A VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY ON II PETER 3 VERSES 1-10 DEALING WITH SCOFFERS WHO DENY THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

1. II PETER 3 1-10 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
The Day of the Lord
1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.
I have written both of them as reminders to
stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
BARNES, “BARNES, “BARNES, “BARNES, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you - This expression
proves that he had written a former epistle, and that it was addressed to the same
persons as this. Compare Introduction, Section 3.
In both which I stir up your pure minds ... - That is, the main object of both
epistles is the same - to call to your remembrance important truths which you have
before heard, but which you are in danger of forgetting, or from which you are in danger
of being turned away by prevailing errors. Compare the notes at 2Pe_1:12-15. The word
rendered “pure” (εᅶλικρινής eilikrinēs) occurs only here and in Phi_1:10, where it is
rendered “sincere.” The word properly refers to “that which may be judged of in
sunshine;” then it means “clear, manifest;” and then “sincere, pure” - as that in which
there is no obscurity. The idea here perhaps is, that their minds were open, frank,
candid, sincere, rather than that they were “pure.” The apostle regarded them as
“disposed” to see the truth, and yet as liable to be led astray by the plausible errors of
others. Such minds need to have truths often brought fresh to their remembrance,
though they are truths with which they had before been familiar.
CLARKE, “CLARKE, “CLARKE, “CLARKE, “This second epistle - In order to guard them against the seductions of
false teachers, he calls to their remembrance the doctrine of the ancient prophets, and
the commands or instructions of the apostles, all founded on the same basis.
He possibly refers to the prophecies of Enoch, as mentioned by Jude, Jud_1:14, Jud_
1:15; of David, Psa_1:1, etc.; and of Daniel, Dan_12:2, relative to the coming of our Lord
to judgment: and he brings in the instructions of the apostles of Christ, by which they
were directed how to prepare to meet their God.
GILL, “GILL, “GILL, “GILL, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you,.... This is a transition
to another part of the epistle; for the apostle having largely described false teachers, the
secret enemies of the Christian religion under a profession of it, passes on to take notice
of the more open adversaries and profane scoffers of it; and from their ridicule of the
doctrine of Christ's second coming, he proceeds to treat of that, and of the destruction of
the world, and the future happiness of the saints: he calls this epistle his "second
epistle", because he had written another before to the same persons; and that the author
of this epistle was an apostle, is evident from 2Pe_3:2; and which, compared with 2Pe_
1:18 shows him to be the Apostle Peter, whose name it bears, and who was an eyewitness

2. to the transfiguration of Christ on the mount, Mat_17:1, he addresses these saints here,
as also in 2Pe_3:8, under the character of "beloved"; because they were the beloved of
God, being chosen by him according to his foreknowledge, and regenerated by him,
according to his abundant mercy; and were openly his people, and had obtained mercy
from him, and like precious faith with the apostles; and were also the beloved of Christ,
being redeemed by him, not with gold and silver, but with his precious blood; for whom
he suffered, and who were partakers of his sufferings, and the benefits arising from
them, and who had all things given them by him, pertaining to life and godliness, and
exceeding great and precious promises; and were likewise beloved by the apostle, though
strangers, and not merely as Jews, or because they were his countrymen, but because
they were the elect of God, the redeemed of Christ, and who were sanctified by the Spirit,
and had the same kind of faith he himself had. The Syriac and Arabic versions read, "my
beloved"; and the Ethiopic version, "my brethren": his end in writing both this and the
former epistle follows;
in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance; that this was
his view both in this and the former epistle, appears from 1Pe_1:13; he calls their minds
pure; not that they were so naturally, for the minds and consciences of men are
universally defiled with sin; nor are the minds of all men pure who seem to be so in their
own eyes, or appear so to others; nor can any man, by his own power or works, make
himself pure from sin; only the blood of Christ purges and cleanses from it; and a pure
mind is a mind sprinkled with that blood, and which receives the truth as it is in Jesus,
in the power and purity of it, and that holds the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
Some versions, as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic, render the word "sincere", as it is in
Phi_1:10; and may design the sincerity of their hearts in the worship of God, in the
doctrines of Christ, and to one another, and of the grace of the Spirit of God in them; as
that their faith was unfeigned, their hope without hypocrisy, and their love without
dissimulation, and their repentance real and genuine; but yet they needed to be stirred
up by way of remembrance, both of the truth of the Gospel, and the duties of religion; for
saints are apt to be forgetful of the word, both of its doctrines and its exhortations; and it
is the business of the ministers of the word to put them in mind of them, either by
preaching or by writing; and which shows the necessity and usefulness of the standing
ministry of the Gospel: the particulars he put them in mind of next follow.
HENRY, “HENRY, “HENRY, “HENRY, “That the apostle might the better reach his end in writing this epistle, which is
to make them steady and constant in a fiducial and practical remembrance of the
doctrine of the gospel, he, 1. Expresses his special affection and tenderness for them, by
calling them beloved, hereby evidencing that he added to godliness brotherly-kindness,
as he had (2Pe_1:17) exhorted them to do. Ministers must be examples of love and
affection, as well as life and conversation. 2. He evinces a sincere love to them, and
hearty concern for them, by writing the same thing to them, though in other words. It
being safe for them, it shall not be grievous to him to write upon the same subject, and
pursue the same design, by those methods which are most likely to succeed. 3. The
better to recommend the matter, he tells them that what he would have them to
remember are, (1.) The words spoken by the holy prophets, who were divinely inspired,
both enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Ghost; and, seeing these persons' minds
were purified by the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit, they were the better
disposed to receive and retain what came from God by the holy prophets. (2.) The
commandments of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour; and therefore the disciples and
servants of Christ ought to regard what those who are sent by him have declared unto

3. them to be the will of their Lord. What God has spoken by the prophets of the Old
Testament, and Christ has commanded by the apostles of the New, cannot but demand
and deserve to be frequently remembered; and those who meditate on these things will
feel the quickening virtues thereof. It is by these things the pure minds of Christians are
to be stirred up, that they may be active and lively in the work of holiness, and zealous
and unwearied in the way to heaven.
JAMISON, “JAMISON, “JAMISON, “JAMISON, “2Pe_3:1-18. Sureness of Christ’s coming, and its accompaniments,
declared in opposition to scoffers about to arise. God’s long suffering a motive to
repentance, as Paul’s epistles set forth; Concluding exhortation to growth in the
knowledge of Christ.
now — “This now a second Epistle I write.” Therefore he had lately written the former
Epistle. The seven Catholic Epistles were written by James, John, and Jude, shortly
before their deaths; previously, while having the prospect of being still for some time
alive, they felt it less necessary to write [Bengel].
unto you — The Second Epistle, though more general in its address, yet included
especially the same persons as the First Epistle was particularly addressed to.
pure — literally, “pure when examined by sunlight”; “sincere.” Adulterated with no
error. Opposite to “having the understanding darkened.” Alford explains, The mind,
will, and affection, in relation to the outer world, being turned to God [the Sun of the
soul], and not obscured by fleshly and selfish regards.
by way of — Greek, “in,” “in putting you in remembrance” (2Pe_1:12, 2Pe_1:13). Ye
already know (2Pe_3:3); it is only needed that I remind you (Jud_1:5).
CALVIN, “CALVIN, “CALVIN, “CALVIN, “1.Lest they should be wearied with the Second Epistle as though the first was sufficient,
he says that it was not written in vain, because they stood in need of being often stirred up. To make
this more evident, he shews that they could not be beyond danger, except they were well fortified,
because they would have to contend with desperate men, who would not onlyCORRUPT the purity
of the faith, by false opinions, but do what they could to subvert entirely the whole faith.
By saying, I stir upYOUR pure mind, he means the same as though he had said, “I wish to awaken
you to a sincerity of mind.” And the words ought to be thus explained, “I stir up your mind that it may
be pure and bright.” For the meaning is, that the minds of the godly become dim, and as it were
contract rust, when admonitions cease. But we also hence learn, that men even endued with learning,
become, in a manner, drowsy, except they are stirred up by constant warnings. (175)
It now appears what is the use of admonitions, and how necessary they are; for the sloth of the flesh
smothers the truth once received, and renders it inefficient, except the goads of warnings come to its
aid. It is not then enough, that men should be taught to know what they ought to be, but there is need
of godly teachers, to do this second part, deeply to impress the truth on the memory of their hearers.
And as men are, by nature, for the most part, fond of novelty and thus inclined to be fastidious, it is
useful for us to bear in mind what Peter says, so that we may not only willingly suffer ourselves to be
admonished by others, but that every one may also exercise himself in calling to
mindCONTINUALLY the truth, so that our minds may become resplendent with the pure and clear
knowledge of it.
BENSON, “. The doctrines and precepts delivered by the prophets and apostles, being the most
effectual means of preserving the Christian converts from being seduced by the false teachers spoken
of in the preceding chapter, the apostle begins this with informing the brethren that his design in
writing both his epistles was to bring these doctrines and precepts to their remembrance. And as one
of the greatest of these men’sERRORS was their denying the coming of Christ to judge the world,
and destroy this mundane system, he first exhorts the brethren to recollect what the holy prophets had

