20251228 2 Peter 3:10-18 Countering Licentiousness II

2 Peter ends like it began. Peter began by urging his readers to pursue holy living. The letter ends, doing the same.

The argument of the book is quite tight. The content all fits under countering false teaching. The False Teachers denied the authority of the Prophets and the Apostles. So, they denied the Second Coming of Christ. If there is no Second Coming, then there is no judgment. If there is no judgment, it does not matter how we live. To counter these false teachings, 2 Peter affirms the authority of the Prophets and Apostles. It affirms the Second Coming of Christ. It affirms judgment. It urges Christians to be serious about Holy living. If there is a judgment, how we live matters.

2 Peter 3:10-18 ends 2 Peter the same way it began. Peter exhorts his readers to pursue Godly lives. 2 Peter 3:11 asks the key question to sum up 2 Peter, "What sort of people ought you to be?" Stated differently, “How then ought we live?” “What sort of lives should we live?” Christians who believe in the authority of the Bible, the second coming of Christ and judgment live a different kind of life.

One of my favorite verses is John 13:17. Jesus says, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” This verse stresses application. Our theology must affect our ethics. We will look at theology of end times, salvation, and scripture in our text. We will see that our theology must affect how we live. SIOS: We will see that our Doctrine of the End Times, Salvation, and Scripture are important for Good Works.

First, in 2 Peter 3:10-14, we see Our Doctrine of the End Times effects how we live.

In 2 Peter 3:10-13, our doctrine of the End Times is connected with our conduct in three ways. We pursue righteousness, first because we do not know when Christ will return to judge the world, second, because all unrighteousness will be destroyed, and third, because we are destined for a world where righteousness dwells.

2 Peter 3:10-13

First subpoint is we pursue righteousness because we do not know when Christ will return to Judge the World.

2 Pet 3:10

2 Peter 3:10 begins with, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief." A thief never comes when he or she is expected. This figure of speech teaches that Jesus can return at any time. This is in line with Jesus’s teaching on the second coming in Matt 24:42-44; Luke 12:39, and Paul’s teaching in 1 Thes 5:2. No one knows when Jesus will return. So don’t buy books with the title 88 reasons why Jesus will come back in 1988!

Application

The truth that we do not know when Jesus will return affects our lives. There is a difference between only having an exam at the end of the year or knowing you could have a surprise quiz any day. If parents go out of town, their children act differently depending on whether they know exactly when their parents will return or if they can return at any time. We need to pursue righteousness always, because Jesus can return at any time.

The second way our thinking of end times affects how we live is that all unrighteousness will be destroyed.

2 Peter 3:10-12

2 Peter 3:10-12 speaks of judgment of the old world. The heavens, the heavenly bodies, the earth, and the works done on earth will be judged. Previously, in 2 Pet 2:20, Peter described right living as “escaping the defilements of the world." Taken together, because the world and its works will be judged, we must live differently than the world to avoid the world’s judgment.

Application

How do we live differently? We live in the world but we are not of it. Every Sunday when we gather for worship, we separate from the world physically. When we read the Bible, we shape our minds with truths that are divine, they are other worldly. The tension for us is how do we love people, live meaningfully in this world, while remaining separate from things that will be destroyed on judgment day.

Christians value meaningful human connections. This means we engage differently with our smartphones and social media. We do need rest and some entertainment is restful. So much of the entertainment that is available to us will be destroyed for its godlessness.

We need to be careful not to celebrate what God will destroy one day. It could be a TV show, it could be some form of technology, it could be a political party that promotes sin. We need to live wisely. If God will destroy it one day, we must beware of our relationship with it today.

Our text offers a third way our theology of the end times affects how we live. We pursue righteousness because we are destined for a world where righteousness dwells.

2 Peter 3:13

2 Peter 3:13 teaches that we are waiting for the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. God created us for the Genesis 1-2 world and the harmonious delight and peace of the Garden of Eden. This is the kind of world we are still destined for.

