, and rules of interpretation. Hulsean Lecture for 1826. 35.
2Pe_3:18. Jeremy Taylor: Of growth in grace, with its proper instruments and signs. 2 Sermons.—M.]
Footnotes:
[12]2Pe_3:10. ἡ omitted by Lachmann and Tisch. The Article is not wanted, because every body knows what sort of a day it is. cf. 2Pe_3:7; Php_1:6; Php_1:10; Php_2:16. [ἡ omitted in B. C.; inserted in Rec. with A. K. L., al.—M.]
[13]ἐν νυκτί omitted by Tischen. and al. [also in A. B., Sin.: al., Vulg., Syr., Copt., Arm., al.; inserted in C. K. L., Rec, Syr.—M.]
[14][ Omit οἱ before οὐρανοὶ, Sin., K. L., al.—Sin. and Cod. Colbert., insert μὲν after οὐρανοὶ.—M.]
[15][ Lachmann reads λυθήσεται; Tisch. with A. G. K. prefers λυθήσονται [Sin., B.C., read λυθήσεται.—M.]
[16] [ Sin. B. L., al., read εὑρεθήσεται for κατακαήσεται.—M.]
[German: “As a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a crashing roar, but the elements shall be dissolved in fire, and the earth and the works in it, shall be burned up.”
Translate: “As a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, but the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works in it shall be burned up.”—Dr. Lillie calls attention to the onomatopoeia in ῥοιζηδόν which most versions here sought to preserve. The word rushing, like the German ‘Geræusch’ (Stier) resembles ῥοιζηδόν most.—In λυθήσονται I have retained the Passive force with Vulg., Syr., de Wette, Alford and Lillie.—M.]
[17]2Pe_3:11. Tisch., with B. C., and many other authorities, reads οὓτως for οὖν; [οὖν, A. K. L., Vulg., al.—M.]
[18] [ ἡμᾶς, Sin.*—omits ὑμᾶς B.—M.]
[German: “Since then all these things are being dissolved, as what sort of persons ought ye to evidence yourselves in all manner of holy walk and godliness?”
Translate: “All these things being thus to be dissolved (Alford) what manner. ….”—M.]
[19] 2Pe_3:12. [ Sin. omits καὶ σπεύδοντ; but Tisch. marks the reading with *.—M.]
[German: “Expecting and hastening (so Alford, Bloomf., de Wette, Lillie) the coming of the day of God, for the sake of which (παρουσίαν) the heavens being on fire, shall dissolve (themselves), and the elements shall melt away with fervent heat.”
[20]2Pe_3:12. Translate: “.…… by reason of which (ἡμέραν understood, Alford), the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall be melted with a fervent heat (τακήσεται C. Vulg., Lachm., or retaining τήκεται as the present of destiny, render ‘are to be melted.’)”—M.]
[21]2Pe_3:13. [ The German dagegen, and nevertheless of E. V. objectionable on account of their strong adversative force and the emphasis they give to ἡμεῖς; better translate ‘but’ with most of the foreign versions, Alf., Hammond, Doddridge, Lillie.—M.]
[22]A. Lachm. read καὶ τὰ ἐπαγγελμάτα αὐτοῦ.—[Sin. τὰ ἐπεγγαλμάτα.—M.]
[23] [ Insert καινὴν before γῆν A. Vulg., al.—κενήν γῆν Sin.—M.]
2Pe_3:14. [German: “Wherefore, beloved, expecting these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless before Him in peace.”—M.]
[24] 2Pe_3:15. [ Rec. has αὐτῷ before δοθεῖσαν with L.; δοθεῖσαν αὐτῷ, A. B. C. K., Sin., al.—M.]
German: “Account your salvation.” Better in strict conformity to the Greek “And the longsuffering of our Lord account salvation———wrote unto you.”—M.]
[25]2Pe_3:16. [ ταῖς before ἐπιστολαῖς omitted in A. B. C. K., al., Vulg,. Syr., Alf.—M.], Lachm. and Tisch.
[26]Lachmann reads αἶς referring to ἐπιστολαῖς; Tischend., with A. G. K. prefers the reading οἶς. So de Wette. [ἐν αἶς, A. B., Sin.—M.]
[27][ German: “As he also does in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these things, among which are some things difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable distort, as also the other Scriptures to their own perdition.”—M.]
[28]2Pe_3:17. [ German: “Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing it before, beware, lest being led away together with the error of the lawless, ye fall from your own stedfastness.”—M.]
[29] 2Pe_3:18. [ German: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
Translate:—. “To Him the glory both now and to the day of eternity.”—M.]
Subscription: πετρου Β, A. B.Sin.; επιστολη πετρου ά και β́ Cod. Colbert.;—τουαγιου αποστολου πετρου επιστολη [δευτερα. L., al.; πετρου καθολικη. C.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv8–14 be not ignorant--as those scoffers are (Pe2 3:5). Besides…
be not ignorant--as those scoffers are (Pe2 3:5). Besides the refutation of them (Pe2 3:5-7) drawn from the history of the deluge, here he adds another (addressed more to believers than to the mockers): God's delay in fulfilling His promise is not, like men's delays, owing to inability or fickleness in keeping His word, but through "long-suffering."
this one thing--as the consideration of chief importance (Luk 10:42).
Read full note →
one day . . . thousand years-- (Psa 90:4): Moses there says, Thy eternity, knowing no distinction between a thousand years and a day, is the refuge of us creatures of a day. Peter views God's eternity in relation to the last day: that day seems to us, short-lived beings, long in coming, but with the Lord the interval is irrespective of the idea of long or short. His eternity exceeds all measures of time: to His divine knowledge all future things are present: His power requires not long delays for the performance of His work: His long-suffering excludes all impatient expectation and eager haste, such as we men feel. He is equally blessed in one day and in a thousand years. He can do the work of a thousand years in one day: so in Pe2 3:9 it is said, "He is not slack," that is, "slow": He has always the power to fulfil His "promise."
thousand years as one day--No delay which occurs is long to God: as to a man of countless riches, a thousand guineas are as a single penny. God's Å“onologe (eternal-ages measurer) differs wholly from man's horologe (hour-glass). His gnomon (dial-pointer) shows all the hours at once in the greatest activity and in perfect repose. To Him the hours pass away, neither more slowly, nor more quickly, than befits His economy. There is nothing to make Him need either to hasten or delay the end. The words, "with the Lord" (Psa 90:4, "In Thy sight"), silence all man's objections on the ground of his incapability of understanding this [BENGEL].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv8–14 8. Our apostle now returns to the all-important caution…
8. Our apostle now returns to the all-important caution in regard to time. It is on this point that the sceptical scoffers will fix. Remember that God’s hours are ages. Note on Act_1:7.
One day… a thousand years—In the prophetic predictions of the second advent the Spirit speaks by the arithmetic of God, in which the terms soon, quickly, humanly indicating a few days, divinely allow a few ages. Psalms 90.
Read full note →
And now the question may well arise, Why has inspiration thus used phrases of such nearness to designate an event which was to be, as near two thousand years’ experience has proved, so distant? Or, to express the thought in higher terms, Why has a divine arithmetic been thus used to express such a distance to human minds? Our reply would be this: The Spirit’s purpose is, to preserve in our minds an impressive conception of its nearness in spite of its distance. The divine intention is, to prevent our banishing it from our thoughts on account of its far futurity. In its momentousness to us it is nigh at hand, and time is no rightful factor in our calculations. Nay, the very greatness of its distance, far millenniums, perhaps, hence, demands that thought and language should bring it near. Sensible time is very relative. To us in the intervening spirit-world millenniums may pass with inconceivable rapidity. There ever is to us but a step, as it were, to the judgment-day. Note on Mat_25:6. Hence, Scripture uniformly points us, with warning, not to the day of death, but to the resurrection and the judgment-seat of Christ.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv8–14 8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one…
8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing] Literally, the construction being the same as in 2Pe_3:5, let not this one thing be hidden from you.
that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years …] The latter clause has its origin in the words of the Psalmist, “A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday” (Psa_90:4); but while the Psalmist dwells only on the littleness of our greatest time-measures, the Apostle completes the thought by joining with it the possible greatness of that which to our sight is almost infinitely little. “A day” (probably with special reference to the day of judgment) may be pregnant with results for the spiritual history of mankind or of an individual soul as great as those of a millennium. The delay of a millennium may be but as a day in the evolution of the great purposes of God. The words have the additional interest of having impressed themselves as a “faithful saying” or axiom of religious thought on the minds of the apostolic age, and are quoted as such in the Epistle that bears the name of Barnabas (chap. 15). This forms the second answer of the Apostle to the sneering question of the mockers.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv8–14 (8) Second Answer to the sceptical argument: Time is…
(8) Second Answer to the sceptical argument: Time is the condition of man’s thought and action, but not of God’s. His thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways; what seems delay to us is none to Him.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing.—Although these scoffers are willingly ignorant of what refutes their error, do not you be ignorant of what will lead you to the truth.