4. anciently spoken on this subject, together with the commandments of the apostles of Christ to their
disciples, to expect and prepare for these events. His saying, This second epistle I now write, &c.,
implies that he had written a former one to the same people, and he here affirms that in them both he
had one great end in view, which was to stir up their minds (which he terms pure, or
rather sincere, as ειλικρινη more properly signifies) to keep in remembrance and lay to heart what
had beenALREADY taught them on these important subjects, so as to be properly influenced by it.
The holy prophets intended, who had spoken of these things, were chiefly Enoch, mentioned 1:14-15;
David, Psalms 50:1-6 ;Psalms 75:8 ; and Daniel 12:2 .
COFFMAN, “There is here aCONTINUATION of the discussion of the great apostasy to occur in
the "last days" (2 Peter 3:1-7 ), revelations concerning the "day of the Lord," with refutation of the
mockers (2 Peter 3:8-13 ), and exhortations to stedfastness, and the doxology (2 Peter 3:14-
18 ).
This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you; and in both of them, I stir
upYOUR sincere mind by putting you in remembrance; (2 Peter 3:1 )
Beloved ... This word is somewhat of a keynote in this chapter, occurring here, and in 2 Peter 3:2
,14 ,15 ,17 . It contrasts with the vehement pronouncements against the falseTEACHERS and
mockers.
The second epistle that I write unto you ... There is no good reason for supposing the reference to
be anything other than a citation of 1Peter. The arguments that seek to use this as evidence of
pseudonymity and a late date are without any value, and are founded upon a total misunderstanding of
what Peter meant by "remembrance," viewing it as an assertion that the content of the two letters is
the same! Such a view, in its own right, is preposterous; for Peter indicated immediately, as again in 2
Peter 1:12 , that he had in mind their remembrance of the whole corpus of Christian truth as
revealed not only by the holy apostles but by the prophets of the old dispensation as well. Such views
are the fruit of a myopic unawareness of the breadth of revelation characteristic of both of these
epistles. As Kelcy said, "It has been generally held that this refers to 1Peter, and it is not necessary to
think otherwise."[1]
ENDNOTE:
[1] Raymond C. Kelcy, The Letters of Peter and Jude AUSTIN , Texas: R. B. Sweet Company,
1972), p. 152.
BARCLAY, “In this passage we see clearly displayed the principles of preaching which Peter
observed.
(i) He believed in the value of repetition. He knows that it is necessary for a thing to be said over and
over again if it is to penetrate the mind. When Paul was writing to the Philippians, he said that to
repeat the same thing over and over again was not a weariness to him, and for them it was the only
safe way (Philippians 3:1 ). It is byCONTINUED repetition that the rudiments of knowledge are
settled in the mind of the child. There is something of significance here. It may well be that often we
are too desirous of novelty, too eager to say new things, when what is needed is a repetition of the
eternal truths which men so quickly forget and whose significance they so often refuse to see. There
are certain foods of which a man does not get tired, necessary for his daily sustenance they are set
before him every day. We speak about a man's daily bread And there are certain great Christian truths
which have to be repeated again and again and which must never be pushed into the background in
the desire for novelty.
(ii) He believed in the need for reminder. Again and again the New Testament makes it clear that
preaching and teaching are so often not the introducing of new truth but the reminding of a man of
what he already knows. MoffattQUOTES a saying of Dr. Johnson: "It is not sufficiently considered
that men more frequently require to be reminded than informed." The Greeks spoke of "time which
wipes all things out," as if the human mind were a slate and time a sponge which passes across it with

5. a certain erasing quality. We are so often in the position of men whose need is not so much to be
taught as to be reminded of what we already know.
(iii) He believed in the value of a compliment. It is his intention to rouse their pure mind. The word he
uses for pure is eilikrines (Greek #1506 ), which may have either of two meanings. It may mean
that which is sifted until there is no admixture of chaff left; or it may mean that which is so
flawless that it may be held up to the light of the sun. Plato uses this same phrase--eilikrines
(Greek #1506 ) dianoia (Greek #1271 )--in the sense of pure reason, reason which is
unaffected by the seductive influence of the senses. By using this phrase Peter appeals to his
people as having minds uncontaminated by heresy. It is as if he said to them: "You really are
fine people--if you would only remember it." The approach of the preacher should so often be
that his hearers are not wretched creatures who deserve to be damned but splendid creatures
who must beSAVED . They are not so much like rubbish fit to be burned as like jewels to be
rescued from the mud into which they have fallen. Donald Hankey tells of "the beloved captain" whose
men would follow him anywhere. He looked at them and they looked at him, and they were filled with
the determination to be what he believed them to be. We always get further with people when we
believe in them than when we despise them.
(iv) He believed in the unity of Scripture. As he saw it there was a pattern in Scripture; and the Bible
was a book centred in Christ. The Old Testament foretells Christ; the gospels tell of Jesus the
Christ; and the apostles bring the message of that Christ to men.
BURKITT, “Observe here, 1. The design of both St. Peter's epistles was one and the same, even to
put them in remembrance of, and to call to their minds what they had formerly heard and understood,
but possibly not retained, nor duly considered. This second epistle I write; in both which I stir
upYOUR minds by way of remembrance.
NOTE The office of ministers is to be remembrancers, The Lord's remembrancers, by putting him
in mind of the people's wants; theirpeople's remembrancers, by putting them frequently in mind of
their duty to God. There is then a constant necessity of a conscientious ministry; none are weary of it
but such as love not to be remembered of their duty by it.
Nay, farther, St. Peter tells them, he would stir up their pure minds by ways of remembrance;
implying, that the memories of the best Christians stand in need ofREFRESHING , and the
affections of the holiest want a fresh exciting. The freest Christians sometimes want a spur: We are
slow to learn what we should do, and more slow to do what we have learnt.
Great then is the sin of those who contemn repeated truths. Cursed is that curiosity that despises a
wholesome truth, because it is common. If we have such nice stomachs that will not endure to eat
twice of the same dish, if wholesome; it is just with God, that want should overtake our wantonness.
Observe, 2. What it is that he would have them remember and be mindful of; it is the word of prophecy
in the Old Testament, and the doctrine of the gospel in and under the New, That ye be mindful of the
words spoken before by the holy prophets, namely, Enoch and Daniel, who prophesied of the
general judgment of the last day, and of the destruction of Jerusalem, then at hand.
Observe, 3. How St. Peter here joins the prophets and apostles together, as concuring harmoniously
in their doctrine; what was foretold by the prophets wasCONFIRMED by the apostles; hence they
are said to have but one mouth, Luke 1:1 As he spake by the mouth of all his prophets, not by the
mouths; for, though the prophets and apostles were many, yet had they all but one mouth, speaking
all the same things.
COKE, “2 Peter 3:1 . Your pure minds— Your sincere minds. This seems to be an intimation that
their minds were not yetCORRUPTED , either by the false teachers, or by the scoffers. They were
through Divine grace pure, or untainted with the evils which he describes; and St. Peter was desirous
that they shouldCONTINUE so, 2 Peter 3:17 . It was his grand view in both his epistles, to stir
up their untainted and sincere minds to remember and attend to what they had learned from the
apostles and prophets. See ch. 2 Peter 1:12 ; 2 Peter 1:1