Application

When we expect for something, we already act in the present based on what is to come. If I expect rain, I bring an umbrella. If I expect to live in a world where righteousness dwells, I live righteously already today.

We see in this first point that Biblical teaching on the end time must lead us to live godly lives. It is most clear when Peter writes in 2 Pet 3:11, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?” There are lots of debates around Biblical end times. Whatever your view, if it does not affect your life, it misses the point. We pursue righteousness today because we do not know when Christ will return, all unrighteousness will be destroyed, and we are destined for a world where righteousness dwells!

Second, in 2 Peter 3:14-15, we look at Our Doctrine of Salvation and Good Works.

Sometimes people wonder if good works are important for Christians or not? The answer is, “It depends what for?” For salvation, no, it is by God's grace without works. For saved Christians to live as saved Christians, yes, good works are important. Good works are important because they are the fruit of our salvation.

In 2 Pet 3:14 and 15, Peter makes two claims about salvation.First that God is at work to bring about salvation, and second that we must respond to our salvation.

2 Peter 3:14-15

First, God is a saving God. Peter writes in 2 Pet 3:15, "Count the patience of our Lord as salvation." God is patient. The more God is patient, the more people enjoy salvation. We are saved from God's judgment against sin. We are saved not by works but because a gracious God saves whoever trusts in him.

Second, Peter writes in 2 Pet 3:14, "Be diligent/make every effort to be found by him without spot or blemish, and in peace.” Peter returns to a topic of 2 Pet 1. God makes us Holy, so we pursue holiness. According to Col 1:22, Christ offered his life to present us Holy and Blameless and above reproach. Now Peter teaches us to make every effort to be found by him without spot, or blemish, and in peace. God saved us for righteousness so we must live righteously.

Application

Our doctrine of salvation changes how we must live today. This is a life of trusting the gospel. When we find refuge in Christ, from God's judgment of sin, we experience peace with God. He declares us righteous and fills us with his Spirit so we love doing his will. On the basis of experiencing peace with God because of the forgiveness of our sins, we become peace makers and a forgiving people. The gospel becomes the basis to know peace with others.

This is how our doctrine of salvation leads to good works. God declares us to be new creation and now we live gospel-transformed lives.

Third, in 2 Peter 3:15-16, we look at Our Doctrine of Scripture and Good Works.

In 2 Peter 1, Peter declared the authority of the Old Testament. He declared that the Old Testament could not just be dismissed as the thoughts of men, but rather they were the very words of God. He wrote in 2 Pet 1:20-21, “No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Now, in 2 Peter 3:16, Peter does something that is almost unique in the NT. He declares that NT writings possess the same authority as the OT.

2 Peter 3:15-16 (c.f. 1 Tim 5:18)

In 2 Pet 3:15, Peter writes that “Paul wrote according to the wisdom given to him.” Here, Peter refers to Paul, because Paul wrote of similar matters. Paul wrote on false teachers, judgment, and the end times. In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter concedes that some of the content in Paul’s letters are hard to understand. If we struggle with Paul's letters, this verse validates our struggle. But then, still in 2 Pet 3:16, Peter writes that just because Paul is complicated, we do not have a warrant to twist his writings.

The reason, we cannot twist Paul’s writings is that they are Scripture. Peter says the ignorant and unstable twist Paul’s words as they do the remaining of the Scriptures. In the ESV, it says, “the other Scriptures.” The Greek word refers to “the remaining of Scripture.” Peter understands Paul’s writing to be Scripture along the rest of Scripture. The last time Peter used the word, “Scripture” it was to refer to the writings of the Prophets in the Bible in 2 Pet 1:20. This means that Paul too, like the Prophets, was carried along by the Holy Spirit when he wrote his letters found in the NT.

Paul wrote according to the wisdom given to him. God did not bypass Paul’s mind. Paul knew what he was writing, he knew who he was writing to, and he knew the purpose of his letters.

