“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, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. (They said to you, ‘in the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. Jude 1:18) 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.” (You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ By saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.’ Or by asking, ‘where is the God of Justice.’ Malachi’s 2:17) 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, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 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. (They will suffer punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…2 Thess 1:9) 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. 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. 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. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 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! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 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, 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. 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. 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.”
2 Peter 3:1-18 ESV
Patience is called for in our Christian walk because we are still in a sin sick world. Sin still exists within us (read Romans 7, for example). The world, the flesh, and the Devil are at war with the Spirit. This war, the epic battle of the ages, always running in the background of every detail of life, will take its casualties. Sometimes we will suffer. Losses will mount even amidst the manifold joys of the Spirit.
Christians will with utmost certainty experience this and consequently battle depression, anxiety, and even the temptation to bitterness.
When sin’s forces seem to be marching roughshod over the sons and daughters of light it’s tempting to wonder what God is doing. Doesn’t He hate sin? Doesn’t the Almighty promise to judge evil?
We aren’t to see the patience of the Lord as neglect, nor as somehow a concession to evil on His part, as if there’s nothing He can do. Rather, ironically, this is the clearest call that Christians are to live in abhorrence to evil while waiting on and petitioning the Lord.
The New Testament makes a very big deal out of the promise and certainty of the Second Coming.
What are we to make of it?
As with all Scripture, there’s a logic to it. The absence of our focus upon the coming Day of the Lord leads to a coarsening of daily life. The anxiety we seek to overcome finds its Waterloo here, not in any earthly thing. A man who sets his mind on his daily tasks in light of the God’s certain judgment will not misallocate his talents. Those daily tasks are only rightly ordered when seen in light of eternity.
Much sin is avoided in the Christian life through the meditation on 2 Peter 3. Why? Because the holy Scripture invites us to live in light of the absoluteness of God’s kingdom. All of this – every single item down to the tiniest detail – will face His perfect judgment. That’s the logic. If this is true, and it is, Peter asks, what lives ought we to live? If you are trying to deal with frustration, sin, anxiety, even bitterness in a world gone mad, and you’re doing it without 2 Peter 3, you are doing it all in vain. You’re spinning your spiritual wheels in great globs of mud, going nowhere. Christ invites you to hear His word and know without a doubt the truth of His return. Evil will not last. The delay that baffles us and even vexes us too, is because He is patient.
Patient to what end?
To salvation.
All of God’s tender mercies are not because He’s a rube or some hapless and jilted lover. He is not mocked and sin is dreadfully serious business. If God sent His Son to a death like the cross, what do you think will be the reward for those that even now spit in His face throughout the grand play of the gospel age? Peter reminds us of the days of Noah. He reminds us that God buried an exceedingly sinful world beneath the tides of His wrath but kept Noah and his family safe. And Lot was rescued from sin’s cities just as they were pummeled with judgment from above. God’s patience should never be thought to be permission to sin. Lack of immediate consequences causes men to think they are morally independent, free agents (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
We should but don’t often see it! The surety of the wrath of God, the fear of God, quite unpopular in this evil age, is exactly that which keeps Christians from sin and steels their hearts against bitterness. God is not tolerating sin. He is patient. He is both just and justifier of the one who has faith in Christ Jesus.
The purpose of our lives is to know and love and be discipled by Him. And then to live out this great thing called salvation before a world that’s lost, calling them by word and deed to repentance. We are to be the most joyous of all creatures on earth because our sin is forgiven and we should be, in that abundant joy, eager to share it with others.
This is the gospel age and its resplendent beauty. Are you an architect? Are you a teacher? Or a chef? A truck driver? Whatever your vocation, take it all captive for the Lord (2 Corinthians 10:5) and do it heartily for Him in a fallen world. There will be victories, yes, but many sorrows too. There will be triumphs indeed, and bitter losses as well. In all of it, the question is our cause. Is our cause Him and His gospel or our comfort? When we suffer in His name we go to Him in that brokenness, in that encompassing despair…it’s okay, child…hearts will break in this grievous land or else a chapter like 2 Peter 3 wouldn’t be needed. Take it all to Him. Tell Him and take your shelter there in the embrace of holy Son who died for you. Tell Him. Take your brokenness and your losses to Him and know these two things: that you have forgiveness of sin in Him and certainty of His righteous Kingdom reigning over all. The first, you have and experience it now. The second, His righteous Kingdom, we await but will surely see someday. Soon. Not yet, though…in our tears we cry…not yet. Why? Because He endures with much patience so that no one will perish.
Including and especially us. How is it that any of us are saved if not for His love. And His patience.
““There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’” Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?””
Luke 18:2-8 NLT
If even the evil judge gave the powerless widow justice because she badgered him, how much more, our Lord says, will God grant His people justice and peace? There’s an enormous power in what Jesus said and it reinforces with hammer blows the whole message of 2 Peter 3. Judgment is coming. Wrath will be poured out on sin. Jesus Christ is coming on the clouds of judgment and will utterly destroy the forces of darkness. So, we repeat Peter’s question, what sort of lives ought we to live in light of this? The answer is clear and twofold: we should be terrified of sin because the holy God hates it, and we should take our losses and pains to Him in prayer. And that prayer must be animated and directed by Biblical truth – of knowledge of who God is and who we are. We are not His boss. We do not know His mind or give Him counsel (Romans 11:33-36). We are saved by grace, not by works, so let us remember always this economy of place. Let us be humbly grateful to Him and live that way honestly, shunning evil, and patiently waiting for His kingdom.
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