6. TRAPP, “1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir upYOUR pure
minds by way of remembrance:
Ver. 1. This second epistle] So must ministers with one sermon peg in another, and never cease
beating and repeating the same point, saith St Augustine (de Doct. Christian.), till they perceive by the
gesture and countenance of the hearers, that they understand it and are affected with it.
I stir up] Gr. διεγειρω, I rouse you, who perhaps are nodding with the wise virgins, Matthew 25:5
.
Your pure minds] Gr. Pure as the sun. Chrysostom saith of some in his time that they were IPSO
caelo puriores, more pure than the visible heavens; and that they were more like angels than mortals.
Hom. lv. in Matt.
ELLICOTT, “(1) This second epistle, beloved, I now write.—Rather, This now second epistle I write,
beloved; or, This epistle, already a second one—implying that no very long time has elapsed since his
first letter, and that this one is addressed to pretty much the same circle of readers. There is no
indication that the first two chapters are one letter, and that this is theBEGINNING of another, as
has been supposed. With this use of “now,” or “already,” comp. John 21:14 .
Pure minds.—The word for “pure” means literally “separated”—according to one derivation, by being
sifted; according to another, by being held up to the light. Hence it comes to mean “unsullied.” Here it
probably means untainted by sensuality or, possibly, deceit. In Philippians 1:10 , the only other
place where it occurs in the New Testament, it is translated “sincere.” (Comp. 1 Corinthians 5:8
; 2 Corinthians 1:12 ; 2 Corinthians 2:17 .) The word for “mind” means “the faculty of moral
reflection and moral understanding,” which St. Peter, in his First Epistle (2 Peter 1:13 ), tells his
readers to brace up and keep ready for constant use. These very two words are found together in a
beautiful passage in Plato’s Phaedo, 66A.
By way of remembrance.—We have the same expression in 2 Peter 1:13 , and
theTRANSLATION in both cases should be the same—stir up in putting you in remembrance.
PULPIT, “This Second Epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; literally, this Epistle already a second
one I write unto you. The ἤδη (ALREADY ") implies that the interval between the two Epistles was
not long. The expression "beloved," four times repeated in this chapter, shows the apostle's
affectionateINTEREST in his readers; and the word "second" forces us to make our choice
between the Petrine authorship of the Epistle or the hypothesis of a direct forgery. In both which I stir
upYOUR pure minds by way of remembrance; literally, in which, i.e., "Epistles;" the word
"second" implied an allusion to a First Epistle. St. Peter repeats the words which he had used in 2
Peter 1:13 , "I think it meet to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." Mind ( διάνοια) is
the reflective faculty (see 1 Peter 1:13 ); that faculty should be exercised in holy things. The
thoughts that pass through the Christian's mind should be holy thoughts; his mind should be pure. The
word rendered "pure" ( εἰλικρινής) occurs inPhilippians 1:10 (where see note); the
corresponding substantive is found in1 Corinthians 5:8 ; 2 Corinthians 1:12 ; 2
Corinthians 2:17 . It is said of things which can bear to be judged in the sunlight, and so means
"pure, clear," or (according to another possible etymology) "unmixed," and so "genuine, sincere."
CONSTABLE, “Peter's first letter was most likely 1 Peter. Of course, Peter may have written many
epistles, so we cannot be sure that 1 Peter is in view. [Note: Bigg, p. 289.] The apostle implied that he
wrote this present letterSOON after the earlier one. This second epistle, he said, went to the same
audience in northern Asia Minor (cf. 1 Peter 1:1 ), primarily Gentile Christians. His purpose in

7. writing the second letter was toREFRESH his readers' memories (cf. 2 Peter 1:13 ). "Sincere"
means unflawed by evil. He gave his readersCREDIT for not having embraced the teaching of the
heretics yet.
"An effective antidote to false doctrine is to recall and dwell on the
teachingALREADY perceived." [Note: Andrew McNab, "The General Epistles of Peter," in The
New Bible Commentary, p. 1149.]
"The English 'sincere' is from the Latin words sine cera, 'without wax.' Some pottery salesmen
would use wax to cover cracks and weak places in pottery. Such a cover-up could be detected only
by holding the jug up to the sun to see if any weaknesses were visible. Such a vase was 'sun-
judged' (the lit. meaning of the Gr. eilikrines). God wants His people to have sun-judged minds, not
those in which their sin spots have been covered over." [Note: Gangel, p. 875.]
Verse 1-2
A. The Purpose of This Epistle 3:1-2
Verses 1-16
V. THE PROSPECT FOR THE CHRISTIAN 3:1-16
Peter turned from a negative warning against false teachers to make a positive declaration of the
apostles' message toHELP his readers understand why he wrote this letter. His language had been
strong and confrontational, but now he spoke with love and encouragement in gentle and endearing
terms.
"While in chapter 2 the writer delivered a fervid denunciation of the false teachers and their
immorality, in this section he renews his pastoral concern to fortify his readers in regard to another
aspect of the danger facing them, namely, the heretical denial of Christ's return." [Note: Hiebert,
Second Peter . . ., p. 135.]
"In the third chapter Peter refutes the mockers' denial of Christ's return (2 Peter 3:1-7 ),
presents theCORRECT view concerning Christ's return (2 Peter 3:8-13 ), and concludes
with timely exhortations to his readers in view of the dark and dangerous days facing them (2
Peter 3:14-18 )." [Note: Idem, "Directives for Living in Dangerous Days," Bibliotheca Sacra
141:564 (October-December 1984):330-31.]
I like to think if the Book of 2 Peter as a bologna sandwich. Chapters 1 and 3 are the bread, the
positive pastoral exhortations, and the middle chapter, 2, is the bologna of the false teachers.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you.
St. Peter’s love token
I. The nature of it—a letter written. What shall we render to the Lord for His mercy in
writing these blessed covenants?
II. The number of it—a second after the former. “This second”; not so much fearing the
miscarriage of the first, as hoping to work better confirmation by the next.
III. The tenor of it—to stir up their minds. Why are the words of the wise compared to
goads (Ecc_3:11) but to show that the best in God’s team need pricking forward?
IV. The order—by way of remembrance. This is a just order and method; first, to teach
the way of the Lord, then to remind men of walking in it. We are not only called teachers,
but remembrancers (Isa_62:6). (Thos. Adams.)
I stir up your pure minds.
A Christian memory
The power of memory is, perhaps, the most amazing part of our mental equipment. It is
a golden thread that links infancy and age, on which are hung, like pearls, varied facts
and experiences of every hue. Memory has her servant, recollection, an invisible

8. librarian running about the chambers of the mind, to find what she calls for. Now God
uses this faculty in the work of building up Christian character.
1. The gospel has a history to be remembered.
2. History repeats itself ordinarily; but this history of the gospel can never be repeated.
Christ has suffered once for all. A Christian memory is swift to remember this.
3. In the revelation of His “memorial name “Jehovah has emphasised the significance of
memory. He is not an abstraction, a far-distant personality, even, but “the Father of
Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob”—a historic God.
4. Again, keep in mind that the life of our Lord in glory is linked with that of His
redemptive work on earth, as truly as your existence there, some day, will be connected
with your residence here on earth.
5. Finally, a Christian memory holds in trust these historic dates of Christ and His
redemption, because of the fact that they are to be the theme of adoring praise
throughout eternity. (J. M. English, D. D.)
Mindful of the words which were spoken before.—
Mindfulness
I. The object of their mindfulness.
1. “Words,” for their plain certainty; not shadows and abstruse paradoxes.
2. “Spoken before,” for their antiquity; not things of yesterday; no new devices.
3. “By the prophets,” for the authority; men that had their commission immediately
from God Himself.
4. “Holy prophets,” for the sanctity; they passed not through the lips of a Balaam, or
Caiaphas.
5. “The commandment of us,” etc. The prophets were legal apostles, the apostles are
evangelical prophets. Both these came to the world with commandments.
(1) Neither prophets nor apostles did ever command in their own names; but the
former came with “Thus saith the Lord,” and the other in the name of Christ.
(2) St. Peter refers us to the words of the prophets and commandments of the apostles,
and precisely chargeth our mindfulness with these lessons.
(3) Neither the prophets without the apostles, nor the apostles without the prophets,
but both together. The gospel without the law may lift men up to presumption; the law
without the gospel may sink them down to desperation.
(4) The rule of truth is delivered to us by the prophets and apostles.
II. Their mindfulness of that object. This consists in two things:
1. Observation. God never meant His Word for a vanishing sound; that which is kept
upon eternal record in heaven, and is a constant dweller in the elected heart (Col_
3:16), must not be a sojourner, much less a passenger, with us.
2. Conversation. It is a barren mindfulness that does not declare itself in a holy
fruitfulness. Conclusion:
1. Let us desire the faculty and facility of doing; earnestly to desire it is one half, yea, the
best half.
2. Let us be thrifty husbands of time and means to be spiritually rich.
3. Let us reduce all to practice. (Thos. Adams.)

9. Compendious commandments
Cultivate the habit of reflective meditation upon the truths of the gospel as giving you
the pattern of duty in a concentrated and available form. It is of no use to carry about a
copy of the “Statutes at Large” in twenty folio volumes, in order to refer to it when
difficulties arise and crises come. We must have something a great deal more
compendious and easy of reference than that. A man’s cabin-trunk must not be as big as
a house, and his goods must be in a small compass for his sea voyage. We have in Jesus
Christ the “Statutes at Large,” codified and put into a form which the poorest and
humblest and busiest amongst us can apply directly to the sudden emergencies and
surprising contingencies of daily life, which are always sprung upon us when we do not
expect them, and demand instantaneous decision. (A. Maclaren.)
EBC, “2 Peter 3:1-4
AS WERE THE DAYS OF NOAH
IN the previous chapter the Apostle showed how the renegade false teachers had
published among the brethren their seductive doctrine declaring that God’s fatherly
discipline was something which they need not undergo, that the trials which He sent
them might be escaped, and the natural bent of man’s heart indulged as fully as they
pleased. The foul results of such lessons, both to the flock, and to the teachers, he also
depicted in such wise as to render them abhorrent. Now he tells of a further lesson
which these guides on the downward road added to the former. Those who do not accept
God’s judgments here soon go on to deny the coming of judgment hereafter. It could
hardly be otherwise. The wish is father to the thought as truly in matters of faith as of
practice. Men whose lives are all centered on this world must try and convince
themselves, if possible, that the day of the Lord, of which God’s word speaks so often, is
a delusion, and may be cast out of their thoughts. This these men did, and it is against
this scoffing of theirs that St. Peter directs his exhortation in this chapter.
"This is now, beloved, the Second Epistle that I write unto you." Judging from the
adverb which he uses (η) now, (already), we should conclude that no long time had
elapsed between the Apostle’s first letter and the second. And by calling this the second,
he shows that it is intended for the same congregations as the former, though he has not
named them in the salutation with which the letter opens. Afore-time they had been
tried by inward questionings, and he sent them his exhortation and testimony that, spite
of all their trials, this was the true grace of God which they had received, and therein
they should stand fast. (1Pe_5:12) Now the danger is from without false doctrine and evil
living as its consequence. So, though he may have written but a little while ago, he will
neither spare himself nor neglect them. For the danger is of the utmost gravity. It
threatens the overthrow of all true Christian life.
"And in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance." Mark
how trustfully he appeals to the sincerity of the minds of the brethren, just as before
(2Pe_1:12) he said they knew the things of which he was putting them in remembrance,
and were established in the truth which they had received. And what he means by the
"mind" we may see from 1Pe_1:13, where he uses the same word: "Gird up the loins of
your mind"-do not indulge vain, lax, and speculative opinions, as though these would
forward you in your travel through the world-"be sober, and set your hope perfectly on

10. the grace that is to be brought unto you." A mind so braced looks onward to the
revelation of Jesus Christ, looks for every token of its drawing nigh. And because it is
sincere, the man dare look into its inmost recesses, and by self-examination and
discipline maintain its purity. He can think soberly of the Lord’s coming because he is
preparing for it. But he whose mind is dark, within whom the light has been turned into
darkness, dare not think on these things, but with all his might endeavors to forget,
ignore, and deny them. All that St. Peter thinks needful for these Asian brethren is that
he should remind them. He knows that men’s minds are prone to slumber, especially
about the things unseen as yet; and his aim is to rouse them to thorough vigilance. But
he has no new lesson to give them.
"That ye should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets."
On few themes do the prophets dwell more earnestly than on those visitations of
Jehovah which they publish as the coming of the day of the Lord. With Joel (Joe_2:2;
Joe_2:32) it is to be a time great and terrible, the prospect of which is to move men to
repentance, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And
Israel were taught in many ways that this great day was constantly at hand. They were
pointed to it by Isaiah (Isa_13:6) when the overthrow of Babylon was foretold. For that
nation the day of the Lord was coming as destruction from the Almighty. Jeremiah (Jer_
46:10) and Ezekiel (Eze_30:3) preach the same lesson with the ruin of Egypt for their
text. It is a day of vengeance, when the Lord God of hosts will avenge Him of His
adversaries; a day of clouds, in which a sword shall come upon Egypt, and her
foundations shall be broken down. By what they beheld around them God’s people were
to learn that a like day would come upon them also, upon everything that was high and
lifted up against God; and for those who were unprepared another prophet (Amo_5:18)
declared that it would be darkness, and not light. Before its coming, therefore, they were
urged (Zep_2:3) to turn to the Lord, that they might be hid in the day of His anger. For
God designed by it to make Himself King of all the earth, (Zec_14:9) wherefore it would
be great and terrible. For though Elijah should first be sent (Mal_4:5) to turn the hearts
of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, in its
manifestation that day should still be like a refiner’s fire to purge the evil from among
the good.
Not without solemn purpose were all these words written aforetime, and the Christian
preachers who felt that God was faithful were sure that such a day would come upon all
the earth. How it would be manifested was for God, and not for them. Some of those
who lived when St. Peter wrote beheld part of its accomplishment in the overthrow of
the Holy City. But they felt-and their lesson is one for all time-that it is presumptuous in
men to compute God’s days, and that it is rebellious blindness not to acknowledge the
coming of His day continually in the great crises of history. How many a time since St.
Peter spoke has the Lord proclaimed by partial judgments the certainty of that which
shall come at the last. The day of the Lord is attested when empires fall, when hordes of
barbarians break in upon the civilized world that has grown careless of God, when
convulsions rage like those which preceded the Reformation and which shook Europe at
the French revolution, and we may add to these the troubles which harass our own land
today. All these things preach the same doctrine; all proclaim that verily there is a God
that judgeth the earth. Not yet is the voice of prophecy silent. Oh, that men would but
remember how long and how surely it has been speaking!
"And the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles." In connection
with the subject on which he is writing, the commandment of Jesus to which St. Peter
alludes can hardly be other than that which occurs in the address of our Lord to His
disciples after His last visit to the Temple: "Watch, therefore, for ye know not on what

11. day your Lord cometh; therefore be ready, for in an hour that ye think not the Son of
man cometh." (Mat_24:42) And with the last judgment in his thoughts, we cannot fail to
be struck with the frequency with which the Apostle in this letter repeats as the title of
Christ "the Lord and Savior". (2Pe_1:1; 2Pe_1:8) This precise form occurs in no other
part of the New Testament. And it seems from the Apostle’s use of it as though, while
speaking of the certainty of the coming of the day of the Lord, he desired to give special
prominence to the thought that to such as were looking for Him He would manifest
Himself as the Savior and Redeemer.
The words "your apostles" also appear to be used with design. They contain a direct
acknowledgment of the mission of St. Paul as an apostle. By him more than by any other
had these regions been brought to the knowledge of Christ, and we may rest confident
that the gospel which he preached elsewhere he preached to them also. The lesson of
watchfulness is oft repeated in his letters. To the Corinthians he writes, "Watch ye; stand
fast in the faith; quit you like men; be strong," (1Co_16:13) while, in connection with this
subject of the day of the Lord, his words to the Thessalonians are, "Ye yourselves know
perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night But ye are not in
darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Let us watch and be sober". (1Th_
5:2-6) St. Peter’s letter was to be read in those Galatian Churches whose members in
past days had doubted about the apostolate of St. Paul. Its warnings would sink the
deeper because enforced by the authority of him who even in his rebukes had spoken to
them as his "little children". (Gal_4:19)
"Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery." St. Peter
says the mockers will come; Polycarp says in his day they had come. He terms them the
firstborn of Satan, and tells how they pervert the oracles of the Lord to their own lusts
and deny that there is either resurrection or judgment. The signs of the times were not
difficult to read; and the Apostle would have the brethren know what to look for, know
in such wise that they should not be shaken in mind by what they saw or heard. For this
the first need was Christian sobriety. Thus settled, they could ponder on the words of
ancient prophecy and recall the lessons of those who had spoken to them in the name of
Christ; and therewith their hearts might take comfort, and their heads be lifted up with
expectation, knowing the last days were bringing their redemption nearer. The mockery
of the sinners would keep no bounds. This he expresses by his emphatic words, just as
largeness of blessing is described: "In blessing I will bless thee."
"Walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?" They
would be a law unto themselves, and so they followed an evil law. As sinners before them
had said, "Our lips are our own," (Psa_12:4) so these men by act and word alike
proclaimed, "Our lives are our own, to use as we please. We have no account to give."
Thus they made themselves bond slaves to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life, and, with these fetters heavy about them, boasted of their liberty. They
strengthened themselves in their evil way by jeering at the thought of Christ’s return to
judgment. "We have heard of the promise," they said, "but we see no signs of its
fulfillment. The angels, you say, spake of His return when He was taken away from you.
Let Him make speed and hasten His coming, that we may see it. You are forever
speaking of it as sure and pointing us back to the ancient Scriptures, as though they were
a warrant for what you preach. Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now". (Jer_
17:15)
"For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation." Here the mockers pass from the promise of Christ’s return,
and fall back upon the more distant records as supplying a stronger argument. "The
fathers" of whom they speak cannot be the Christian preachers. Not many of them could

12. as yet have fallen asleep in death. But the ancient prophets of the Jewish Scriptures had
long ago passed away, and against them the scorners direct their shafts. "Centuries ago,"
they urge, "the prophetic record was closed; and its final utterance was of the day of the
Lord, which has not yet come." Their word "fell asleep" may have also been used as part
of their mockery, classing the words of prophecy among baseless dreams. It may be they
intended a special allusion to that one among the prophets who dates the time of the
Lord’s coming. Daniel (Dan_12:12) speaks of a waiting which shall last a thousand three
hundred and five-and-thirty days. But say these scorners, "When his word was complete,
he was bidden, ‘Go thou thy way till the end be. For thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in
thy lot at the end of the days.’ He has fallen asleep, and the other fathers also. They all
are at rest, and the end of the days is no nearer. The world stands fast, and will stand. It
has seen no change since it was brought into existence."
Those who in faith clung to Christ could not fail, as they heard these scorners, to think of
the Master’s question, "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith in the earth?,"
(Luk_18:8) and of those other words of His which told them that the last days should be
a parallel to the days of the Deluge: "As were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of
the Son of man. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall be the coming of
the Son of man". (Mat_24:37-39) The strong earth was under the feet of those
antediluvian mockers, the firmament above their heads. So in ignorance they jeered at
what they would call the folly of Noah. But the Flood came, and then they knew. Yet the
last days have seen, and will see, men as blind and as full of satire and scoffing as they.
HAWKER, “2 Peter 3:1-7
"This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure
minds by way of remembrance: (2) That ye may be mindful of the words which were
spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the
Lord and Saviour: (3) Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts, (4) And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation. (5) For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens
were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: (6) Whereby the
world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: (7) But the heavens and the
earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."
If there were no other authority than what the opening of this Chapter affords, in
testimony, that the Apostle Peter is the inspired writer of it; this would be enough. For it
proves, first, that he had written a former Epistle; secondly, that it was to the same
persons to whom he sent his first, and in both which he calls them beloved; and, thirdly,
he tells them, that the object of both was one and the same, to stir up their-minds to
remembrance. And his adverting both to the Prophets of the Old Testament, and to
himself and his brother Apostles under the New, shews what a beautiful harmony is in
both.
Reader! it is worthy your observation, how much the Apostle’s mind was directed by the
Holy Ghost, to admonish the Church of the latter-day heresy, and of heretics. Scufflers
are very awful characters. And nothing can more pointedly manifest the bitterness of the
heart. The scoffing of men is, in human nature, in correspondence to the hissing of the
serpent in his. The devil is the author of both. But we have not simply the sneer, but the

13. contemptuous language of the enemy to contend with. Where is the promise of his
coming? Alluding to what Jesus said before his departure. Joh_14:3. And so blind, and
given up to a deluded mind, are such men; that God’s Covenant with the earth, which he
made after the destruction by the flood, and which the Lotto frequently alludes to, in
confirmation of his Covenant of grace, they pervert to the very reverse of the Lord’s
intention. Every man upon earth is this day a living testimony of the former. Gen_8:21-
22. And God makes this an argument for the belief of the latter. See Jer_31:35-36. with
Gen_9:11-15.
But what I more particularly desire the Reader to notice, in confirmation of this
Covenant m Christ, as all along shadowed forth, under every dispensation, and more
especially in this of Noah is, that the Holy Ghost, by Peter, refers to it in this very
scripture. He expressly declares, that this ark, in which Noah and his family were saved,
represented Christ, while the Patriarch and his household represented the Church. And
however inattentively regarded by men, and though, according to philosophers, the
rainbow may be accounted for on physical principles, yet God, from the first, designed, it
as a token of his Covenant. And every child of God ought to regard it as such, upon every
renewed occasion, when that beautiful arch is seen by him in the heavens. God saith,
that he will took upon it, and remember his everlasting Covenant, and so ought all his
people, Gen_9:11-16. And it is a further inducement for the child of God so to do, not
only to bear him up against all the sin and folly of scoffers, but to lead his heart on to the
contemplation of Jesus, whom that bow represents, The New Testament Church, in, and
through, the ministry of the beloved Apostle, is invited to behold that Rainbow which
John saw round about the throne, meaning Christ, Rev_4:3. And this representation of
Jesus was intended to teach, that as it encircled the throne, so that no dispensations can
issue from the throne but what must pass through it, neither can any manifestations of
God, in all the departments of nature, providence, grace, or glory, come forth, but in,
and through Christ. Yea, all the views of Jehovah, with which he beholds his Church,
must be in, and through Him. Reader! what a thought is this to refresh the soul of the
regenerated child of God, not only against the blasts of ungodly-scoffers, but under all
the exercises and trials which the faithful meet.
SBC, “The Way of Remembrance.
Here, then, the message of an Apostle, nay, even the teaching of the Holy Spirit, is
identified with sacred remembrance—remembrance of holy words and deep impressions
dropped upon the heart in the highest moments of life. The apprehension of Divine
things consists, it would seem, not in new discoveries, not in strained and laboured
thought, but in the reawakening of the pure and simple mind and the gathering up of
every Christlike image and affection from behind and from within.
I. This power, already known to Plato as reminiscence, is no other than that appeal to
remembrance which Christ identified with the function of the Holy Spirit. This appeal,
instead of passing downwards, like knowledge upon ignorance, or forward, like reason
from point to point, moves inward towards a centre of faith and feeling that holds us all.
It is by reversing our ambitious steps, not by advancing into original ideas, but by
relapse upon simple affections, not by seizing new stations in philosophy, but by
recovering the artlessness of the child, that we must find the joy of redemption and the
wisdom of faith.
II. We have perhaps two sorts of memory, two ways at least in which we are referred to a
prior state of the given object, and enabled to recognise it as not new. (1) There is the
purely personal memory which reflects always the image of our individual selves, revives

14. our actual experiences, writes our own biography, and hangs round the gallery of
thought the portraits on which we love to gaze. Without this our being would have no
thread of conscious continuity, our character no liability to judgment, our affections no
root of tenacity. There are few lives which have not thus their secret store of natural
pieties, their holy font of sweet and reverent affections, wherewith to rebaptise the dry
heathenism of the present. (2) But besides this personal memory of our own past states,
we have another, deeper and more refined, but not less real: an impersonal faculty which
has another object than our own individual selves; a power of recognising, as ever with
us, the secret presence of a Holy, a True, a God, that is not our own, that is above us,
though within us, that has a right over us, which may be slighted, but cannot be
gainsaid. When you wake up to the perception of deeper obligation or the consciousness
of a sanctity unfelt before, your instant recognition of it is ever with you, seen or unseen,
does not deceive you; it is not a new glory that is kindled, but the dull mind that is
cleansed; and if the secret of the Lord were not consciously with you, it only waited till
you were among them that fear Him.
J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. ii., p. 92.
MEYER, “ LONGSUFFERING DELAY
2Pe_3:1-9
Peter does not hesitate to place the commandments of himself and the other Apostles of
Jesus on a level with the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and he
repeats his admonitions because of the urgency of the crisis then threatening the
Church. Apparently there was a well-grounded fear that she would relax her attitude of
expectancy and give credence to the materialistic philosophy of the age.
Men argued then from the appearances of things, and especially from the regular routine
of cause and effect. They did not realize that, from time to time, there had been the
intrusion of the divine personal will into the course of history, introducing a higher set of
laws and arresting the ordinary succession of events; as for instance, the Flood and the
miracles of Old Testament history. Why, then, should not the ordinary course of nature
be broken in upon by the Second Advent, when the Lord shall gather His saints about
Him and reign gloriously? What God has done He can do again! There is a person and a
will behind the slight veil of the present life.
PULPIT, “The certainty of the Lord's coming.
I. CONFUTATION OF SCOFFERS.
1. St. Peter's purpose in writing, He took a deepINTEREST in the spiritual welfare of the Christians
of Asia Minor; he felt a great affection for them; he calls them "beloved" four times in this chapter. We
do not know whether he had ever seen them face to face. It may be that Silvanus had made known to
him their circumstances, their dangers, their temptations. So he writes to them. In the First Epistle he
comforts them in the presence of great persecution; in the second he warns them against the
seductions of false teachers. He is an example to Christian ministers of diligence, of affectionate care
for souls. He writes:
2. Scoffers will come. It has always been so; there have always been men who mocked at those who
trusted in God. It was so with Lot in Sodom, with Isaac the heir of the promise, with the psalmist, with
the Lord Jesus himself. Those of whom St. Peter speaks were men of sensual habits, walking after
their own lusts. There is such a thing as honest doubt, like that of St. Thomas; there are men who
would give the world to believe, if they could; their temperament, their education, their habits of

15. thought, throw immense difficulties in their way; such men, we hope and trust, will be guided, sooner
or later, to the truth. But in all ages a very large proportion of the prevalent skepticism has issued out
of an ungodly life. Men have rejected the faith because they were unwilling to believe. The pure
morality of the gospel offends the self-indulgent; it is a constant reproach to them; the teaching of
Scripture concerning the judgment is repulsive to them; they try to keep such thoughts out of their
minds. And, besides this, sin hardens the heart; a sensual lifeBLINDS the eye of the soul, and
makes men incapable of appreciating spiritual truth. "The natural man [the ψυχικός, in whom the
animal soul is predominant] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14 ).
Such men come with their mockery, saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? The fathers have
fallen asleep; generation after generation has passed away. Christians have lived in expectation of the
Lord's coming according to his promise; they have waited for him, but he came not; they are in their
graves. Are men still to pass their lives in waiting for an advent which seems to be continually
receding? All things continue thus, as they are, and as they have been; the laws of nature work on in
their changeless uniformity. Where is the promise?" These men took the Epicurean view of the Deity.
God might have created the world; he might have called into being the forces which are working in the
universe. But now, they thought, he leaves those forces to their mutual action and reaction upon one
another; he does not interpose either in the natural world or in the affairs of men; he leaves all to the
silent rule of law. The teaching of Holy Scripture is directly opposed to this form of agnosticism. "My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work," said the Lord Jesus to the Jews. "In him we live, and move, and
have our being," said St. Paul to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, as well as to the men of
Athens generally. God sustains the universe from day to day, from hour to hour, with
hisCONTINUED agency. Without hisSUPPORT the world would fall into ruin; without his
providence the order of society would collapse. The laws of nature are but observed uniformities,
sequences of cause and effect; they are not forces; they have no life, no power; they are the
expression of the Divine will. God changeth not; and those laws which he has impressed upon the
material universe exhibit the hand of the Creator, they too are changeless within the sphere of the all-
controlling will of God. He can suspend their operation, for he is the Lord God omnipotent; but as a
rule his working is uniform, continuous. If it were not so, the world would be a scene of disorder—all its
rare beauty would be lost, life in its present conditions could not be sustained, society would be
impossible. That uniformity which is the result of the wisdom of God must not be made an argument
against the providence of God. He works in the uniformities of the laws of nature as certainly as in
disturbances of those uniformities. There have been such disturbances; the uniform course of nature
has been broken by Divine interpositions on a great scale.
3. The answer to the scoffers. All things have not always continued as they are. For:
II. EXPLANATION OF THE DELAY OF THE JUDGMENT.
1. With the Eternal time is not. We think under the laws of time; time is an essential element in our
thought—we cannot think without recognizing it. It is not so with God; the thought of God is not subject
to the law of time. He is eternal; past, present, and future are all within the sphere of his immediate
knowledge. To him one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. To him that
inhabiteth eternity the longest time that human thought can conceive is but as a speck. Even we can
understand that real life is measured not by mere time, but by action. How much of life was there
concentrated in the three years of our Lord's ministry, those years filled full with works of love and holy
teaching! while, on the other hand, the seventy years or more of many men pass by in careless living,
in listless idleness, without energy either of thought or action, without any good results either for
themselves or for others. It is thought, love, action, that measures life, not the hand of the clock, not
the mere lapse of hours and years. "He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time" (Wis.
4:13 ).
2. The Lord is long-suffering. The delay does not mean indifference; it does not mean that the Lord
heedeth not the conduct of men. The ungodly say, "Tush, God hath forgotten: he hideth away his
face; he will never see it." But it is not so. The delay of the judgment comes from a far different
reason. God is not willing that any should perish. Alas! men do perish in their sins; the day of
judgment is the day of perdition of ungodly men. But it is not of God; it is of their own willfulness and
obstinacy; they bring upon themselves swift perdition. God has bestowed on man the awfulGIFT of
power to choose good or evil; without that power there could be no moral action, no responsibility, no
obedience, no holiness, no love; life without that power would be the working of a machine, not the

16. energy of a creature made after the likeness of God. Man, alas! has too often abused that great and
perilous gift, and has turned that which should have led to holiness into an occasion of sin; and "the
wages of sin is death." But God hath "no pleasure in the death of the wicked;" his desire is that "all
should come to repentance." Therefore he gives them time. "The goodness of God leadeth them to
repentance" (Romans 2:4 ). We cannotENTER into life without repentance, without a deep and
real change of heart. "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," was the first sermon of John
the Baptist, the first sermon of our Lord. "Repent, and be baptized every one of you for the
remission of sins," was the exhortation of St. Peter in his first great sermon. And God willeth that all
should come to repentance; for "the Lord is loving unto every man;" and Jesus Christ our Lord "tasted
death for every man." And "there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." Therefore he gives
us time. The delay comes from the long-suffering love of God. How sad that men should scoff at that
which should be the ground of adoring gratitude!
3. But the day of the Lord will come. It must be so, for so it is decreed in the counsels of God. The
mockers may mock in their mockery; they may ask in bitter sarcasm, "Where is the promise of his
coming?" The Christian knows the answer; it is hidden in the secret purpose of God, in the mystic book
sealed with seven seals, which none can openSAVE the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But the day of
the Lord will come—that we know, though we know not the time.
LESSONS.
1. Scoffers will scoff; men of science will point to the unchanging laws of nature. Neither sarcasms nor
the hypotheses of scientific men can shake the Christian from his faith.
2. Therefore we must stir up one another and ourselves; we must keep the solemn words of Holy
Scripture in our memories.
3. God has intervened in his judgments; he will intervene again.
4. God is long-suffering; but there must be a limit even to that long-suffering patience. The day of
judgment must come; therefore repent while there is time.
2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past
by the holy prophets and the command given by
our Lord and Savior through YOUR apostles.
BARNES, “BARNES, “BARNES, “BARNES, “That ye may be mindful of the words - Of the doctrines, the truths; the
prophetic statements. Jude Jud_1:18 says that it had been foretold by the apostles, that
in the last days there would be scoffers. Peter refers to the instructions of the apostles
and prophets in general, though evidently designing that his remarks should bear
particularly on the fact that there would be scoffers.
Which were spoken before by the holy prophets - The predictions of the
prophets before the advent of the Saviour, respecting his character and work. Peter had
before appealed to them 2Pe_1:19-21, as furnishing important evidence in regard to the
truth of the Christian religion, and valuable instruction in reference to its nature. See the
notes at that passage. Many of the most important doctrines respecting the kingdom of
the Messiah are stated as clearly in the Old Testament as in the New Testament