Paul knew the Hebrew Bible. He understood how Christ fulfilled the OT. He deduced what it meant for Christian living. His mind was fully engaged when he wrote, and Peter would say, Paul’s letter were not produced ultimately by the will of Paul, but he wrote as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Application

There are two lessons for us. The first is that we can trust the Collection of Book that make up the NT and second, we can trust the content of the NT.

A First application is that we can trust in the Canon or collection of books in the NT.

There is a common misconception about the formation of the NT. There are speculations that the collection books that ended up in the NT was quite arbitrary. This view was popularized by Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code. According to this view, Emperor Constantine selected and financed the creation of the New Testament in 325 to support his political agenda. This is why our text is important. 2 Peter 3:16 teaches that Paul’s letter were viewed as Scripture before the NT was completed.

1 Tim 5:18 does something similar. It shows us that the authors of the NT had an awareness of the formation of the NT while the NT was still being writing. Paul writes in 1 Tim 5:18, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’” The first half of the quotation is Deut 24:5, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” There is problem with the second half of the verse. It is not from the Old Testament or any other known ancient document. The phrase: “The laborer deserves his wages” is only found in Luke 10:7. Paul says, “as the Scripture says” and he quotes Luke along side Deuteronomy. This is the Paul who wrote, in 2 Tim 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So Peter calls Paul's writings, Scripture and Paul calls Luke's writings Scripture. If we combine Luke’s writings and Paul’s writings that is 51% of the NT. According to the NT at least half of the NT was already treated like God's authoritative word. When people claim that the NT was formed by a later committee with a political agenda we can show that is a myth. There was an awareness that the NT writings was Scripture already as it was being formed! We trust that the collection of books in the NT is the Word of God.

A second application is that we can Trust in the Content of the NT

If we have the right books in our NT we can trust their content. Men wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The words of the NT though written by humans are the very words of God. The written words were God-breathed. This means that the NT holds the truth.

In 2 Pet 3:17, Peter wrote, “Therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” Knowing the Bible and being in a Bible believing community serves as an anchor to avoid being carried away with the error of lawless people.

If you are not sure if you can trust the NT, read it! When I became a Christian, People told me I had to start reading the Bible, so I tried. I quickly became obsessed with the NT. I recognized the voice of my Heavenly Father. It helped me make sense of the world in a way that I never could before. As I read the Bible, I didn't need people to teach me about the importance of the Bible, because I just experienced its importance by reading it.

I remember being struck by John 7:17, the first time I read it. Jesus said, “If anyone chooses to do the will of God, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” Jesus says, the way to trust the Bible is to obey it. He says, obey the Bible, then you will know the Bible is God's word! We come to trust the Bible by obeying the Bible an experiencing its wisdom. As we trust God’s word, we want to obey it even more. This is how our doctrine of Scripture is connected with Good Works.

We have a good God, who gave us his trustworthy word in the Bible, where his commands are for our good. Christians must obey the Bible and live by it, because the words in the Bile are the words of God.

We conclude with 2 Peter 3:17-18

2 Peter is about living For God. It began instructing us to make every effort to pursue the virtues of faith, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love (2 Pet 1:5-7). Now, the letter ends with, “Make every effort” to be found "by him without spot or blemish and at peace." Peter’s final words are “take care/guard yourselves” that you would not be carried away in error, but 18 “grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Peter wants to see mature, healthy, thriving Christians who experience God's grace and know Christ as their Lord and Savior. I’ve known a few adults who identified as Christians who now no longer do. The three I can think of, left because they wanted to practice what the Bible calls sin.

First, they wanted sin. Then, they stopped attending church, because apparently they didn't believe in organized religion.

In turn, the church was not their only problem, they stopped believing the Bible, so they did not believe in judgment and the second coming of Christ. Now, they live as they please.

Peter wants to prevent this from happening. He writes that we must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The more we grow the less likely we will fall away. We have a great God and Savior Jesus Christ. He has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ… Let us make every effort to grow in that Grace and Knowledge of Christ to confirm our election and calling.