Read full note →
One day is with the Lord as a thousand years.—This half of the saying is quite original, and has no equivalent in Psa_90:4. The second half is only partially parallel to “a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past.” Consequently, we cannot be sure that the Apostle had this passage from the Psalms in his mind, though it is probable enough that he had. That God Can punish in one day the sins of a thousand years is a thought which is neither in the text nor in the context. What is insisted on is simply this—that distinctions of long and short time are nothing in the sight of God; delay is a purely human conception. Justin Martyr, about A.D. 145 (Trypho, lxxxi.), gives “the day of the Lord is as a thousand years” as a quotation, and in this form it is closer to 2Pe_3:8 than to Psa_90:4. As another possible reference to our Epistle follows in the next chapter, it may be regarded as not improbable that Justin knew the Epistle. (See above, second Note on 2Pe_2:1.) But the saying may have been a favourite one, especially with those who held Millenarian views. In the Epistle of Barnabas (xv. 4) we read,” For a day means with Him a thousand years, and He Himself witnesseth, saying, Behold, to-day shall be as a thousand years,” where for “to-day” the Codex Sinaiticus reads “the day of the Lord.” Irenæus has “The day of the Lord is as a thousand years” twice—(V. xxiii. 2; xxviii. 3); Hippolytus has it once (Comm. on Daniel, Lagarde, p. 153); Methodius once (in Photius’ Bibliotheca, cod. 235). In no case, however, is the context at all similar to the verses before us.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv8–14 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing;…
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing; literally, let not this one thing escape you, as especially important. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
the Lord" means in his sight, in his estimate of things. (comp. Psa_90:4, "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday Bengel finely says, "Dei aeoniologium (sic appellare liceat) differt ab horologic mortalium. Illius gnomon omnes homis simul indicat in summa actione et in summa quiete. Ei nec tardius nec celerius labuntur tempera quam ipsi et oeconomiae ejus aptum sit. Nulls causa est cur finem rerum aut protelare aut accelerare necessum habeat. Qui hoc comprehendemus? Si comprehendere possemus, non opus foret a Mose et Petro addi, apud Dominum." God is eternal: his thought is not, like ours, subject to the law of time; and even we can understand that one day, as the day of the Saviour"s death, may have far more of intense action compressed into it, and far more influence upon the spiritual destiny of mankind, than any period of a thousand years. This passage seems to be quoted by Justin Martyr, the "Epistle of Barnabas," Irenaeus, and Hippolytus; but they may be referring to Psalm 90, though the quotations resemble the words of St. Peter more closely than those of the psalm.
Read full note →
The Eternal"s independence of time.
In all likelihood this sublime statement was suggested by the language of the ninetieth psalm, "A thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday when it is past." It is a glorious conception of the Divine greatness which is in this passage brought before our minds; whilst at the same time it has a practical bearing of a most valuable character upon the conduct of human life.
I THE GREAT TRUTH ASSERTED. Time is for man, not for God. We human beings have but a few years allotted to us as the period of earthly work; within the scant limits of those years we must do what we have power to do, or we must leave it for ever undone. This is not so with the Eternal He has the vast range of all human history in which to carry out his designs. The dispensations follow one another with no haste. The ages are the province within which God works.
II THE APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH TO IMPENITENT SINNERS. It cannot be otherwise than that those who defy God"s authority should be affected by the deliberation with which the Almighty Ruler conducts his government.
1. Judgment deferred is made an excuse for perseverance in sin. If theDivine King were under the same restrictions as to time by which an earthly ruler is governed, the case would be otherwise. As it is, the withholding of retribution is misconceived. Yet judgment deferred is, in truth, not judgment reversed, but judgment delayed.
2. If the matter be regarded from the Divine side, another lesson comes tolight. Judgment delayed is an opportunity for repentance. Long-suffering on God"s part has this merciful significance. Time may teach when other instructors are disregarded; forbearance may be fruitful even when threatening is barren.
III THE APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH TO THE TRIED AND TEMPTED PEOPLE OF GOD. Sometimes deliverance deferred is made a ground for fear that deliverance may never come. But the Christian is appointed to learn that deliverance deferred is only deliverance delayed.
The day of disappointment, of persecution, of seeming desertion, may appear to the afflicted like a year; the year may appear to be an age. But if the matter be regarded from the Divine side as our text invites us to regard it what a change comes over it! The distinction between a longer and a shorter period now almost vanishes. "What of the night? The morning cometh; and also the night." The rescue is near; the daybreak has already begun. Interposition is to be measured, not by years or by centuries, but by Divine purposes and promises.
APPLICATION. These considerations should check the arrogance of scoffers and unbelievers; and should sustain the faith, the courage, and the hope of the Church militant. J.R.T. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing; literally, let not this one thing escape you, as especially important. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
the Lord" means in his sight, in his estimate of things. (comp. Psa_90:4, "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday Bengel finely says, "Dei aeoniologium (sic appellare liceat) differt ab horologic mortalium. Illius gnomon omnes homis simul indicat in summa actione et in summa quiete. Ei nec tardius nec celerius labuntur tempera quam ipsi et oeconomiae ejus aptum sit. Nulls causa est cur finem rerum aut protelare aut accelerare necessum habeat. Qui hoc comprehendemus? Si comprehendere possemus, non opus foret a Mose et Petro addi, apud Dominum." God is eternal: his thought is not, like ours, subject to the law of time; and even we can understand that one day, as the day of the Saviour"s death, may have far more of intense action compressed into it, and far more influence upon the spiritual destiny of mankind, than any period of a thousand years. This passage seems to be quoted by Justin Martyr, the "Epistle of Barnabas," Irenaeus, and Hippolytus; but they may be referring to Psalm 90, though the quotations resemble the words of St. Peter more closely than those of the psalm.
The Eternal"s independence of time.
In all likelihood this sublime statement was suggested by the language of the ninetieth psalm, "A thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday when it is past." It is a glorious conception of the Divine greatness which is in this passage brought before our minds; whilst at the same time it has a practical bearing of a most valuable character upon the conduct of human life.
I THE GREAT TRUTH ASSERTED. Time is for man, not for God. We human beings have but a few years allotted to us as the period of earthly work; within the scant limits of those years we must do what we have power to do, or we must leave it for ever undone. This is not so with the Eternal He has the vast range of all human history in which to carry out his designs. The dispensations follow one another with no haste. The ages are the province within which God works.
II THE APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH TO IMPENITENT SINNERS. It cannot be otherwise than that those who defy God"s authority should be affected by the deliberation with which the Almighty Ruler conducts his government.
1. Judgment deferred is made an excuse for perseverance in sin. If theDivine King were under the same restrictions as to time by which an earthly ruler is governed, the case would be otherwise. As it is, the withholding of retribution is misconceived. Yet judgment deferred is, in truth, not judgment reversed, but judgment delayed.
2. If the matter be regarded from the Divine side, another lesson comes tolight. Judgment delayed is an opportunity for repentance. Long-suffering on God"s part has this merciful significance. Time may teach when other instructors are disregarded; forbearance may be fruitful even when threatening is barren.
III THE APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH TO THE TRIED AND TEMPTED PEOPLE OF GOD. Sometimes deliverance deferred is made a ground for fear that deliverance may never come. But the Christian is appointed to learn that deliverance deferred is only deliverance delayed.
The day of disappointment, of persecution, of seeming desertion, may appear to the afflicted like a year; the year may appear to be an age. But if the matter be regarded from the Divine side as our text invites us to regard it what a change comes over it! The distinction between a longer and a shorter period now almost vanishes. "What of the night? The morning cometh; and also the night." The rescue is near; the daybreak has already begun. Interposition is to be measured, not by years or by centuries, but by Divine purposes and promises.
APPLICATION. These considerations should check the arrogance of scoffers and unbelievers; and should sustain the faith, the courage, and the hope of the Church militant. J.R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 13 The day of the Lord will come as a…
2Pe_3:10
The day of the Lord will come as a thief.
Read full note →
The day of the Lord
I. The text first points us to a period advancing rapidly upon us, in the future; and as such differs from any other which may have marked an epoch in the succession of ages since the world began.
1. The bright display of the Lords attributes which will then be made.
2. The affairs of the mediatorial kingdom of grace, the reign of Christ, as such, will then be completed.
3. The exhibition of His equity, which will then be made in the regular dispensations of His providence among men.
4. The Lord will then receive in and from His people glory and renown.
II. The declarations made in the text concerning its coming.
1. The certainty of it.
2. The sudden and unexpected manner of its approach.
(1) To excite men to watch for the event.
(2) The knowledge of the exact time might alarm men, and prevent attendance to the present duties of life.
III. Some of the occurrences of the day of the Lord. (J. Thompson Smith.)
Preparation for dearth and judgment
I. The period referred to. There have been memorable days in the history of the world and in the histories of nations.
1. On that day the dispensation of mercy will close.
2. It will be the day of the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Believer, it will be the consummation of thy bliss to have a perfect sight of Christ without a veil between, and to bear an exact conformity to His likeness. But O sinner! how wilt thou meet His frown?
3. It will be the day of the Lords especial honour.
4. It is the day on which all His declarations will be fulfilled and verified--His declarations of mercy to His people and His threatenings of destruction to the impenitent and unbelieving.
II. The duties to which its expected coming calls us.
1. We should watch against a spirit of slothfulness and indifference.
2. We should anxiously desire to be found ready whenever that day may come.
(1) Reconciliation with God is necessary.
(2) A close and humble walk with God is requisite.
(3) Frequent meditation on the consequences of that day will prepare us for its coming.
III. Motives to lead us to the discharge of these duties.
1. The uncertainty of the time when this day shall come.
2. The danger and ruin resulting from the want of preparation for its coming. (Essex Remembrancer.)
The heavens shall pass away with a great noise.--
The destruction of the universe:--
1. The destruction of the universe affords us a picture of the power of our Judge. How powerful is this Judge! Who can resist His will?
2. The conflagration of the universe affords us a picture of the horrors of vice. Behold how far God carries His resentment against sin. Heavens, earth, elements, are ye guilty? But, if ye be treated with so much rigour for having been the unconscious instruments of the crime, what must the condition of the criminal be?
3. In the burning of the universe we find a representation-of the vanity of the present world. What is this world which fascinates our eyes? It is a funeral pile that already begins to burn, and will soon be entirely consumed. The hope of an imaginary immortality hath been able to support some men against the fear of a real death. The idea of existing in the minds of those who exist after them hath, in some sort, comforted them under the miserable thought of being no more. Hence pompous buildings, hence rich monuments, and vainglorious titles inscribed on marble and brass. But behold the dissolution of all those bonds, and the memory of all that is fastened to the world will vanish with the world.