17. (compare Isa_53:1-12), and the prophecies therefore deserve to be studied as an
important part of divine revelation. It should be added here, however, that when Peter
wrote there was this special reason why he referred to the prophets, that the canon of the
New Testament was not then completed, and he could not make his appeal to that. To
some parts of the writings of Paul he could and did appeal 2Pe_3:15-16, but probably a
very small part of what is now the New Testament was known to those to whom this
epistle was addressed.
And of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour - As
being equally entitled with the prophets to state and enforce the doctrines and duties of
religion. It may be observed, that no man would have used this language who did not
regard himself and his fellow apostles as inspired, and as on a level with the prophets.
GILL, “GILL, “GILL, “GILL, “That ye may be mindful,.... This is an explanation of the above mentioned
end of his writing this and the other epistle; which was, that those saints might be
mindful of two things more especially:
of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets; that is, the
prophets of the Old Testament, who were holy men of God, and therefore their words are
to be regarded, and retained in memory; the Gospel itself was spoken by them, and so
was Christ, and the things relating to his person and offices, and to his incarnation,
sufferings, and death, and the glory that should follow; and indeed the apostles said no
other than what they did, only more clearly and expressly; and particularly many things,
were said by them concerning the second coming of Christ to judge the world, and
destroy it, and to prepare new heavens and a new earth for his people, which is what the
apostle has chiefly in view; see Jud_1:14;
and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour; that is,
Jesus Christ, as Jud_1:17 expresses it, and the Ethiopic version adds here; and which
likewise, and also the Syriac version, and some ancient copies, read, "our Lord and
Saviour", and omit the us before the apostles; by whom are meant the twelve apostles of
Christ, of which Peter was one, and therefore says, "us the apostles"; though the Vulgate
Latin and Arabic versions, and the Complutensian edition, read "your apostles", and so
the Alexandrian copy; but the former is the received reading: now "the commandment"
of these intends either the Gospel in general, so called because it was the commandment
of our Lord to his apostles to preach it; and therefore the word "commandment", in the
original, stands between "us the apostles", and "the Lord and Saviour", as being the
commandment of the one to the other; unless it can be thought any regard is had to the
new commandment of love, or that of faith, inculcated both by Christ and his apostles;
Joh_13:34; or rather, particularly the instructions, directions, and predictions of the
apostles concerning the second coming of Christ, and what should go before it, as
appears from the following words, and the parallel place in Jud_1:17, the words of the
prophets and apostles being here put together, show the agreement there is between
them, and what regard is to be had to each of them, and to anything and every thing in
which they agree.
JAMISON, “JAMISON, “JAMISON, “JAMISON, “prophets — of the Old Testament.
of us — The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, “And of the commandment of the
Lord and Savior (declared) by YOUR apostles” (so “apostle of the Gentiles,” Rom_11:13)
- the apostles who live among you in the present time, in contrast to the Old Testament

18. “prophets.”
CALVIN, “CALVIN, “CALVIN, “CALVIN, “2.That ye may be mindful. By these words he intimates that we have enough in the
writings of the prophets, and in the gospel, to stir us up, provided we be as diligent as it behoves us, in
meditating on them; and that our minds sometimes contract a rust, or become bedimmed through
darkness, is owing to our sloth. That God may thenCONTINUALLY shine upon us, we must
devote ourselves to that study: let our faith at the same time acquiesce in witnesses so certain and
credible. For when we have the prophets and apostles agreeing with us, nay, as the ministers of our
faith, and God as the author, and angels as approvers, there is no reason that the ungodly, all united,
should move us from our position. By the commandment of the apostles he means the whole doctrine
in which they had instructed the faithful. (176)
The verb µνησθὢναι is connected with “arouse;” and it is in this tense usedACTIVELY as well
as passively. See Matthew 26:75 , and Acts 10:31 . There is in the noun ἐντολὴ, a metonymy,
the commandment for what was commanded to be taught, the doctrine. It has this meaning, according
to Schleusner, in John 12:50 , and in this Epistle, 2 Peter 2:21 . — Ed
COFFMAN, “This outlines the things Peter wished toREFRESH the memory of in the minds of his
readers. Wheaton observed that this verse "taken in general terms could describe the contents of
1Peter."[2] However, Wheaton voiced the usual reservation that,
"If this verse is taken as having to do with the second coming, it hardly describes Peter's first
letter."[3] It is an unqualified mystery to this writer why some scholars are so up tight about Peter's
intimation here that both epistles are concerned with the Christian's remembrance of vital truth. What
truth? All truth revealed by the prophets and the apostles! True, Peter mentioned the second coming in
this chapter; but that is by no means all of it. The doctrine of the end of the world, the salient features
of the great apostasy, the forthcoming judgment of all mankind, the new heavens and the new earth,
the inspiration of both the Old and the New Testaments, to name only a few things, and many, many
other cardinal tenets of the Christian religion are copiously mentioned in both epistles. In this
comprehensive view, the truth of which cannot beDENIED , Peter's bracketing both epistles as
"reminding" the saints of these things is exactly what should have been expected. Peter did not mean
that his epistles were carbon copies of each other. "His words do not exclude the supposition that their
contents differ in many respects."[4]
By the holy prophets ... Even an innocent expression like this is pressed into service by the critics
who assert that it indicates a later date, a time, they say, "when the reference to the prophets had
become stylized!"[5] Only the advocates of aBANKRUPT cause would resort to an argument like
that, especially in view of the facts that Luke mentioned "the holy prophets" (Luke 1:70 ), as did
Peter also (Acts 3:21 ).
The commandment of the Lord and Saviour ... This is very significant as showing that Peter had no
reference whatever to some single promise of the Lord, such as the Second Advent, but to the
"commandment," a comprehensive term here standing for the totality of our Lord's teaching.
Through your apostles ... These were not "your missionaries," as alleged by some, but, "The
apostles of Jesus Christ ... they alone were put on a level with the Old Testament prophets."[6] Note
also that Peter included all the apostles as equal in authority with himself. As Caffin said, "We must
therefore understand this passage, along with verse 15, as a distinct recognition of the apostleship of
Paul."[7] Paine was alsoCORRECT when he wrote, "This unaffected claim to apostleship, as
though the writer realized it was known to all his readers, is a strong corroboration of Petrine
authorship."[8] This expression, "your apostles" has also been seized upon as the basis of an
allegation that post-apostolic time is indicated; however, as Robinson said, "This need not imply the
end of the apostolic age, any more than when Paul said to the Corinthians, `If I am not an apostle to
others, at least I am to you' (1 Corinthians 9:2 )."[9] Far from indicating a late date and some
forger as the author, this passage actually denies such a thing. "A later writer would have insisted
upon asserting Peter's personal authority here."[10]

