The book of 2 Peter is similar in content to the book of Jude (compare 2 Peter 2:1-3:10 to Jude 3-19). Peter, however, issued a warning concerning the false teachers that eventually would come, while Jude stated that they were already present perhaps an indication that Jude was written after Peter’s death while 2 Peter being written a short while before his martyrdom. Tradition places the date of Peter’s martyrdom at about AD 67 during Nero’s reign. Peter wrote to Christian friends confronted with the threat of false teachers who were denying Christ’s saving work and second coming. As an eyewitness of Jesus’ life, Peter sought to affirm for his readers the reality of Christ’s return and to remind them of truths they might otherwise forget. It is always important to go over the basics, go over the basics and go over the basics as Lombardi once stated. 2 Peter is the swan song of Peter just as 2 Timothy is the swan song of Paul and last letters are unusually powerful in their content.
2 Peter puts out a warning sign along the pilgrim pathway the church is traveling to identify the awful apostasy that was on the way at that time and which in our time has now arrived. What was then like a cloud the size of a man’s hand – so to speak – today envelops the sky and produces a storm of hurricane proportions. Peter warns of heresy among teachers. It is no wonder that the enemy has attacked 2 Peter, because this is one of the finest shields that has been given to us to ward off the darts that the wicked one is shooting at us today.
In 2 Peter we see that apostasy is approaching, the storm is coming. How are we to prepare to meet it? There is only one way, Peter says, and that is through knowledge. Not only through faith in Christ, not only believing in Him, but also knowing Him. John tells us:
3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3 (NIV)
We are to know Him - not only know about Him. If we are Christians, we must know Christ. That means not to just know about Him but to know Him – there is a great difference in the two. The devil believes (knows Him) and trembles (shows emotion) but he is certainly not God’s child. And the knowledge of Christ is infinite – we will never get to the end of it. I think of the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians whose great pursuit was to know Christ:
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Crist Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14 (NIV)
The great subject of 2 Peter is not only the apostasy but also that which will be our defense – knowledge. It is the Word of God which holds the forefront of this short letter. Peter emphasizes its knowledge and its divine origin, insisting on the importance of Scripture for guiding and preserving our faith. Where is this knowledge, and how does it come to us? Peter states that the only way is through the Word of God.
The Christian life is much more than just a birth. It is a growth, and it is a development. We are to be ever in process in becoming like Jesus. We are to be growing up in the faith – grazing on steak rather than sucking on milk.
This second letter was also particularly directed against the gnostic and antinomian philosophies. Gnostics taught that in addition to believing in Christ, one must additionally receive the gnosis or fuller more complete knowledge. There is nothing in addition to faith in Jesus that is needed for our salvation. Peter, of course, refuted this idea by stressing the fact that they had already received the true knowledge in the form of eyewitness testimony about Jesus Christ and the written Scriptures, inspired by the Holy Spirit which makes you wise for salvation. Scripture states:
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV)
Antinomians believed that since salvation was by grace alone, the requirements of the moral law were irrelevant. They were the original grace abusers! Peter devoted the second chapter of this letter to attacking the licentious lifestyle that naturally resulted among those who held this belief. Paul also addresses this philosophy in Romans 6:1-7:6 and denied the accusation that he himself held this view.
The third chapter contains a rebuke for skepticism about Christ’s return. Included within the discussion, in which Peter corrected the faulty perception of this event, is one of the most detailed descriptions of end-time events in all of Scripture. The delay of Jesus’ return is only apparent, Peter explained, because God does not function according to man’s concept of time. Peter also declared that when the day of the Lord comes, it will be accompanied by the total destruction of the physical universe.
“Christ is returning. The King is on His way and almost here. He is at the door. The dissolving of all things around us suggests our looking away to eternal things. The motive for holiness becomes stronger if the thought is not merely that I will die but that all things around me will be dissolved. It makes us look on eternal things with a more fixed eye and have a more stern resolve to live for God.” Charles H. Spurgeon
These are Beth’s personal notes, due to this fact sources are not often stated.