2 Peter 3

Peter tells his readers, “I don’t want you to forget what you heard your apostles teach you about the commandments our leader and Savior gave us” (2 Peter 3:2). What are some of the commandments you remember Jesus giving people?

Peter admits that the Second Coming might seem a little late. He’s possibly writing a few decades after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension into heaven. How do you react to his argument justifying the delay? “With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years; and a thousand years are like a day. Our leader isn’t late, as some claim. . . . Instead, he’s being patient with you. . . . He wants everyone to reject sin instead of rejecting him” (2 Peter 3:8-9).

Peter promises a new beginning after the end of creation: “New heavens. And a new earth, home for pure-hearted souls” (2 Peter 3:13). How do you think most Christians imagine this new experience? Do they think it will be a physical existence or perhaps an existence in another form?

Peter, writing about why Jesus is taking so long to return, adds, “Our dear brother Paul wrote you about this same topic, drawing from the wisdom God gave him” (2 Peter 3:15). Do you think his statement might imply that what Peter wrote on the topic drew from his personal understanding, rather than God’s word somehow miraculously expressed to him?

Do you think readers in the first century already considered the writings of Paul and others as sacred Scriptures, God’s word with equal status to their Bible, the Old Testament? Some suggest they did because of what Peter said in 2 Peter 3:16. He accused some people of distorting the word Paul wrote, “like they do other sacred writings.”

LIFE APPLICATION. Do you think we should be concerned about the fact that with nuclear weapons we have the power to do much of what Peter describes happening to creation on the “Day of the Lord” (2 Peter 3:10)?

• “The sky will disappear with a roar. Creation will melt in the heat—earth included” (2 Peter 3:10).
• “Everything will be destroyed” (2 Peter 3:11).
• “The skies and everything in them will light up and burn away and . . . all of creation will melt in the heat” (3:12).

LIFE APPLICATION. Peter warns his readers about fake leaders in the church: “Don’t get lured away by these frauds” (2 Peter 3:17). Why do you think so many Christians get tricked into following frauds?