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Everybody is ignorant,” said Will Rogers, “only on different subjects.” How true, and yet that is not the whole story because there is more than one kind of ignorance. Some people are ignorant because of lack of opportunity to learn, or perhaps lack of ability to learn; others are (to use Peter’s phrase in 2 Peter 3:5) “willingly … ignorant.” “Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge,” said a famous philosopher, and he is right. (Wiersbe, p 950)
One thing has to be held in the memory. The whole conception of the Second Coming is full of difficulty. But this is sure–there comes a day when God breaks into every life, for there comes a day when we must die; and for that day we must be prepared. We may say what we will about the Coming of Christ as a future event; we may feel it is a doctrine we have to lay on one side; but we cannot escape from the certainty of the entry of God into our own experience. (Barclay)
3:7
What the Bible teaches about the day of the Lord was not invented by the apostles. (Wiersbe, p 950)
3:8
Christians must be careful lest the propaganda of the scoffers distort their thinking. (Blum, p 1074)
Time is not the same to God as it is to man. As the Psalmist had it: “A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night” ( Psalms 90:4 ). When we think of the world’s hundreds of thousands of years of existence, it is easy to feel dwarfed into insignificance; when we think of the slowness of human progress, it is easy to become discouraged into pessimism. There is comfort in the thought of a God who has all eternity to work in. It is only against the background of eternity that things appear in their true proportions and assume their real value. (Barclay)
3:9
The scoffers did not understand God’s eternality nor did they understand His mercy. Why was God delaying the return of Christ and the coming of the day
of the Lord? It was not because He was unable to act or unwilling to act. He was not tardy or off schedule! Nobody on earth has the right to decide when God
must act. God is sovereign in all things and does not need prodding or even counsel from sinful man (Rom. 11:33–36). (Wiersbe, p 952)
Peter directly counters this heretical skepticism: Rather than being a sign of God’s lack of concern, his delay in sending Christ in judgment is a sign of His deep concern for human beings. (Moo, p 187)
3:10
There are many passages in the prophets which he would take quite literally and which must have been in his mind. Joel foresaw a time when God would show blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke ( Joel 2:30 ). The Psalmist has a picture in which, when God comes, a devouring fire shall precede him (Psalms 50:3). Isaiah speaks of a flame of devouring fire (Isaiah 29:6 ; Isaiah 30:30). The Lord will come with fire; by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh (Isaiah 66:15-16). Nahum has it that the hills melt and the earth is burned at his presence; his fury is poured out like fire (Nahum 1:5-6). In the picture of Malachi the day of the Lord shall burn as an oven (Malachi 4:1). If the old pictures are taken literally, Peter has plenty of material for his prophecy. (Barclay)
“Behold the Day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it” ( Isaiah 13:9 ). “The Day of the Lord is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and of thick darkness” ( Joel 2:1-2 ). “A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness” ( Zephaniah 1:14-18 ). “The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes” ( Joel 2:30-31 ). “The stars of the heaven and their constellations shall not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light… Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger” ( Isaiah 13:10-13 ). (Barclay)
3:15-16
The difficulty in Paul’s letters stem from the profundity [great profoundness] of the God-given wisdom they contain. (Blum, p 1075)
Like Satan, the false teachers and their followers can quote Scripture out of context for their purpose (cf. Mt 4:6). (Blum, p 1076)
Twisting the Scriptures leads to “destruction” (GK 724; cf. comments on 2:1, 3) because it is the rejection of God’s way and the setting up of one’s own way in opposition to God (cf. Ro 8:7). In a time when the Christian church is plagued by heretical cults and false teaching, Peter’s warning about the irresponsible use of Scripture is important. Correct exegesis must be a continuing concern for the church. (Blum, p 1076)
3:17
The word ‘error’ is planē, ‘a wandering, a straying about,’ whereby one, led astray from the right way, roams hither and thither." (Wuest, p 76)
3:18
Alford, commenting on the word “grow” says: "not only do not fall from your own steadfastness but be so firmly rooted as to throw out branches and yield increase.(Wuest, p 76)
Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, all numbered notes that are URL linked are retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and sometimes include other citation information from Constable.
Blum, Edwin A. “2 Peter.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary—Abridged Edition: New Testament, ed. Kenneth L. Barker and John R. Zohlenberger III, et al., Zondervan, 1994. Sourced from archive.org.
Moo, Douglas. 2 Peter, Jude. “The NIV Application Commentary,” ed. Terry Muck, et al., Zondervan, 1996.
Wuest, Kenneth S. In these last days: II Peter, I, II, III John, and Jude in the Greek New Testament for the English Reader. WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, eighth printing, 1972.
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