4. The conflagration of the universe furnisheth a description of the world to come. Ye often hear us declaim on the nothingness of earthly things. How is it that God, who hath resolved to render us one day happy, doth not allow us to continue in this world, and content Himself with uniting all happy circumstances in our favour? Ah! a life formed on this plan might indeed answer the ideas of happiness which finite geniuses form, but such a plan cannot even approach the designs of an infinite God. A life formed on this plan might indeed exhaust a terrestrial love, but it could never reach the love of an infinite God. To accomplish this love there must be another world; there must be new heavens and a new earth; there must be objects far more grand.
5. Finally, the destruction of the universe displays the excellence of piety. Oh that I could represent the believer amidst fires, winds, tempests, the confusion of all nature, content, peaceable, unalterable! (J. Saurin.)
The earth also … shall be burned up.
The world on fire
I. The last general conflagration. In this Epistle there is one truth very plainly taught, namely, that this present world is to be consumed by fire. We learn also that this conflagration will take place in connection with the judgment, for the heavens and the earth which now are, are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. We gather also from our text that this fire will burn up all the works existing upon the earth--everything which man has constructed shall perish. Chemists tell us that the great noise which Peter speaks of would certainly accompany such a combustion. The whole world shall become one molten mass again, and this terrestrial firmament shall cease to be. We may here note that the prophecy that the earth will thus be consumed with fervent heat is readily to be believed, not only because God says it, but because there are evidently the means at hand for the accomplishment of the prophecy. Pliny was wont to say that it was a miracle that the world escaped burning for a single day, and I do not wonder at the remark, considering the character of the district in which he spent much of his time. In visiting the country around Naples the same thought constantly occurred to me. Yonder is Vesuvius ready at any moment to vomit fire, and continually sending up clouds of smoke. Then go across to the Solfatara on the other side of Naples, stand at the vent of that ancient volcano and listen to the terrific rumblings which attend the rush of steam and sulphur; then stamp your foot or dash a stone upon the ground, and hear how the earth resounds; it is evident that you are standing over a vast cavern. Look around you and remark how the earth steams with sulphureous exhalations. Observe, also, how the earth in some places has risen and fallen, again and again. Yet this volcanic region around Naples is but one of the many ventholes of the great fires which are in the bowels of the earth; three hundred or more burning mountains have already vomited flame. According to the belief of many geologists, the whole centre of the earth is a mass of molten matter, and we live upon a thin crust which has cooled down, and is probably not so much as one hundred miles thick. The probabilites are that the whole internal mass is in a liquid, and, perhaps, in a gaseous state. Astronomers tell us that within the last two hundred or three hundred years some thirteen fixed stars have disappeared, and according to their belief they have been burned up. If such things happen in other worlds, is there anything improbable in the belief that the like will occur to us? But if there were no internal sea of fire, and no instance of other worlds being consumed by fire, who can guess the power which lurks in electricity, and other subtle forces? Gods dreadful armies lie in ambush everywhere. He has but to speak the word, and the servants of His omnipotence will rise, terrible in their destructive power. Earth is as a pile of wood, and the torch-bearers stand ready to kindle it at any moment. Although we read of the world being burned by fire, we are not told that it will be annihilated thereby. We believe from various things which are hinted at in Scripture, though we would not dogmatize, that this world will be refitted and renovated; and in that sense we expect new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Luther used to say that the world is now in its working clothes, and that by and by it will be arrayed in its Easter garments of joy. One likes to think that the trail of the old serpent will not always remain upon the globe, and it is a cheering thought that where sin has abounded Gods glory should yet more abound.
II. The apostle has drawn practical inferences. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? What connection can there be between the burning of the globe and holy conversation and godliness? The first connection is this. Our position as Christians is at this moment like that of Noah before the destruction of the world by water. What manner of person ought Noah to have been? I should suppose such a man, daily expecting the rain to descend and the flood to burst up from beneath, would lead a life very free from worldliness, a life the very reverse of the rest of his fellow-men. Now our life ought to be like that of Noah. Look around on the beauties of nature, and when you enjoy them say to yourself, All these are to be dissolved and to melt with fervent heat. You understand that the things which are seen are but a dream, that the things unseen are alone substantial. Therefore sit loose by all things below the moon, and clutch as with the grasp of a dying man the things eternal which God has revealed to you. Such conduct will separate you from your fellow-men. As there is down deep in your heart an object different from theirs, and as you set a different estimate on all things, your conduct will be wide apart from theirs; being swayed by different motives, your life will diverge from theirs, and they will misunderstand you, they will impute ill motives to you. I remark further, that the nearness of the Lord as suggested by the fact that the world is to be destroyed, according to His word, suggests holiness. The sinner finds a reason for sin when he says, God is not here: everything goes on in the ordinary way: God does not care what men do. No, says the apostle, He is not away, He is here, holding back the fire forces; He is reserving this world a little while, and by and by He will let the fires loose and the world will be destroyed. He is not far off: He is even at the door. How can ye sin against One who is so close at hand? The apostle says, What manner of persons ought ye to be? Remember he was talking to saints, and he teaches us that even saints ought to be more saintly than they are. We have not attained to what we ought to be, and I may say to the best child of God here this morning, There is a yet beyond. And then he goes on to specify two branches of holy life. In all holy conversation, that is to say, all holy behaviour towards men; and godliness, that is, all pious dealing towards God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
On the dissolution of the world
I. Contemplate the Supreme Being directing the dissolution, as He directed the original formation, of the world.
II. Let us contemplate the dissolution of the world as the end of all human glory. This earth has been the theatre of many a great spectacle, and many a high achievement.
III. contemplate the soul of man as remaining unhurt in the midst of this general desolation, when the whole animal creation perishes, and the whole frame of nature falls into ruins. Here, then, let us behold what is the true honour and excellence of man.
IV. We contemplate the dissolution of the world as the introduction to a greater and nobler system in the government of God. We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (H. Blair, D. D.)
Mans external universe as awaiting a tremendous crisis
There is a spiritual conflagration now going on. Christ came to send fire on the earth. His word like a fire consumes the false and the corrupt. But the conflagration in the text is a material one.
I. That the character of this crisis will be very terrible.
1. The agent by which it will be accomplished, fire, is terrible. Fire, when not in its latent but active state, is the most terrible force in the world. There is agony in its touch. Forms the most beautiful it turns to ashes. Water, which destroyed the old world, is in some of its forms a terrible power, but life can subsist in it. You can touch it without pain, you can float on its surface, you can construct a vessel to bear you over its surging floods and seas. But not so with fire. No ark will bear you over a fiery deluge.
2. The extensiveness of its scene makes it terrible. The heavens shall pass away. The earth also and all the works that are therein.
3. The tumult with which it will be attended is terrible. A great noise. There are some sounds that shake ones very soul with horror. The howl of the wind rising into the tempest, the rumble of the approaching thunderbolt, the wild and dismal roar of the ocean when lashed into fury--these are all sounds more or less of terror. But there are animal sounds still more so. The groans of the dying, the moanings of bereaved love, the shrieks of an agonised heart--these are fearful sounds. What a noise is produced by a little bonfire, what a noise, too, by a little steam from the engine; but what must be the noise of burning forests, and boiling oceans, of falling cities and rocking mountains! This great noise will be very terrible.
4. The unexpectedness with which it will come is another element of terror. It will come as a thief in the night. It will not come as a thief in some respects.
(1) A thief comes without warning.
(2) A thief has no right to come.
(3) A thief may be resisted. There is a possibility of turning him back; but not so with this crisis. It must come.
II. That the approach of this crisis is very certain.
1. It is certain that there is a point in the future that will terminate mens present connection with this earth.
2. There is conclusive evidence that this period will be attended with a conflagration.
III. That the prospect of this crisis should exert on mankind a hallowing influence. The apostle states two effects which the prospect ought to produce upon us--
1. Practical holiness in every part of our life--Holy conversation and godliness. If all our material interests are thus to pass away, with what earnestness ought we to cultivate those principles of character, those dispositions of mind, and those habits of life which will abide for ever?
2. An earnest longing of the soul for the future. Looking for and hasting, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Elements that will enhance the final conflagration
Since the noblest attribute of water is its blandness, who would be prepared to find that, chemically speaking, it is remarkable for its fiery composition? When its two constituents are burned in the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, they produce a flame of extraordinary ferocity. Such is the violence with which they combine that it is necessary to keep them from mingling, except in small quantities, unless they are just at the point of ignition. Dr. Clarke placed a brick screen between himself and the dangerous gases when he first experimented on their power, but was nearly killed by an explosion. Perhaps, when the world and all the works that are therein shall be burned up, the ocean may really be the magazine from which fuel may be drawn to support the great conflagration. But let this be as it may in Gods good counsel, is it not a startling thought that water, the uncompromising adversary of fire, should be compounded of two elements whose conjunction is accompanied by a passionate burst of flame and a terrible eruption of caloric? (Scientific Illustrations.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv8, 10, 14 Chapter 28
Chapter 28
THE LORD IS NOT SLACK
Read full note →
2Pe_3:8-9
"ALL things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation," said the mockers. It was foolish, therefore, to believe in, or to think of a judgment to come. In the words before us the Apostle not only supplies an answer to the scorners, but gives a precious lesson to Christians for all time on the nature of God and His government of the world. It is but a single thought, but when the mind of the believer has grasped its significance, he will look out upon the world untroubled. No mockery will disturb his faith.
"But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Here the Apostle quotes some words from that psalm (Psalms 90) which is entitled "A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God." In it the Psalmist is contrasting Gods eternity with the frailty of man and the shortness of human life. "A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past." But St. Peter not only adopts, but adapts, the words for his own purpose. He wants to teach the Christians in their trials that, while what is long in mans estimation may in Gods providence be counted but little, yet through Gods decree what to man appears little may be big with mightiest consequences. He therefore first inverts the words of the Psalmist. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, while a thousand years may be as one day. One day of His deluge swept a whole generation out of the world, while His day of Pentecost remains potent in the history of His grace for all the ages which are yet to come. Through a mistaken literalness, men have sometimes expounded the lesson as if Jehovahs dealings were a question of arithmetic. Nothing could be farther from the Apostles thought, who would have us know that of great and little Gods work makes no account. With Him there is no short or long in time. What he does is not to be measured by the petty standards of humanity. Men must take note of time, for they feel its lapse, and its loss. They are ever conscious that a period is coming after which what is undone must continue undone. Again, the length of time is known to them by the recurrence of the various acts of life, and by the weariness which comes of continued labor, and by the grief of protracted waiting. These things force them to speak of short and long, but with God it is not so. For Him all time is one. He knows nothing of toil. Whatsoever He pleaseth, that doeth He in heaven and in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. {Psa_135:6} The Psalmist had attained a true conception. The whole world and all worlds were in His control, and their order the working of His eternal will. He needs no rest; He slumbereth not, nor sleepeth. To Him there is no waiting, no weariness. Hence the past, the present, and the future are for Him one unbroken now.
This is the one thing which the Apostle offers to the Christian brethren for their support and consolation against the scoffers. And the knowledge is mighty for those who grasp it. It helps them to cast themselves securely upon the almighty arms, convinced that Gods working is not to be estimated according to mans days and years, but is certain in its effect. One generation passeth away, and another cometh; but death, they learn, does not take men out of the knowledge or the hand of God, be it for mercy they are reserved, or for judgment. God does not defer His action because He lacks power to perform, neither does He tarry because He is unmindful of His servants or insensible to what they endure.
Such thoughts can minister to the faithful abundant consolation, and this was the desire of the Apostle. But they raise for all time large questions which can find no answer here, questions concerning the lot of those who pass from this brief day of life into the eternal world and have not known Gods will, that they might do it; questions concerning a discipline which may yet be reserved for some who have not bent themselves to it here, perhaps from want of light; questions of how far hope may extend itself beyond the veil which divides this world from the next. Such questions rise within many earnest souls, often rather for the sake of others than themselves; but God has vouchsafed us no answer, lest men should wax presumptuous.
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness." Many things conspire to make the doings of men to tarry. At one time pledges are given beyond what foresight would warrant; and when the day of performance arrives, they are forced to plead that events have falsified their expectation, and they cannot do the things that they would. Again, men, with the most earnest zeal, attempt a work beyond their powers, and of necessity have to delay the fulfillment of their promises; while some are taken away untimely from the midst of their fellows, ere life has enabled them to achieve what they counted on once as certain. Want of knowledge, of time, and of power is the heritage of the sons of men; and therewith conspires not seldom a change of mind and consequent want of will. But He with whom is no variableness, the omnipotent, omniscient, eternal Lord of all, is subject to no hindrance. Whether events appear to men to linger or to be sudden, all move under the control of the same unchanging will. He is not slack, as men are slack, either to rescue the righteous or to punish the ungodly. Of this the son of Sirach spake: "The Lord will not be slack, neither will the Almighty be patient…till He have taken away the multitude of the proud and broken the scepter of the unrighteous…till He have judged the cause of His people and made them to rejoice in His mercy" (Ecclus. 35:18). Here is a medicine for fainting souls, of whom there must have been many among these Asian Christians. And it is a solace furnished, too, by the teachings of prophecy. "The vision," says one, "is yet for an appointed." {Hab_2:3} Gods Will has ordered when and how it shall be accomplished; all moves by His decree. "At the end it shall speak, and not lie." There is no disappointment to those who wait upon the purposes of God. "Though it tarry, wait for it," even though the waiting may last beyond this life, "because it will surely come; it will not tarry. The just shall live by his faith."
Tηε ορδερ οφ τηε ωορδσ ιν τηε οριγιναλ (ο κυριος της επαγγελιας) and the unwonted construction of the verb, of which no other example is forthcoming, have suggested to some to render thus: "The Lord of the promise is not slack." Even so the words give a powerful sense. God, who makes the promise to men, is supreme over all on which its faithfulness depends, supreme both as Maker and Fulfiller of His word. He sees and controls the end from the beginning. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.
"But is long-suffering to you-ward." The Authorized Version reads "to usward." And some have thought it more in accord with the Apostles manner and humility to include himself with the brethren. The other reading is better supported, and none will doubt on that account St. Peters sense of Gods long-suffering towards himself. The term which he here employs to describe the Divine character implies the holding back of wrath. God might justly punish, but He stays His blow. Men have sinned, and still sin; but His love prevails above His anger. The word is formed by the LXX translators to render one expression in that passage {Exo_34:6} where God proclaims unto Moses the attributes by which He would be known unto men. Through all the list mercy is the dominant feature.
Term upon term seems devised to magnify the tenderness of Jehovah towards His people, though at last, if the continual offers of mercy are despised, He "will by no means clear the guilty." No other language furnishes such a word, for no other people had such a knowledge of the God of all grace.
"Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." We are wont to connect statements like this with the gracious messages of the New Testament. Yet some saints of earlier time felt all that St. Peter here teaches. The writer of Ecclesiasticus has some striking words. He is connecting Gods mercy with the shortness of mans life, and his language anticipates in the main this teaching of the Apostle: "The number of a mans days at the most are a hundred years. As a drop of water unto the sea, so are a thousand years to the days of eternity. Therefore is God patient with them, and poureth forth His mercy upon them. The mercy of man is toward his neighbor, but the mercy of God is upon all flesh; He reproveth, and nurtureth, and teacheth, and bringeth again as a shepherd his flock" (Ecclus. 18:9-14). In such wise had some who waited for the consolation of Israel grasped Gods promises by anticipation, seeing them afar off, and being persuaded of them. Such men owned themselves, equally with the Apostle, to be strangers and pilgrims, and sought for that inheritance which Christ sent him to preach.
The word "wishing" (βουλομενος) implies deliberate consent. This God does not give to the death of any sinner. If any perish it is not because God so desired or designed. But some will ask, "Why, then, should any perish?" St. Peter in this sentence, full of grace, supplies the answer. They continue in sin, and repent not. Even offers of mercy are of no avail. But why does not the Almighty Father drive them to repentance by His judgments? Because He has made His children free, and asks from them a willing service. They are to come to repentance. The invitation is full and free. Christ says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor." Nay, God makes at times a less demand: "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." Could words breathe more of mercy? To come, to look-that is the sole demand. God bestows all besides. Let men but manifest a desire, and His grace is poured forth. He wisheth not that any should perish.
And Christ, too, when He speaks of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, has the same lesson. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost all conspire to further the work of mans salvation. "All things," said our Lord, "whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine. Therefore said I, He shall take of Mine, and shall show" (R.V. declare) "it unto you." But the eye to see what He shows, the ear to hear His declarations-these He asks from men. He willeth that they should come to repentance, and through that gate should come to Him.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv8–14 8–13. But, beloved, be not ignorant. Delay was the…
8–13. But, beloved, be not ignorant. Delay was the objection of the scoffers, but time is no element in the counsels of God. He has eternity in which to work out his purposes. He can as well take a thousand years as a day. If he seems to us short lived creatures to delay it for wise purposes. See Ps. 90:4.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv8, 14 2Pe_3:8. One day, etc.—The time-element gave opportunity to the…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
2Pe_3:8. One day, etc.—The time-element gave opportunity to the scoffers. The time-measures of God must not be thought of as like those of men. It is to misrepresent this verse, to regard it as fixing God’s measure for a day as being a thousand years. To do so would make God’s judgment-day a thousand years long, and the day of Christ’s coming also a thousand years long. The Millennium is a day, if the last sentence of this verse be taken literally.
Read full note →
2Pe_3:9. Not slack.—The apparent delay is arranged in Divine wisdom, and with due consideration of the saints. “God is long-suffering, because He is eternal” (Augustine). To us-ward.—“Toward you.”
2Pe_3:10. Great noise.—Rushing noise. Elements.—Or “heavenly bodies.” Macknight says, “The electrical matter, the sulphurous vapours, the clouds, and whatsoever floats in the air, with the air itself.”
2Pe_3:11. Shall be dissolved.—Lit. “are being dissolved.” All holy conversation, and godliness.—Both words are in the plural. All forms of holy living.
2Pe_3:12. Hasting.—(Omit “unto”). Hasting the coming by holy lives. Wherein.—Or “on account of which.”
2Pe_3:13. New heavens, etc.—See Isa_65:17; Isa_66:22; Rev_21:1. The idea is fully expanded in the book of Enoch.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Pe_3:8-13
Long-suffering is not Indifference.
I. The Divine time-measures.—2Pe_3:8 contains the “second answer to the sceptical argument. Time is the condition of man’s thought and action, but not of God’s. His thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways; what seems delay to us is none to Him.” The figurative expression of this text has been much misrepresented and misused. It is when it is treated as a precise statement, and made the basis of minute calculations. The whole conception of a Millennium rests on a figurative expression. When it is said that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” it is simply meant to assert that God’s prophecies and promises must never be tested by human time-measures. If He says a thing will happen to-day we must always keep in mind that it is His “to-day,” not ours; and that His to-day may cover even what we should call a “thousand years.” As an argument against the scoffer this is effective enough. The force of his scoff is broken when he is compelled to reckon the fulfilment of promises by God’s time-measures.
II. The patience of Divine delay.—It needs to be clearly seen that, since God must always keep moral ends in view, He can never make an unconditional promise. The promise is a moral force. If that promise fulfils its end the promise can be made good at once. If that force is in any way hindered, the fulfilment must be left over until the moral force has duly affected its mission. And the Divine patience is seen in being willing even to be misunderstood and misrepresented, rather than to cease exerting the graciously redeeming moral force. There is no sublimer revelation of God than that which comes to us in the Divine delayings. He can wait and bear, in view of the ends of His infinite love for man. He is “not slack concerning His promise.” We never may think that He is indifferent—that “He has forgotten to be gracious.” That never can explain the Divine action. We may always find long-suffering patience. He is not willing that any should perish. He stretches opportunity of repentance to its utmost limit. He gives warning after warning, until the utter hopelessness of any further warning is made quite plain, and the cup of self-willedness and iniquity is quite full.
