2 Peter 3 - Don't Forget
God is sovereign, so you must make every effort (that's not a contradiction!)
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2 Peter 3 (ESV)
1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.
In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember
the predictions of the holy prophets
and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,
3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days
with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact,
that the heavens existed long ago,
and the earth was formed
out of water
and through water
by the word of God,
6 and that
by means of these
the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are
stored up for fire,
being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord
one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you,
not wishing
that any should perish,
but that all should reach repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a roar,
and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved,
and
the earth
and the works that are done on it
will be exposed.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved,
what sort of people ought you to be
in lives of holiness and godliness,
12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved,
and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
13 But according to his promise
we are waiting for
new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these,
be diligent to be found by him
without spot or blemish,
and at peace.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation,
just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you
according to the wisdom given him,
16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.
There are some things in them that are hard to understand,
which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction,
as they do the other Scriptures.
17 You therefore, beloved,
knowing this beforehand,
take care that you
are not carried away with the error of lawless people
and lose your own stability.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory
both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen.
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Previous DIG DEEPER posts on 2 Peter
2 Peter 3 Summary
What kind of things do you do to relax at the end of the day? Chances are that most of these activities are designed to limit the amount of thinking you do. After a long day of thinking about one problem or another, sometimes you just need to veg out.
The Bible was written for the opposite reason: not to shift your mind into neutral, but rather to stimulate your mind to wholesome thinking (NIV v1). While vegging out has it's time and place, the real way to rest your weary mind is to be stimulated by God's Word.
It should come as no surprise that the world is full of scoffers who scorn God and His followers. Sometimes we think that if such people only knew the truth they wouldn't act that way or say those things.
But today we're reminded that these people do know the truth. Verse 5 reminds us that they deliberately forget God's sovereign control of all things. Since they've not stimulated their minds to wholesome thinking (v1), they instead follow their own evil desires (v3).
Dig Deeper
IS GOD PATIENT OR SOVEREIGN? Yes.
Sometimes - often times - it seems like one aspect of God cancels out the other. Peter reminds you today that in His patience, God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (v9). But in other places in the Bible we read about how God has already chosen those who will repent (Ephesians 1:4-5, Romans 9:15-16).
So if He's already decided, He doesn't seem very patient.
But God is sovereign and patient. John 3:16 is fully true: God loves the whole world - all people - so much that He sent His Son, and He patiently waits for everyone to come to repentance.
Yet all people have deliberately forgotten (v5) God's patience and love, so God has sovereignly chosen to save some.
AAA Prayer :
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Father in heaven, you are not slow in keeping Your promise (v9)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God to strengthen you to make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him (v14), and always pray for His Kingdom to come.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: