2 Peter 3:14–18

Peter closes his letter with a series of four commands that believers should obey as they wait for Christ’s return: (1) be diligent to pursue godliness; (2) consider God’s patience as an opportunity for more people to be saved; (3) take care not to be carried away from the path of righteousness; and (4) grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. All of this is done for God’s present and future glory.

1. III. Letter Closing (3:14–18)
   1. A. Be Diligent (3:14)
   2. B. Count God’s Patience’s as Salvation (3:15–16)
   3. C. Take Care (3:17)
   4. D. Grow in the Grace and Knowledge of Christ (3:18)

3:14 Peter now applies our hope to life in the present: “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these.” Because believers are waiting for the new heavens and new earth (3:13), we should “be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” The same diligence applied to making our calling and election sure (1:10) must be applied to the pursuit of moral purity. The verb “found” (heuriskō) refers here to God’s assessment of mankind on the last day (3:10; Phil. 3:9).

The goal is to be found on that day “without spot or blemish,” just as Christ was “a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet. 1:19). This combination of descriptors means to be untainted in character and without defect. Peter’s language comes from the sacrificial system, in which sacrifices were to be without flaw or imperfection. On the last day, God’s people will be found without spot or blemish because they will be reflections of Christ, the spotless Lamb of God. On the last day believers will also be found to be “at peace.” Thus peace is both a present reality (2 Pet. 1:2) and a future hope for believers.

3:15–16 The second part of Peter’s application is to “count the patience of our Lord as salvation.” This echoes what the apostle said in 3:9, where he reminded his readers that the apparent slowness of Christ’s return is an expression of God’s patience in providing time for people to repent. Peter is not alone in this contention; he notes that “our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.” While Peter may have a specific passage/letter in mind (e.g., Rom. 2:4), he more likely refers to a general theme in Paul’s letters. Peter perhaps bolsters his argument with Pauline support because the false teachers had twisted Peter’s own teaching in order to support their dangerous beliefs and practices. Despite not always being in agreement (Gal. 2:11–14), Peter regarded his fellow apostle Paul as a dear brother in the same spiritual family, serving the same Lord, and preaching the same gospel. What Paul wrote was “according to the wisdom given him.” As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul received from God wisdom and insight into “the mystery of Christ” (Eph. 3:1–6), and Peter gladly affirmed this truth.

This wisdom is shown “in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.” Peter not only knows of multiple Pauline letters but also expects that his recipients know of them as well. By the time of this epistle, most of Paul’s letters had been written. At some point a collection of Paul’s letters (perhaps compiled by Paul himself) began to circulate, but we cannot say confidently if it had happened by the time when Peter wrote.¹ The expression “these matters” probably encompasses not only the patience of the Lord but also the other issues Peter has addressed, such as the promise of a new heavens and new earth and, until that consummation, the presence and danger of false teachers.

Peter admits that “there are some things in [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand.” This rare adjective (dysnoētos) “was sometimes applied to Greek oracles—notoriously ambiguous and difficult to apply.”² Even the original recipients sometimes misunderstood what Paul meant (1 Cor. 5:9–10). But Peter has in mind “the ignorant and unstable,” those who have not been discipled in the apostolic teaching and therefore lack the firm foundation the true gospel brings (2 Pet. 1:12). As a result, they are like the “unsteady souls,” susceptible to the false teachers’ lies (2:13–14). Such people take Paul’s letters and “twist” them “to their own destruction.” “Twist” (strebloō) was used “in various senses of wrenching dislocated limbs for the purpose of setting them, and of the use of tortuous devices in the course of inquiries.”³ Such distortions of Paul’s letters can lead only to sharing in the eternal destruction awaiting the ungodly on the last day (2:1–3; 3:7).

These false teachers distort Paul’s letters just “as they do the other Scriptures.” The significance of what Peter says here should not be missed. He includes Paul’s letters in the category of Scripture, as divinely inspired authoritative writings on the same level as the OT. The idea of the apostles’ written teaching possessing the same authority as the OT is not a later development in church history but a fundamental truth of the first generation of Christians.

3:17 Because his readers know beforehand that the ignorant and unstable twist the Scriptures, Peter exhorts them to “take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” “Take care” (phylassō) in this context means “to be on one’s guard against” something or someone;⁴ it speaks of a state of watchful vigilance. The purpose of being on guard is not to “lose your own stability.” The nautical term rendered “lose” (ekpiptō) often refers to a ship blown off course and run aground (Acts 27:17–32). What is at stake is one’s “stability” (stērigmos), a term that can refer to either a position of security or one’s firm commitment and belief.⁵ Both senses fit the context here. In contrast to the “unstable” (astēriktoi; 2 Pet. 3:16), who distort Scripture, those who cling to the true gospel have “stability” (stērigmos).

Losing one’s stability happens in conjunction with being “carried away with the error of lawless people.” False teaching is pictured as a dangerous flood sweeping away those who have not built themselves on the rock of the true gospel (Matt. 7:24–27).⁶ Paul uses this same verb (synapagō) in Galatians 2:13 to describe Barnabas’s being swept up in the hypocrisy of the Judaizers. The danger lies in the current of the “error of lawless people,” another expression for the false teachers (2 Pet. 2:8, 18).

3:18 It is not enough simply to avoid false teachers; one must also “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Peter began this letter by praying for grace to be multiplied to his readers (1:2), and now he concludes it with a call to grow in that grace. Following the growth plan laid out in 1:3–11 ensures present stability and future glory. This grace comes from “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” the one who rules the universe and rescues his people from sin (1:1). We experience greater measures of God’s grace as we grow in our knowledge of Christ (Phil. 3:7–14).

Peter concludes his letter with a doxology: “To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” The ultimate goal of everything is the display of God’s glory—his beauty, power, and majesty. God’s glory is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ (John 1:14–18), who is the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3). As such, Christ deserves glory now as well as “to the day of eternity.” This unusual expression points back to the day of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:8–13) and “probably refers to the eschatological age as a day which will dawn at the Parousia (1:19) and last forever.”⁷

Just as the letter began on a note of diligence in the pursuit of growth in godliness (1:3–11; 3:14), it ends striking a similar key. Such diligence is grounded in the grace of what God has done for us in Christ and flows from our relational knowledge of him (1:2–3; 3:17). God’s glory is not just the means by which he calls us into a relationship with him (1:3); it is also the ultimate goal of lives of godliness and holiness (3:18).