III. The certain ending of times of Divine delay.—“But the day of the Lord will come.” If judgment be threatened as a flood, the flood will come, unless men repent. A hundred and twenty years may pass, and men may grow bold in their impious self-security; they may laugh away all fears as they enjoy their sunny days; but the flood will come. The Flood came. God’s “word never returns to Him void.” It will certainly be the same in regard to the promise of Christ’s coming, whether that be viewed as the vindication of the saints, or as judgment on their persecutors. Divine delay in no sense indicates that the Divine purpose is abandoned. Let nobody for one moment think that. Christ will come. “The day of the Lord will come.” And if the scoffer persists in scoffing, let him remember that the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar; there was every prospect of another splendid summer day; but that day the fire of God fell. Certain as death is judgment—is Christ’s coming to judgment.
IV. The certainty of Divine judgment is present blessing.—It is a constant and a gracious persuasion to virtue. This is its proper influence upon us. It makes us say, “What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness.” By the earnestness of our endeavours in cultivating the godly life, and growing in grace, we should be “looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.” Not “looking for” in any sense of idly watching at a window; but looking for, as Christ taught us the good servant looks for the return of his Master, by all devoted obediences, all earnest activities, all careful preparations. Christ is coming; then let us “be diligent, that we may be found of Him in peace.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
2Pe_3:8. A Thousand Years as a Day.—The latter half of this saying is quite original, and has no equivalent in Psa_90:4. The second half is only partially parallel to “a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past.” Consequently we cannot be sure that the apostle had this passage from the psalms in his mind, though it is probable enough that he had. That God can punish in one day the sins of a thousand years is a thought which is neither in the text nor in the context. What is insisted on is simply this: that distinctions of long and short time are nothing in the sight of God; delay is a purely human conception. Justin Martyr (about A. D. 145) gives “the day of the Lord is as a thousand years” as a quotation, and in this form it is closer to this verse than to Psa_90:4. As another possible reference to our epistle follows in the next chapter, it may be regarded as not improbable that Justin knew the epistle. But the saying may have been a favourite one, especially with those who held Millenarian views. In the epistle of Barnabas (15:4) we read, “For a day means with Him a thousand years, and He Himself witnesseth, saying, Behold, to-day shall be as a thousand years,” where for “to-day” the Codex Sinaiticus reads the day of the Lord.” Irenseus has, “The day of the Lord is as a thousand years” twice. Hippolytus has it once, Methodius once. In no case, however, is the context at all similar to the verses before us.—A. Plummer, M.A.
The Brevity of God’s Delays.—No delay which occurs is long to God; as to a man of countless riches, a thousand guineas are as a single penny. God’s œnologe (eternal-ages measurer) differs wholly from man’s horologe (hour-glass). His gnomon (dial-pointer) shows all the hours at once in the greatest activity and in perfect repose. To Him the hours pass away, neither more slowly, nor more quickly, than befits His economy. There is nothing to make Him need either to hasten or delay the end.—Fausset.
2Pe_3:11. What is a Holy Conversation?—The Revised Version reads “holy living,” but the word “conversation” may be taken as altogether more suggestive. It is a very searching thing to require a holy tone and character upon all the turning about, in and out, here and there, to and fro, with this man and that, in all the everyday and commonplace associations of life. And that is what is meant by the “holy conversation” of the text. It may seem at first sight as if “godliness” were very much the same thing as “holy conversation,” but we may distinguish between the actual conduct of life and the inspiring motive of it. The inspiring motive should be “godliness.” “Godliness” is the realisation of God’s abiding presence, the fruits of which are reverence and trust. But the argument by which a “holy conversation” is urged upon us by the apostle is certainly somewhat peculiar. Because all present material things are to be dissolved; because the heavens shall pass away with a great noise; because the elements shall melt with fervent heat; because the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up;—therefore, we ought to be supremely concerned about our “holy conversation and godliness.” If this stood alone it would be perplexing; but when St. Peter adds Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” we begin to understand him. A great testing time awaits God’s people; what it was to be could only be conceived under the forms of an overwhelming commotion of material things. In that time of testing nothing could possibly stand but steadfast goodness, an established “holy conversation and godliness.” Out of that time of testing will come a condition of confirmed holiness; there will be a “new heaven and a new earth,” whose supreme characteristic should be that in it “dwelleth,” “abideth,” “righteousness.” Only they who maintain the “holy conversation and godliness” can have any place in that “new earth”; but he who has persistently kept righteous during the testing time shall then be “righteous still.” That, then, is our work as the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to earnestly maintain our “holy conversation and godliness,” as our true preparation for every time of strain that may be coming, and as providing the only sure defence from the evil influences which that time may bring. And we are to maintain it because only those who are holding it fast can have any “entrance ministered unto them into the everlasting kingdom” of righteousness. It is very significant that the apostles, while anxious about right opinion, are so much more anxious about right conduct and right character. The two may go together, and always should, but conduct and character must come first, and be esteemed as of supreme importance. “Only let your conversation be such as becometh the gospel of Christ.” We do well, then, to try and understand what a “holy conversation” is; or, to put the same thing in other words, what actual and practical ordering and shaping of our human life and relationships is involved in our making a Christian profession. “What manner of persons ought we to be?”
I. A holy conversation is a daily life ordered by principle.—One Scripture writer earnestly counsels us not to let our life drift. But it is precisely that we are tempted to do. To let things go. To live on, day by day, simply responsive to the accidents of the day, and fitting our wisdom and skill, as well as we can, to the duties and emergencies of the day. It is but a butterfly kind of life, flitting lazily from flower to flower, and sipping what nectar we can. A “holy conversation” was never attained in that way. It is easy enough to drift into a low, careless kind of life, but no man ever yet put a stamp of character upon his conduct until he gained a clear meaning and purpose for his life. It is the greatest work of education to inspire the boy with a great resolve. He is not educated unless he has come to see a meaning in his life, to set before himself a noble purpose, and to recognise the law or principle by which all his efforts to attain are to be ruled. To start in life without a fixed principle is like starting a voyage on the unknown and wind-driven seas, without a guiding and controlling helm. Sometimes the principle chosen for the ordering of a life is not a good principle, but even then it has its power as a principle, and in the sway of it the man reaches altogether grander things than the man possibly can who drifts through life, anyhow and anywhere, without any guiding principle at all. But there is no reason against our choosing such a principle as will secure for us a “holy conversation.” We can resolve that life shall be ordered on the principle of always and simply doing what we know to be the will of God. For us that will is in part declared in the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in part witnessed every day afresh, in adaptation to the circumstances of life, by the indwelling Holy Spirit. And what we call “conversion” is precisely this: the dethroning of the old principle of seeking the interests of Self, and enthroning the principle of service to the holy will of God. Just in the measure in which a man’s life is ordered and toned by that principle will his daily life and association be described as a “holy conversation.” That is the first thing, and there is nothing more absolutely essential to right living. We can attain nothing unless we are purposed to attain it. We can attain no high thing unless our purpose be based on a principle, and that principle be the noblest that can give character to a life. It is but putting this in figurative form for the apostle to say, “I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice … which is your reasonable service.”
II. A “holy conversation” is a daily life shaped to a pattern.—We want help in finding befitting expression for our principle in the actual details of our daily association and duty and influence. We see this want very clearly in the case of the Christians connected with the early Gentile Churches. It was most difficult and perplexing work to get the new Christian principle, altering, re-moulding, and re-toning all the common, every-day thoughts, feelings, and relations of life; and we know how, in all the epistles, practical counsels for guidance were given, and how, in the epistles to the Corinthians, the more special cases of perplexity were carefully dealt with. Was this principle, which we have commended as the right, the highest, the most sanctifying principle that can order a human life, ever so worked out into the details of any one human career that such a man’s life-story can be taken as an absolutely satisfactory pattern? We can take any and every good man as an example of something; but then each ordinary good man is almost as much a warning as an example. Was there ever a case in which the pattern of the life-principle, worked into all details, was perfect? A case in which the life contains nothing whatever which we must be warned not to copy? That supremely important question has never yet received more than one answer. It never will receive more than one. That one is entirely satisfactory. The “Man, Christ Jesus” is the model life of details, in which the power of the controlling principle is seen; and whosoever takes that human life for his pattern increasingly finds himself satisfied with it, and inspired by it so as to attain a “holy conversation.” But we shall misuse that pattern if we merely slavishly imitate it; if we inconsiderately say, Jesus did and said such and such things, and we must say and do exactly the same. That is childish imitation, not intelligently using our pattern. What we require is to see that Christ’s pattern is simply but precisely this: the varying suggestion of ways in which the great life-principle finds befitting expression in the details of human conduct. What we have to ask, if we would follow the example of Christ aright, is this: How would Christ have expressed the great principle if He had been placed in just these particular circumstances in which I am placed? And we can get practical help from observing how Christ did act in circumstances that were similar. To “follow His steps” is to express principle as He did. Is it not quite plain that shaping life after the pattern which Christ has set will ensure a “holy conversation”? It did. No other terms are befitting as the description of the life of the Lord Jesus. Take what meanings you may please to attach to the term “holy,” they are all satisfied in the blessed life of Him who “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth”; “who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” And a “holy conversation” is possible to us in the measure in which we answer to the pattern, have the “mind that was in Christ Jesus,” and are made “like unto Him in all things”—changed into His image.
