II Peter 3:1-10

2 Peter 3:1-10 ...

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

My immediate reaction was to think that Peter is referring to 1 Peter. But some commentators think that the subject matter and probable audience of 1 Peter and 2 Peter was so different that this line in 2 Peter referred to some other letter which has been lost to history.

This does raise the question of whether or not there are "lost letters" that should be in the Bible. Of course, that is unanswerable! What we can say is that there were a lot of other writings that did survive but in much smaller numbers than the texts that made it into the Christian Bible, the New Testament. The books of the so called Christian Apocrypha is numerous but they gained little to no consideration for inclusion into the New Testament because they were not widely accepted by the church, had questionable apostolic authorship and/or had content that was inconsistent with normative Christianity. More about the significance of apostolic authorship below.

I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

There was a body of text that Judaism held up as Scripture: the Torah (5 books of Moses), the Prophets and the Writings. And it is clear from the NT letters that the Apostles believed they had a mandate from Jesus much as the Prophets of the OT had a mandate from God. Thus, the Apostles believed they provided authoritative teaching verbally (when they preached) and in written text for the communities of faith.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

One teaching that Jesus gave was that he would return.

But when?

As time past, people began to wonder, when is this going to happen? Why the delay?

Thus, the Apostle Peter responded ...

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 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. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

The delay was due to God's patience and desire to provide time for humanity to repent - to turn around from choosing the way of the self to the way of God.

Dennis Prager the other day on the radio was saying the difference between people with a Judeo-Christian worldview and the secular worldview is identifying the source of the problems in the world. The secularist says the problem is society while the Judeo-Christian worldview says individual selfishness is the problem.

Thus, God's desire is for us to turn away from self and toward God for restoration. And so God waits ... but eventually ...

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 in it will be laid bare.

Lord, thank you that you came to dwell among us. Thank you that you desire to restore us to yourself. We believe you will return one day to complete the restoration and to bring justice. Help me to keep my eyes on you while the world ignores you. Help me to have a gracious and persistent love for the people who don't call you Lord. Amen.