2 Peter 3
This devotional is written by Libby Granite.
2 Peter 3
The day of the Lord
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.
3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever! Amen.
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.
3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever! Amen.
Reflection
I don’t know about you, but I don’t spend much time thinking about the Day of the Lord, the end of the world, Armageddon, the apocalypse… I suppose my life ‘map’ consists of living my life, and then going to Heaven (hopefully!) I never really consider the possibility that one random Thursday, I’ll wake up, hop on the Tube to go to work, emerge into daylight thinking about coffee and what to have for breakfast, when all of a sudden, the ‘heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare’. That the Day of Lord could occur at any time is not a concept upon which I focus on a day-to-day basis.
I haven’t thought much about my own ‘day of reckoning’, other than the fact that I know it is the one certainty in life. I don’t often make decisions based on what will happen when I die, but more based on the type of person I want to be while I’m alive. What I’m trying to say is that I try to live in a holy and godly way because I want to follow Jesus’ example, rather than because I am ‘looking forward to the Day of the Lord’ and all that that will entail. This is perhaps where the danger lays. Maybe if we just think about what we want to be like, rather than focusing on the why, it makes it easier for us to be distracted, discouraged or swayed by the ‘scoffers’. Simon Sinek talks about the ‘Golden Circle’ in his book, which places knowing your WHY at the heart of everything you do.
Peter wrote this letter to Christians who were being persecuted. He wrote it not to scare or castigate them, but to warn them not to be tricked by false teachers and to encourage them to look forward to the time when God will vindicate himself and recreate the heavens and the earth. The false teachers and ‘scoffers’ we are challenged by today may take different forms to those facing the recipients of Peter’s letter, but the message remains the same: our response to God’s awesome promise should be to live lives which reflect his holiness, and not be swayed from that path.
I haven’t thought much about my own ‘day of reckoning’, other than the fact that I know it is the one certainty in life. I don’t often make decisions based on what will happen when I die, but more based on the type of person I want to be while I’m alive. What I’m trying to say is that I try to live in a holy and godly way because I want to follow Jesus’ example, rather than because I am ‘looking forward to the Day of the Lord’ and all that that will entail. This is perhaps where the danger lays. Maybe if we just think about what we want to be like, rather than focusing on the why, it makes it easier for us to be distracted, discouraged or swayed by the ‘scoffers’. Simon Sinek talks about the ‘Golden Circle’ in his book, which places knowing your WHY at the heart of everything you do.
Peter wrote this letter to Christians who were being persecuted. He wrote it not to scare or castigate them, but to warn them not to be tricked by false teachers and to encourage them to look forward to the time when God will vindicate himself and recreate the heavens and the earth. The false teachers and ‘scoffers’ we are challenged by today may take different forms to those facing the recipients of Peter’s letter, but the message remains the same: our response to God’s awesome promise should be to live lives which reflect his holiness, and not be swayed from that path.
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