III. A “holy conversation” is a life sustained by consecrated energy.—It is necessary to dwell upon this, because Christ’s holy life may seem to us a far easier thing than we shall ever find a holy life to be; and we may readily get disheartened when we are impressed with the contrast between our Lord’s easy attainment and our ever difficult and doubtful struggle. It really should not be felt a surprising thing that we can but, at the best, come a long way behind Christ—a very long way indeed it will be unless we put consecrated energy into our endeavour. Such energy is demanded because the life-principle we have chosen is never so established and confirmed in us as to be beyond peril; and even more than that, it has a way of fading down in us and becoming ineffective if we do not perseveringly and persistently keep it well to the front, and make it have its say about everything. A true life-principle in a man must be everything or nothing, everywhere or nowhere. There is therefore constant demand for the consecrated energy which will keep power and vigour in the principle which makes a “holy conversation.” The holy life is a life in earnest, and it can be nothing else. The hair and fur of animals reveals at once lowered vitality. Keep up the energy of the soul’s life, and all the signs will be right; there will surely be the “holy conversation.” And the consecrated energy is further needed because the practical outworking of our life-principle in the details of conduct is never easy for us, if it was always easy for Christ. Our Lord expressed a truth which was applicable to more than the entrance into the kingdom when He said, “Strive” (agonise) “to enter in.” It is quite true that the effort for us will grow easier as years unfold, and will become easier in particular things, but it will never cease to make demands upon watchfulness, self-mastery, and consecrated energy. If we would attain the “holy conversation,” we must be prepared to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ,” and we must be constantly lifting ourselves afresh up to the holy enduring. What is wanted, always wanted, is earnestness put into the endeavour to live the holy life. We must mean it, and strive for it.
IV. A “holy conversation” is life toned by righteousness.—There are so many things in life that would be beautiful if they were polished. Things never do become lovely until they get their bloom. What marvellous improvements have been made in the paper of our books and magazines! Now it has its polish on and shines. It may be of first importance that a Christian’s conversation should be right—that it should be of sterling worth; the ring of it must be sound and true. But it does not answer to the description “holy conversation” until it gets its polish, until upon it lies the bloom. It must be beautiful and gracious. The fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,” make up the bloom, and no man has gained the “holy conversation” until he is strong, true, and beautiful in Christ. Yes, in Christ. For there is a marvel about our Pattern. The Pattern proves to be a Person, a living Person, with whom we can have so real a fellowship that the glow of Him shall be reflected from us. Like Moses, when he saw God, the shine will be on our faces, the Christ-tone will be on all our intercourse. The Christ-bloom creeps all over us if we really come into soul-nearness to Him. Surely the question with which we started has been fully answered. What is a “holy conversation”? It is a human life ordered by the principle that ruled the human life of Christ. It is a human life in all its details shaped after the pattern of the “Man, Christ Jesus.” It is a human life into which is put the energy of a vigorous life and a consecrated purpose. It is a human life that is kept within the radiance of Christ, and shines out His light upon men. Seeing that the great strain-time, taking one form or another, must come to us all; and seeing that through the strain-time we may hope to come to the world where all is righteous;—“what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”
2Pe_3:13. Heaven: its Nature and Character.—There is great confusion, both in the language and the opinions of men, in regard to the final dwelling-place which is promised in Scripture to the righteous. We speak of heaven continually, yet have but a vague and unconnected notion of what it positively is. There is no perspicuous and definite idea impressed upon the mind: we are wandering in the regions of generality, or probability. It may be this, or it may be that. It is a speculation rather than an article of faith. With our very limited faculty of intelligence, and with our many imperfections and impurities clinging on all sides around us, we shall never be able entirely to penetrate those sacred mysteries of futurity which God has but partially disclosed. To be wise beyond the Scriptures would be the height of impiety; but, nevertheless, there is no reason why we should not strive to be wise up to the Scriptures.
I. Heaven is a place, a tangible, material locality.—Heaven, as a word, is used with various significations.
1. The region of air or atmosphere immediately surrounding the earth.
2. The firmament, or vast expanse of space which is beyond or above the atmosphere, wherein the stars appear.
3. As the place of God’s residence, and the dwelling of angels. Many persons have taken up the idea that heaven is nothing more than a sort of indefinite ethereal abode; that the grossness of materialism cannot enter there; that it is filled with nothing but certain mental and spiritual essences of glory and love, unallied to anything that savours of body or of matter; and so they attenuate and dwindle away all notion of it, till it disappears in nothing; and when pressed home, they find that their minds have been dwelling upon that which is purely imaginative, and has no foundation. The source of this is not difficult to detect. By our present connection with the world in which we dwell, our notion of materialism is inseparably connected with a notion of imperfection and sin; and by the exalted pictures which Scripture gives us of the joys of heaven, we are loth to admit, as within its comprehension, anything that appertains to our present state. The contemplative mind cannot think of heaven as constituted of any such material elements as here he sees around him. But there is a fallacy in such reasoning, and the fallacy is this: we look upon the material things of nature as they are now, and not as God made them originally; we look upon the human body as it is now, in sin, and not as the Almighty originally constituted it—in glory and holiness. Man was a sinless creature; there was naught for him but loveliness and beauty; there was no such thing as sorrow, no such thing as pain. The paradise in which Adam and Eve dwelt, we must consider to have been a perfect and blissful abode; and yet it was a local abode. It was not till Adam fell that materialism ceased to be holy. It was not till sin entered into the world that there was any drawback in the works of nature, as now looked upon by us. Then, indeed, the whole of the works of God were changed from their original destination. But who would say that, because this material state, in which we now are, cannot form such a place as heaven, that no material state shall? Then Scripture asserts the resurrection of the body, and the reunion of the body and soul, before entering the future abode of eternity. Christ, in His human nature, as a body, is in heaven, at God’s right hand. We cannot conceive this at all, unless we conceive of God’s right hand as a place. In all the descriptions of the blessedness of the righteous, that which describes their happiness infers that happiness as depending on organs of sensation, as seeing, conversing with, and listening to, other beings who shall there be associated with us. If there is material vision, material hearing, material recognition, there must be a material abode, and material objects on which they are to be exercised. The promised abode of righteous men, we may confidently say, is of a local and material character. It is materialism, purged indeed from sin, and cleansed of all those imperfections which attach to it here—but still materialism.
II. There is a certain character attached to the place without which character no man can attain unto its glories.—“Wherein dwelleth righteousness.” As some have theorised away the notion of heaven, by lifting it up beyond the cognisance of our senses altogether, so others, men of sensual and earthly affections, have so debased their notion of it as to represent it as a mere place of such corporeal pleasures as prevail in this world. But such an absurdity—let alone its profaneness—as that picture of Paradise which the Koran describes, can never for a moment be entertained by one who reads the Bible. The most perfect and hallowed goodness must of necessity belong to the saints in light. Harmony of views, identity of interests, unison of affections—in short, universal good—shall fill every bosom, and stimulate every heart. What must the character of the soul of man be, before he can become the fit inhabitant of such a heaven? Clearly, we human beings must be changed; we must be spiritualised; we must be lifted up to God, for God cannot be brought down to us. And when may this change be effected? Certainly not after death. If we attain not to holiness and spirituality of character while on this earth, we shall not attain unto the spirituality of the character which belongs to the new earth. What you are here, you will be hereafter. Heaven cannot but be a place of holiness. He therefore that is unholy can have no place therein. It appears, then, that as one part of heaven, the material part, cannot be commenced here, but must wait for the final restitution of all things, so, in proportion, the other part of heaven, the spiritual part, must be commenced here, otherwise the fruition of eternal joy never can be ours. The spiritual heaven, the temper of mind, the patience, the meekness, the purity, the love of heaven—that, unless we have a foretaste of it now, we shall not be in a capacity for enjoying hereafter.—William J. E. Bennett, M.A.
New Heavens and New Earth.—What is our conception of the new heaven and the new earth that we desire? Is it a mere absence of annoyances? Is it an egotism, expanded to infinitude? Is it a sensual Mohammedan paradise? Is it a selfish palace of art? Is it a city paved with gold, or a pagoda of jewels, like the Jerusalem of St. John, in its merely external aspect? Childish must we be indeed if we have not get beyond these symbols, if we do not know that man is, in his essence, a spiritual being, and that for a spiritual being there can be no felicity save in spiritual conditions—in communion with God, in serenity of mind, in purity of heart. We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Shall we ever enjoy that heaven hereafter? Yea, if we truly seek it now.—Dean Farrar.
Attainableness of Righteousness.—Is righteousness attainable by man? If it be, then the essence of God’s kingdom is not beyond man’s reach. If righteousness be attainable here and now, then here and now we may at least enter into the kingdom of heaven. Is our conception of happiness identified with righteousness? Is that the thing which we desire? Is that our ideal? Is that the one goal to which we are stretching forward in the heavenly race? If so, then for us, even here and now, “the path to heaven lies through heaven, and all the way to heaven is heaven.” What sort of a condition answers to the heaven of which you dream, for which you sigh? Is it a state of things which you vaguely call glory? Is it a starry crown—the symbol of supreme self-aggrandisement? Is it a golden throne, the summit of individual exaltation? Is it the rest of an untroubled indolence? If so, our heaven may prove to be indeed a chimera, both now and hereafter. Such notions of heaven betray the unsuspected fact that, after all, our high spiritual hopes resolve themselves into mere earthliness, into an ill-concealed amalgam of vanity and selfishness. The true conception of heaven is holiness.—Dean Farrar.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
2Pe_3:12. Ready for the Voyage.—The Christian, at his death, should not be like the child, who is forced by the rod to quit his play; but like one who is wearied of it, and willing to go to bed. Neither ought he to be like the mariner whose vessel is drifted by the violence of the tempest from the shore, tossed to and fro upon the ocean, and at last suffers wreck and destruction; but like one who is ready for the voyage, and, the moment the wind is favourable, cheerfully weighs anchor, and, full of hope and, joy, launches forth into the deep.—Gotthold’s “Emblems.”
