Advent 2: Epistle, 2 Peter 3:8-14                                            

2 Peter 3:8-14

It is part of fallen human nature to doubt everything regarding the true and living God. And not just to doubt, but to live in full rebellion against Him. Do NOT fall for the sugar-coated theology that declares “People are basically good.” It is not true. And Peter deals with so many signs of it in his second letter to all Christians. False teachers and doubters are the primary manifestation of fallenness in this letter. False teachers and “mockers” is probably a more apt description. “Where is the promise of his coming?” they chide the Christian community back in verse 4.

Our reading begins a few verses later where Peter simply says in effect, not to be so sure that God has forgotten what His Word reveals about the last day.  “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 …” (3:8-9a). From this comes no shortage of twisted views taken literally that days equal years and so on. Not the point of the passage. So what is? Just this. The day of the Lord is just that. The Lord’s. He decides when He returns, but our ignorance of its timing is by His design and has no bearing on its certainty.

Peter continues to describe earth’s last day in terms that anyone familiar with the Law and the Prophets would understand.  He goes on to challenge the Christian community to live knowing that the end is at hand, and while our behavior doesn’t merit entry into heaven, it is a reflection that God will use to spur others toward the Savior. Because of our behavior and responses to God’s truth, Peter even offers the amazing truth that our lives find focus in waiting for and even hastening the last day. 

Where’s all this leading in this Advent season? Just to a greater sense of certainty. The Messiah was promised to enter human history. Promise kept. The Messiah is promised to come again to close earth’s human history. The promise will be kept. Definitely. May we live each day with a view towards it and heart and mind convinced of it. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!