14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He 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.
17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Dig Deeper
"Okay, thanks for help. We’ll see you soon." I had just gotten off the phone with my friend’s wife. She had given me directions to meet them at their new house for the day. Truth be told, though, I had a little trouble understanding her directions. They sounded pretty difficult to follow. I don’t consider things like "go down about a mile or two and turn at the left just after the big brown house," as legitimate directions that can be followed by any normal human being. What she had given me, though, was the address of our destination. With this information I was able to go on the internet and get directions that included distances, cardinal directions, and street names. Now these were directions that made sense. These were directions that could be understood and followed. As we were leaving, however, I realized that I was pretty tired and was going to catch a little nap while my wife drove. She looked at the hand-written directions and the printed set from the internet, and actually grabbed the hand-written ones. "What are you doing," I asked her. She responded that she was grabbing the driving directions and was ready to go. She actually preferred the directions that I found to be rather confusing. I kind of laughed, and it was then that I realized that the directions were actually the same. They were saying the same things, just in very different ways. If followed properly, they would both get us to the same exact place.
As Peter concludes his letter of exhortation, reminding his readers that they should hold tightly to the promise of the return of Christ and the reality of the age to come. His letter, if we were to put it side by side with any of Paul’s letters, is quite different and unique in the scope of the New Testament. Yet, Peter tells us something quite instructive. The things that he has written about are the same sorts of things that Paul has written about in his letters. They might look very different on the surface, but they are actually the same in all of the ways that matter. Peter and Paul, we soon realize, share a common theology, they just say it in very different ways. If followed properly, they will both get us to the same exact place.
Once again Peter reminds his readers that the genuine Christian community orders themselves according to the hope of resurrection and the age to come. Paul echoes that sentiment in 1 Corinthians 15:58 when, after a long explanation of the resurrection and the coming age, he says that Christians should, "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." The point of these two great Christian apostles is not so much that Christians should keep things ship-shape because Christ is coming back one day and we don’t want to be found out-of-order (although that is certainly true). The primary point is that the Christian communities hold tightly to the belief that Christ will return one day and bring the restoration of the universe with him, the age to come. Our lives and communities in the present age should be lived in light of that reality and anticipate it. The way we live now should demonstrate for people and be a shadow of the values of heaven and the age to come.
This is why we should make every effort of be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. As communities that are called to live out and demonstrate the love and forgiveness of God and be people who do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, imagine what damage we do when we spiral instead into petty jealousies, lack of forgiveness, gossip, bitterness, selfishness, and become people perfectly comfortable with doing our own will rather than His. It would be about as effective as a light that is not plugged in. A light that offers no light is worthless. A Christian community that offers no taste of the age to come is equally pointless. The fact that Jesus has yet to return in the fullest sense should not cause us, as it did the false teachers that Peter has been referring to, to imagine that God will not eventually judge the entire universe against the standard of His holy presence. Instead we should realize that the delay in the onset of the age to come means salvation for many. It gives us all the more opportunity to demonstrate God’s ministry of reconciliation to the world (2 Cor. 5:16-21) and draw them into His great plan of setting the world to rights.
Peter’s words in the second half of verse 15 and verse 16 serve as quite instructive for those who would interpret what he has written in chapter 3 as being a description of the fiery end of the entire physical universe as we know it, ushering in a purely spiritual existence. Peter says that Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. Not only does this inform us that Peter’s recipients had at least some of Paul’s letters and were quite familiar with them, he also reminds his readers that Paul writes the same things concerning the same matters that Peter has. Nowhere in any of Paul’s letters do we find anything remotely like the fiery destruction of the physical universe. Rather, Paul speaks often of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 5), the age to come (Eph. 2:7; 1 Tim. 6:19), the renewal of the universe (Rom. 8:18-25), and the reconciliation and new creation (2 Cor. 5:16-21). What we quickly realize is that Peter has been speaking of the same sorts of things that Paul wrote about but in a very different way. Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, became immersed in Gentile language and culture and tended to speak and write in terms that Gentiles could understand. Peter, on the other hand, has written about the same things, but in a very Jewish way, using very Jewish terminology and imagery. We have very different looking writings, but they get us to the exact same place. Christ will return and bring the resurrection and the age to come with him.
Peter also warns that Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand. This should serve as a bit of a solace for those who find the Scriptures difficult to comprehend at times. Even an apostle, a man who spent three years learning from Christ, concedes that Paul’s writings can easily be taken the wrong way. This is why it is so vital for Christians to be firmly established in the truth and people who take study of the Bible as a serious calling for every believer. It is ignorant and unstable people who distort Paul’s letters, as they do the other Scriptures. With this, Peter has informed us of two important details; one of which is clearly stated and one can be implied. First, is that Peter, writing around 62 or 63 AD, already considers Paul’s writings as Scripture, meaning they were seen on par with the Old Testament Scriptures, a remarkable situation when we consider how early this was written. The second thing that we can imply from Peter’s statement is that the false teachers were apparently the types of ignorant and unstable people to whom Peter was referring, meaning that they were twisting Paul’s writings for their own benefit and gain. It appears that this was not an uncommon occurrence in the early church. 2 Thessalonians may have been written as a corrective to those who misunderstood 1 Thessalonians; Paul himself needed to correct things the Corinthians were saying that may have been twisting his own teachings (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12)’ James may have written the second chapter of his letter to, in part, correct those who were twisting Paul’s teachings on grace and justification. Those who twist Paul’s writings, or any Scriptures, for their own benefit, will find, sadly that it really does no benefit to them in God’s reality, but leads to their own destruction.
Peter concludes his letter with incredibly wise advice for any saints any where. We must always be aware and on guard for those that would twist the Scriptures. If we do not exercise discernment and a constant desire to know the Scriptures better, we will be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from our secure position, it’s really just a matter of time for believers that don’t take the study of the word of God seriously. Rather than being in constant danger like this, we should know the word of God and allow ourselves to grow in the grace and knowledge of the life of Christ that God has made available to us. What an amazing God we have. To him be the glory both now and forever! Amen.
Devotional Thought
Would you be able to recognize as false, teaching that was 98 % correct. Our society seems to be quite comfortable with something that is 98 % pure. Yet, biblical teaching that is anything other than 100% pure is quite dangerous. What steps do you take regularly to firmly establish yourself in the truth of the word of God? Do you spend as much time doing that a you do watching TV, movies, or talking on the phone?
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