Influence of Fire upon the Earth.—“What has fire done upon the earth? Fire has only re-constructed and destroyed. Nothing has found an origin in fire. Fire itself is an effect, and not a cause it is in the atmosphere, it is in the flint in the earth, it is in the water; in each it is a thing by itself, unseen or unfelt; certain conditions bring it into active existence, but it cannot be traced in either element as a matter of course; yet it is here, there, and everywhere: it has built up Cotopaxi to the height of 18,000 feet; Teneriffe has been shot up by its labours from an unknown depth beneath the sea to 12,000 feet above it; Etna is heaped up with lava, ashes, and scoriæ some 11,000 feet; Iceland has grown into a great island under its influence; and Vesuvius has grown to a height of 3,751 feet, from a reconstruction of earthy matter by force.”—Malet.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v10 10. Remember God’s day is a thousand years. The…
ARGUMENT 5
CREMATION AND CELESTIALIZATION OF THIS EARTH
Read full note →
10. Remember God’s day is a thousand years. The Lord comes as a thief, receives His bride, inaugurates the millennium and reigns a thousand years, as related by John. After the millennium, as described by John (Revelation 20), the final resurrection and judgment transpire. Meanwhile the cremation of the earth will take place, i.e., its sanctification by fire, putting an end to the temporal and probationary state on the earth. This final and thorough cremation of the earth will exterminate all the effects of sin, superinducing a final and complete expurgation of this entire world from all the maladies and contaminations of sin, consuming the oceans and seas and melting the frozen poles.
11. “Therefore these things being dissolved, what part does it behoove us to be in holy deportment and godliness.” Certainly these relations constitute the greatest possible incentives to a holy experience and life.
12. “Anticipating and expediting the coming of the day of God.” He has promised to come so soon as the “Gospel of the kingdom is preached to all nations, thus giving all a chance for the bridehood and a throne in the Coming kingdom. So we can expedite His coming by telling the nations, i.e., preaching the Gospel to all the world. “Through which the heavens,” i.e., the firmaments, being on fire, will be melted with fervent heat. The intense heat of the cremation will not only consume the ocean, but melt the mountains and deserts and dissolve the great strata of the earth, reducing the globe to a molten plate, thus preparing it for the ensuing reformation and celestialization.
13. “But we look for new heavens [i.e., new firmaments] and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness.” This corroborates John. Rev 21:1. Harmonizing Peter and John, we see the cremation and renovation will take place after the millennium. During the final judgment, which will occupy a period of time sufficient for the magnitudinous issues destined then to transpire. Meanwhile the great Appellate Court of the universe is moving and settling all destinies for eternity. The earth will be passing through those tremendous fiery convulsions and revolutions requisite to utterly expurgate all the debris of sin and prepare the way for complete renovation and glorious transformation into a heavenly world, for the inheritance of saints and the occupancy of glorified spirits through all eternity. “In which dwelleth righteousness.” In the new celestial world into which our earth will be transformed after its complete sanctification by the fiery baptism, there will never be any more sin nor anything contaminated by sin. Transfigured saints and glorified angels will here abide forever. Doubtless this redeemed earth will ever be a favorite among the glorified inhabitants of all celestial worlds, having universal celebrity as the battlefield of God’s empire, where his Son met the powers of hell in battle array and fought the battle of human redemption. Therefore throughout celestial ages, earth will be a favorable resort as the battlefield of God’s empire. Doubtless the bright unfallen intelligences from millions of unfallen worlds, will delight to visit the scene of the most terrible conflicts in the history of the universe.
14. “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, hasten to be found spotless and blameless unto Him in peace.” The true attitude of saintship in all ages has been that of constant expectancy of our returning Lord. This vivid and constant outlook is the grandest conceivable inspiration to a holy experience and life. Mark the commandment, “Hasten to be found spotless and blameless,” i.e., get wholly sanctified by the precious blood and the consuming fire, utterly expurgating inbred sin out of the heart. This is the only possible way to be found “spotless and blameless.” You must first get “spotless and blameless,” and then keep so, looking out constantly for King Jesus to ride down on a cloud. Foolish people think it simply depends on their conduct. A hog can not live like a sheep. First of all, you must receive the transforming grace of God, to eliminate all of the hog nature out of you, then you can live like a sheep.
15. “Consider the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.” Oh, how true! Salvation here means our final transfiguration at the Lord’s coming. If He had not waited long He would have found many of us without the spotless robe.
16. Peter brings in Paul’s testimony (2 Thessalonians 2), to corroborate his visions on the Lord’s coming, observing that they are hard to understand and, consequently, wrested by the unlearned and unestablished to their own destruction. The Bible is a spiritual book, dealing in spiritualities and not mentalities. Peter himself is pronounced an unlearned and ignorant man. Act 4:13. Hence “unlearned and unestablished” is to be understood in a strictly spiritual sense, i.e., untaught by the Holy Ghost and unestablished in holiness.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v14 2 Peter
2 Peter
BE DILIGENT
Read full note →
2Pe 3:14.
As we pass the conventional boundary of another year, most of us, I suppose, cast glances into the darkness ahead. To those of us who have the greater part of our lives probably before us, the onward look will disclose glad possibilities. To some of us, who have life mostly behind us, the prospect will take ‘a sober colouring from an eye that hath kept watch over man’s mortality,’ and there will be little on the lower levels to attract. My text falls in with the mood which the season fosters. It directs our onward look to a blessed certainty instead of a peradventure, and it deduces important practical consequences from the hope. These three things are in the words of our text: a clear vision that should fill the future; a definite aim for life, drawn from the vision; and an earnest diligence in the pursuit of that aim, animated by that hope.
Now these three--a bright hope, a sovereign purpose, and a diligent earnestness--are the three conditions of all noble life. They themselves are strength, and they will bring us buoyancy and freshness which will prolong youth into old age, and forbid anything to appear uninteresting or small.
So I ask you to look at these three points, as suggested by my text.
I. First, then, the clear hope which should fill our future.
‘Seeing that ye look for such things.’ What things? Peter has been drawing a very vivid and solemn picture of the end, in two parts, one destructive, the other constructive. Anticipating the predictions of modern science, which confirm his prophecy, he speaks of the dissolution of all things by fervent heat, and draws therefrom the lesson: ‘What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?’
But that dissolution by fire is not, as people often call it, the ‘final conflagration.’ Rather is it a regenerating baptism of fire, from which ‘the heavens and the earth that now are’--like the old man in the fable, made young in the flame--shall emerge renewed and purified. The lesson from that prospect is the words of our text.
Now I am not going to dwell upon that thought of a new heaven and a new earth renewed by means of the fiery change that shall pass upon them, but simply to remark that there is a great deal in the teaching of both Old and New Testaments which seems to look in that direction. It is, at least, a perfectly tenable belief, and in my humble judgment is something more, that this earth, the scene of man’s tragedy and crime, the theatre of the display of the miracle of redeeming love, emancipated from the bondage of corruption, shall be renewed and become the seat of the blessed. They who dwell in it, and it on which they dwell pass through analogous changes, and as for the individuals, the ‘new creation’ is the old self purified by the fire of the Divine Spirit into incorruption and righteousness, so the world in which they live shall, in like manner, be ‘that new world which is the old,’ only having suffered the fiery transformation and been glorified thereby.
But passing from that thought, which, however interesting it may be as a matter of speculation, is of very small practical importance, notice, still further, the essential part of the hope which the Apostle here sets forth--viz., that that order of things towards which we may look is one permeable only for feet that have been washed and made clean. ‘Therein dwelleth righteousness.’ Righteousness there, of course, is the abstract for the concrete; the quality is put for the persons that exhibit it. And just as the condition of being at home in this present material world is the possession of flesh and blood, which puts creatures into relationships therewith, and just as it is impossible for a finite, bodyless spirit to move amongst, and influence, and be influenced by, the gross materialities of the heavens and the earth that now are, so is it impossible for anything but purity to be at rest in, or even to enter into that future world. ‘The gates’ of the New Jerusalem ‘shall not be closed day nor night’; but through the ever-open gates none can pass except they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. There stand at the gates of that Paradise unseen, the repulsions of the angel with the flaming sword, and none can enter except the righteous. Light kills the creatures of the darkness.
‘How pure that soul must be
Which, placed within Thy piercing sight,
Shall shrink not, but with calm delight
Can live, and look on Thee!’
Thus, then, brethren, an order of things free from all corruption, and into which none can pass but the pure, should be the vision that ever flames before us. Peter takes it for granted that the anticipation of that future is an inseparable part of the Christian character. The word which he employs, by its very form, expresses that that expectance is habitual and continuous. I am afraid that a great many so-called Christians very seldom send their thoughts, and still less frequently their desires, onwards to that end. In all your dreams of the future, how much space has been filled by this future which is no dream? Have you, in these past days, and do you, as a matter of habitual and familiar occupation of your mind, let your eyes travel on beyond and above the low levels of earth and peradventures, to fix them on that certainty?
Opticians make glasses with three ranges, and write upon a little bar which shifts their eyepieces, ‘Theatre,’ ‘Field,’ ‘Marine.’ Which of the three is your glass set to? The turn of a button determines its range. You can either look at the things close at hand, or, if you set the eyepiece right and use the strongest, you can see the stars. Which is it to be? The shorter range shows you possibilities; the longer will show you certainties. The shorter range shows you trifles; the longer, all that you can desire. The shorter range shows you hopes that are destined to be outgrown and left behind; the longer, the far-off glories, a pillar of light which will move before you for ever. Oh, how many of the hopes that guided our course, and made our objective points in the past, are away down below the backward horizon! How many hopes we have outgrown, whether they were fulfilled or disappointed. But we may have one which will ever move before us, and ever draw our desires. The greater vision, if we were only wise enough to bring our lives habitually under its influence, would at once dim and ennoble all the near future.
Let us then, dear friends, not desecrate that wondrous faculty of looking before as well as after which God has given to us, by wasting it upon the nothings of this world, but heave it higher, and anchor it more firmly in the very Throne of God Himself. And for us let one solemn, blessed thought more and more fill with its substance and its light the else dim and questionable and insufficient future, and walk evermore as seeing Him who is invisible, and as hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord.
