2 Peter Summary
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Of all the New Testament letters, 2 Peter probably had the hardest time establishing its authenticity. We’re not totally sure who wrote it, some say Peter himself (probably through an editor), and others say it was written by someone else using his name (probably after Peter’s death as a testimony to him). A lot of the content in this book you can also find in Jude, which is another reason it was put under suspicion. Regardless, it made it into the New Testament canon, so that has to count for something. I’ll just be referring to the author as Peter, for the sake of simplicity.
The rundown of the letter is this (keep in mind that 2 Peter is only three chapters long):
Peter’s pretty sure he’s going to die soon, so he writes a letter to the churches in Asia Minor in order to clear some stuff up before he goes - so it’s basically his final words.
There were a bunch of false teachers popping up, gaining popularity, setting a bad example, and taking Paul’s teachings out of context in order to justify their own degenerate behaviour. They’re casting doubt on the reality of the second coming and they deny the idea of a final reckoning.
Peter combats this by appealing to his own experiences, as an apostle, as well as Jewish history and holy scripture, in order to demonstrate that Jesus is in fact the promised King and God can, has and will hold people accountable for their actions. He did it with the flood, and He did it with Sodom and Gomorrah. God’s Word created the world, and God’s Word will judge the world.
At the same time, God is faithful to His people and those who respond to His grace in an appropriate way. These are people who share in God’s eternal life and make a commitment to developing the same character traits as God Himself – the key traits being goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, endurance, family affection (which is brotherly love), and (most importantly) love itself. And it’s thanks to Love Himself that we are invited to participate in His divine nature. Because of Jesus, we have everything we need in order to live a godly life.
Now, the false teachers, while denying that God’s going to hold them accountable for being greedy, immoral reprobates, are also teaching that God doesn’t care about moral decisions because we are liberated through Christ – this is a blatant distortion of Paul's message. What’s weird is that Paul wasn’t vague about this. In Romans 6, he clearly said, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” There’s a replacement here. They basically ignored the last part, and took his teaching on salvation, through grace and faith, to the worst extreme – where everything is permissible because Jesus has already died for you. And as we know from the series on the Five Solas last year, this is not at all what this is supposed to mean. It’s faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. You don’t get to go to heaven just because you have a Christian bumper sticker. Jesus didn’t die so that you could consciously continue to be a degenerate free of punishment. Peter explains that these people promise freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – that is, a slave to the flesh. Even worse is that, because they know Jesus’ teaching, they are doubly accountable. They have no excuse. It would have been better for them to have never had been Christians at all.
Peter encourages believers to live in anticipation of the final judgement. Man’s perception of the world and of time is extremely limited. That Christ is yet to return should be understood as a sign of His patience and generosity, as well as just demonstrating the fact that He isn’t bound by time like we are. But eventually, He will return, and you don’t want to be caught off guard. Peter refers back to prophetic poetry, describing the final reckoning as a consuming fire. We find in 2 Peter one of the most detailed biblical discussions on the end of the world. He will come back, the heavens will pass away, and the elements will melt by fire – whether this is a literal or metaphorical fire is up to interpretation, but either way, justice will be dealt. Peter refers to Old Testament prophecy often, (1) to show how these false teachers were prophesied about and (2) to shows how these false teachers are false because they clearly reject these writings about them, Christ and judgement.
Peter’s trying to convey that God loves the world and He wants to rescue it through Jesus, and this means He has to address the sin and injustice that plagues it. In His own time, He will make all things new, and in the meantime, we should be examining ourselves and striving to do good by him. Peter summarises it simply at the end, saying, “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Basically saying, be ready, not reckless.
I want to focus on this idea of accountability. Martyn Iles, a bunch of you know who he is, yesterday [22.08] he posted a little snippet of a sermon by Billy Graham. He was referring to Habakkuk 1:5, in which Habakkuk asks God what He’s doing, and God replies, “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Graham follows up, saying that if God today told us what He was doing, we wouldn’t believe it. God is under no obligation to tell us what He’s up to – as if we could understand it – nor can we just make assumptions about Him, what He’s concerned with, and why He hasn’t come back yet. We can’t be thinking that God’s just gone and left us to our own devices – that He doesn’t care about what we’re doing. God’s silence is not a licence to sin. But this is exactly what these false teachers in 2 Peter were thinking when they ignored Jesus’ teachings on money, sex and guiding others. As I said, they believed that God didn’t care about their moral decisions and that there was no judgement coming for them. But just because you can’t see God judging you, doesn’t mean He’s not judging you. Just because God hasn’t yet come down to earth on a great big fiery throne carried by cherubim, doesn’t not mean that you’re going to escape being held accountable for your sins. God is working in this world, and He sees you – whether you believe it or not.
Now, Peter’s focussing most of his attention on people that are already Christians, or claim to be so, when he indicates that we are without excuse, because we already have everything we need to lead a righteous life – well, you know, as righteous as humanly possible. A Christian is someone who grows in his faith, godliness and understanding continually throughout his life. We need to live in anticipation of Christ’s return, not in denial of it. Some of 2 Peter actually suggests that we can hasten Christs second coming as we live out new covenant realities. So, we should live with patience and purpose, taking advantage of the time we do have in order to continue the mission of Christ.
https://bibleproject.com/blog/2-peter-delay-jesus-return-crisis-of-patience/#!
https://bibleproject.com/explore/2-peter/#:~:text=2%20Peter%20is%20an%20intense,love%20and%20service%20to%20God.
Zodhiates, Spiros. The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible.
Walton, John H & Keener, Craig S. Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible NIV