II. Then, secondly, note the definite aim which this clear hope should impress upon life.
If you knew that you were going to emigrate soon, and spend all your life on the other side of the world, in circumstances the outlines of which you knew, you would be a fool if you did not set yourself to get ready for them. The more clearly we see and the more deeply we feel that future hope, which is disclosed for us in the words of my text, the more it will prescribe a dominant purpose which will give unity, strength, buoyancy, and blessedness to any life. ‘Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent.’ For what? ‘That ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.’
Now mark the details of the aim which this great hope impresses upon life, as they are stated in the words of my text. Every word is weighty here. ‘That ye may be found.’ That implies, if not search, at least investigation. It suggests the idea of the discovery of the true condition, character, or standing of a man which may have been hidden or partially obscured before--and now, at last, is brought out clearly. With the same suggestion of investigation and discovery, the same phrase is employed in other places; as, for instance, when the Apostle Paul speaks about being ‘found naked,’ or as when he speaks about being ‘found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.’ So, then, there is some process of examination or investigation, resulting in the discovery, possibly for the first time, of what a man really is.
Then note, ‘Found in Him,’ or as the Revised Version reads it, ‘in His sight.’ Then Christ is the Investigator, and it is before ‘those pure eyes and perfect judgment’ that they have to pass, who shall be admitted into the new heavens and the new earth, ‘wherein dwelleth righteousness.’
Then mark what is the character which, discovered on investigation by Jesus Christ, admits there: ‘without spot and blameless.’ There must be the entire absence of every blemish, stain, or speck of impurity. The purer the white the more conspicuous the black. Soot is never so foul as when it lies on driven snow. They who enter there must have nothing in them akin to evil. ‘Blameless’ is the consequence of ‘spotless.’ That which in itself is pure attracts no censure, whether from the Judge or from the assessors and onlookers in His court.
But, further, these two words, in almost the same identical form--one of them absolutely the same, and the other almost so--are found in Peter’s other letter as a description of Jesus Christ Himself. He was a Lamb ‘without blemish and without spot.’ And thus the character that qualifies for the new heavens is the copy of us in Jesus Christ.
Still further, only those who thus have attained to the condition of absolute, speckless purity and conformity to Jesus Christ will meet His searching eye in calm tranquillity and be ‘found of Him in peace.’
The steward brings his books to his master. If he knows that there has been trickery with the figures and embezzlement, how the wretch shakes in his shoes, though he may stand apparently calm, as the master’s keen eye goes down the columns! If he knows that it is all right, how calmly he waits the master’s signature at the end, to pass the account! The soldiers come back with victory on their helmets, and are glad to look their captain in the face. But if they come back beaten, they shrink aside and hide their shame. If we are to meet Jesus Christ with quiet hearts, and we certainly shall meet Him, we must meet Him ‘without spot and blameless.’ The discovery, then, of what men truly are will be like the draining of the bed of a lake. Ah, what ugly, slimy things there are down in the bottom! What squalor and filth flung in from the houses, and covered over many a day by the waters! All that surface work will be drained off from the hearts of men. Shall we show slime and filth, or shall we show lovely corals and silver sands without a taint or a speck?
These are the details of the life’s aim of a Christian man. And they may all be gathered up into one. The end which we should seek as sovereign and high above all others is the conformity of our character to Jesus Christ our Lord. Never mind about anything else; let us leave all in God’s hands. He will do better for us than we can do for ourselves. Let us trust Him for the contingent future; and let us set ourselves to secure this, that, whether joy or sorrow, whether wealth or poverty, whether success or failure, whether sweet companionship or solitary tears be our lot for the rest of our lives, we may grow in grace, and in the knowledge and likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Make that your aim, and freshness, buoyancy, enthusiasm, the ennobling of everything in this world, and the bending of all to be contributory of it, will gladden your days. Make anything else your aim, and you fail of your highest purpose, and your life, however successful, will be dreary and disappointed, and its end will be shame.
III. Lastly, notice the earnest diligence with which that aim should be pursued, in the light of that hope.
Peter is fond of using the word which is here translated ‘be diligent.’ Hard work, honest effort, continuous and persevering, is His simple recipe for all nobleness. You will find He employs it, for instance, at least three times in this letter, in such connections as, ‘Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,’ and so on through the whole glorious series; and again, ‘Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.’ So, then, there is no mystery about the way of securing the aim; work towards it, and you will get it.
Now, of course, there are a great many other considerations to be brought in in reference to the Christian man’s means of becoming Christlike. We should have to speak of the gifts of a Divine Spirit, of the dependence upon God for it, and the like; but for the present purpose we may confine ourselves to Peter’s own prescription, ‘be diligent,’ and that will secure it. But then the word itself opens out into further meanings than that. It not only implies diligence: there may be diligence of a very mechanical and ineffective sort. The word also includes in its meaning earnestness, and it very frequently includes that which is the ordinary consequence of earnestness--viz., haste and economy of time.
So I venture, in closing, just to throw my remarks into three simple exhortations. Be in earnest in cultivating a Christlike character. Half-and-half Christians, like a great many of us, are of no use either to God or to men or to themselves. Dawdling and languid, braced up and informed by no earnestness of purpose, and never having had enthusiasm enough to set themselves fairly alight, they do no good and they come to nothing. ‘I would thou wert cold or hot.’ One thing sorely wanted in the average Christianity of this day is that professing Christians should give the motives which their faith supplies for earnest consecration due weight and power. Nothing else will succeed. You will never grow like Christ unless you are in earnest about it any more than you could pierce a tunnel through the Alps with a straw. It needs an iron bar tipped with diamond to do it. Unless your whole being is engaged in the task, and you gather your whole self together into a point, and drive the point with all your force, you will never get through the rock barrier that rises between you and the fair lands beyond. Be in earnest, or give it up altogether.
Then another thing I would venture to say is, Make it your business to cultivate a character like that of Jesus Christ. If you would go to the work of growing a Christ-like spirit one-hundredth part as systematically as you will go to your business to-morrow, and stick at it, there would be a very different condition of things in most of our hearts. No man becomes noble and good and like the dear Lord ‘by a jump,’ without making a systematic and conscious effort towards it.
I would say, lastly, Make haste about cultivating a Christlike character. The harvest is great, the toil is heavy, the sun is drawing to the west, the evening shadows are very long with some of us, the reckoning is at hand, and the Master waits to count your sheaves. There is no time to lose, brother; set about it as you have never done before, and say, ‘This one thing I do.’
And so let us not fill our minds with vain hopes which, whether they be fulfilled or not, will not satisfy us, but lift our eyes to and stay our anticipations on those glories beyond, as real as God is real, and as certain as His word is true. Let these hopes concentrate and define for us the aims of our life; and let the aims, clearly accepted and recognised, be pursued with earnestness, with ‘diligence,’ with haste, with the enthusiasm of which they, and they only, are worthy. Let us listen to our Master, ‘I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh.’ And let us listen to the words of the servant, which reverse the metaphor, and teach the same lesson in a trumpet call which anticipates the dawn and rouses the sleeping soldiers: ‘The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v13 (See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
righteousness
(See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv11, 14 The attitude of the Christians:
The attitude of the Christians:
v. 11. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
Read full note →
v. 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?
v. 13. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
The apostle here applies the lesson of the facts adduced by him to the situation of the believers: Since, then, all these things are to be dissolved, what kind of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, waiting for, and hastening toward, the coming of God’s day, in which the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements in burning will melt. The thoughts and minds of the Christians are under no circumstances to cling to the things of this world, to the riches of this earth, for they know that this world with all it contains will not remain forever, but will certainly be destroyed. In view of this certainty the minds of the Christians are, on the other hand, ever busy with the question as to what effect their knowledge of the coming catastrophe should have on their whole moral and religious life. The apostle gives the answer, telling us that our conduct should be holy and unblamable, that our behavior at all times should express true godliness and reverence of His holy will. In this state of mind we should eagerly await the coming of God’s great day, be concerned about being acceptable to the Lord in His Judgment, bend every effort to keep the simple faith and trust in Jesus in our hearts and to show the fruits of this faith in a life of love toward Him and our neighbor. Ever and again we Christians repeat to ourselves the fact that this world is not our home, that all the things in which men trust at the present time will be dissolved in fire and reduced to a condition where the elements themselves will be in a fluid state, having not the slightest resemblance to their present form. The present heavens and the present earth will pass away, not in utter destruction, but to be changed into a new form of existence.
That is what the apostle now proceeds to show for our consolation: But new heavens and a new earth we expect according to His promises, in which righteousness will have its abode. After this old earth has passed away according to the apostle’s description, there will be new heavens and a new earth. That is not a vain hope, a mere day-dream on the part of the Christians, but our faith is based upon God’s promises, Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22. Since our expectation is founded on the Word of God, therefore we shall not be ashamed. This old earth is filled with sin and unrighteousness, the very creatures, the dumb animals groaning with the pain of the curse of sin, Rom 8:22. But after the last day there will be no more sin; in the new earth there will live only righteousness and joy and peace. That is our hope, our comfort and consolation. We know that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us and to us, Rom 8:18.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv8, 10, 11, 14 It should not escape your notice
It should not escape your notice
"You should not fail to understand this" or "Do not ignore this"
Read full note →
that one day with the Lord is like a thousand years
"that from the Lord's point of view, one day is like a thousand years"
The Lord does not move slowly concerning his promises
"The Lord does not move slowly to fulfill his promises"
as some consider slowness to be
Some people think that the Lord is slow to fulfill his promises because their perspective of time is different than God's.
translationWords
beloved
lord
promise
patient
perish
repent
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv8, 10, 12, 13 3:8 Peter alludes to Ps 90:4. God operates according…
3:8 Peter alludes to Ps 90:4. God operates according to his time scale. He will send his Son in his own good time.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.