19. [2] David H. Wheaton, The New Bible Commentary, Revised (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), p. 1256.
[3] Ibid.
[4] R. H. Strachan, Expositor's Greek Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1967), p. 114.
[5] Michael Green, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 2Peter (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), p. 125.
[6] Ibid.
[7] B. C. Caffin, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22,2Peter (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1950), p. 65.
[8] Stephen W. Paine, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p.
998.
[9] John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p.
179.
[10] Alfred Plummer, Ellicott's Commentary on the Holy Bible, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 458.
ELLICOTT, “(2) By the holy prophets.—Appealed to before in 2 Peter 1:19 . (Comp. Jude 1:17 .)
The coherence of the Epistle as a whole comes out strongly in this last chapter: 2 Peter
3:1 recalls 2 Peter 1:12-13 ; 2 Peter 3:17 recalls 2 Peter 1:10-12 ; 2 Peter
3:18 recalls 2 Peter 1:5-8 . In this verse the Apostle commends the warnings of the Old
Testament and the New Testament, as to the coming of Christ, to Christians throughout all ages.
The commandment of us the apostles of the Lord.—“Of us” is, beyond all doubt, a false reading; it
should be “of you,” or YOUR .” The Greek is somewhat awkward, owing to the number of genitives,
but the order of the words is conclusive as to the meaning—the commandment of your Apostles (or
rather) of the Lord and Saviour. The commandment is at once a commandment of the Apostles and of
the Lord. “The Apostles of the Lord” must not be taken together, as in our version. The expression
“your Apostles” may be taken as a mark of genuineness rather than of the contrary. It is at least not
improbable that a true Apostle, having once stated his credentials (2 Peter 1:1 ), would sink his
own personality in the group of his colleagues from a feeling of humility and of delicacy towards those
whom he wasADDRESSING , especially when they owed their Christianity mainly to other
Apostles than himself. It is not improbable that a writer personating an Apostle would have insisted on
his assumed personality and personal authority here.
What commandment is meant? Surely not the whole Christian law; but either the command to beware
of falseTEACHERS (Matthew 7:15 ; Matthew 24:5 ; Matthew 24:11 ; Mark 13:22
; Romans 16:17 ;Ephesians 5:6 ; 2 Timothy 4:3 ), or, more probably, what is the main
subject of this Epistle, to be ready for Christ’s coming (Matthew 24:36-39 ; Mark 13:35-37
; Luke 12:40 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 ).
PULPIT, “That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy
prophets. "That ye may be mindful" is represented by one word in the Greek ( µνησθῆναι); compare
the exact parallel in Luke 1:72 . Great stress is laid on the word of prophecy in both Epistles (see 1
Peter 1:10-12 and 2 Peter 1:19 ). And of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and
Saviour; rather, as in the Revised Version, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through
your apostles. All the best manuscripts readὑµῶν here. It is a remarkable expression; but Christ's
apostles can be rightly called the apostles of those to whom they are sent, as being
theirTEACHERS , sent to them for their benefit; just as the angels of God are called also the angels
of Christ's little ones (Matthew 18:10 ). Compare also "the angels of the seven Churches" in the

20. Revelation. St. Peter shows an intimate knowledge of several of St. Paul's Epistles, and of that of St.
James; he is writing to the ChurchesADDRESSED in his First Epistle, most of which were founded
by St. Paul or his companions. We must therefore understand this passage, as well as verse 15 of this
chapter, as a distinct recognition of the apostleship of St. Paul. The translation of the Authorized
Version, "the apostles of the Lord and Saviour," involves a violent disturbance of the order; it seems
best to make both genitives depend on "commandment:" "your apostles' commandment of the Lord;"
the first genitive being that of announcement, the second of origin. The commandment was announced
by the apostles, but it was the Lord's commandment. (For the double genitive, comp. James
2:1 and Acts 5:32 . For the whole verse, see the parallel passage in Jud Acts 1:17 .)
COKE, “2 Peter 3:2 . That ye may be mindful, &c.— This is an allusion to what he had said ch. 2
Peter 1:12-21 where he had alleged the authority both of the prophets and apostles. By
the prophets are meant the Old Testament prophets, who are properly placed before the apostles of
Christ, as havingLIVED LONG before them. The prophets had foretold Christ's second coming.
See ch. 2 Peter 1:19 . The apostles had commanded the Christians steadfastly to look and
diligently to prepare for that day; and as there were now rising up scoffers, who ridiculed all
expectation of any such thing, it was highly proper to put them in mind of what they had formerly
learned. It was with equal propriety that St. Peter intimated whose apostles they were, when he took
notice of the commandment which they had given. When our Lord gave the apostles
theirCOMMISSION , he ordered them to teach men to observe whatsoever he had
commanded them. St. Peter here intimates, that they had kept to that order; and that the
commandment which they his apostles had delivered, was not their own, nor any other than the
commandment of Jesus Christ himself: and what Christian would dare to call in question such a
commandment? When men would move us from the truth or simplicity of the gospel, a careful
attention to the words of the apostles and prophets will be of eminent service to keep us steady to truth
and purity.
3 Above all, you must understand that in the last
days scoffers will come, scoffing and following
their own evil desires.
BARNES, “BARNES, “BARNES, “BARNES, “Knowing this first - As among the first and most important things to be
attended to - as one of the predictions which demand your special regard. Jude Jud_1:18
says that the fact that there would be “mockers in the last time,” had been particularly
foretold by thom. It is probable that Peter refers to the same thing, and we may suppose
that this was so well understood by all the apostles that they made it a common subject
of preaching.
That there shall come in the last days - In the last dispensation; in the period
during which the affairs of the world shall be wound up. The apostle does not say that

21. that was the last time in the sense that the world was about to come to an end; nor is it
implied that the period called “the last day” might not be a very long period, longer in
fact than either of the previous periods of the world. He says that during that period it
had been predicted there would arise those whom he here calls “scoffers.” On the
meaning of the phrase “in the last days,” as used in the Scriptures, see the Act_2:17 note;
Heb_1:2 note; Isa_2:2 note.
Scoffers - In Jude Jud_1:18 the same Greek word is rendered “mockers.” The word
means those who deride, reproach, ridicule. There is usually in the word the idea of
contempt or malignity toward an object. Here the sense seems to be that they would
treat with derision or contempt the predictions respecting the advent of the Saviour, and
the end of the world. It would appear probable that there was a particular or definite
class of men referred to; a class who would hold special opinions, and who would urge
plausible objections against the fulfillment of the predictions respecting the end of the
world, and the second coming of the Saviour - for those are the points to which Peter
particularly refers. It scarcely required inspiration to foresee that there would be
“scoffers” in the general sense of the term - for they have so abounded in every age, that
no one would hazard much in saying that they would be found at any particular time;
but the eye of the apostle is evidently on a particular class of people, the special form of
whose reproaches would be the ridicule of the doctrines that the Lord Jesus would
return; that there would be a day of judgment; that the world would be consumed by
fire, etc. Tillotson explains this of the Carpocratians, a large sect of the Gnostics, who
denied the resurrection of the dead, and the future judgment.
Walking after their own lusts - Living in the free indulgence of their sensual
appetites. See the notes at 2Pe_2:10, 2Pe_2:12, 2Pe_2:14, 2Pe_2:18-19.
CLARKE, “CLARKE, “CLARKE, “CLARKE, “Knowing this first - Considering this in an especial manner, that those
prophets predicted the coming of false teachers: and their being now in the Church
proved how clearly they were known to God, and showed the Christians at Pontus the
necessity of having no intercourse or connection with them.
There shall come - scoffers - Persons who shall endeavor to turn all religion into
ridicule, as this is the most likely way to depreciate truth in the sight of the giddy
multitude. The scoffers, having no solid argument to produce against revelation,
endeavor to make a scaramouch of some parts; and then affect to laugh at it, and get
superficial thinkers to laugh with them.
Walking after their own lusts - Here is the true source of all infidelity. The Gospel of
Jesus is pure and holy, and requires a holy heart and holy life. They wish to follow their
own lusts, and consequently cannot brook the restraints of the Gospel: therefore they
labor to prove that it is not true, that they may get rid of its injunctions, and at last
succeed in persuading themselves that it is a forgery; and then throw the reins on the
neck of their evil propensities. Thus their opposition to revealed truth began and ended
in their own lusts.
There is a remarkable addition here in almost every MS. and version of note: There shall
come in the last days, In Mockery, εν εµπαιγµονᇽ, scoffers walking after their own lusts.
This is the reading of ABC, eleven others, both the Syriac, all the Arabic, Coptic,
Ethiopic, Vulgate, and several of the fathers. They come in mockery; this is their spirit
and temper; they have no desire to find out truth; they take up the Bible merely with the
design of turning it into ridicule. This reading Griesbach has received into the text.
The last days - Probably refer to the conclusion of the Jewish polity, which was then at
hand.

22. GILL, “GILL, “GILL, “GILL, “Knowing this first,.... In the first place, principally, and chiefly, and which
might easily be known and observed from the writings of the apostles and prophets; see
1Ti_4:1;
that there shall come in the last days scoffers, or "mockers"; such as would make
a mock at sin, make light of it, plead for it, openly commit it, and glory in it; and scoff at
all religion, as the prejudice of education, as an engine of state, a piece of civil policy to
keep subjects in awe, as cant, enthusiasm, and madness, as a gloomy melancholy thing,
depriving men of true pleasure; and throw out their flouts and jeers at those that are the
most religious, for the just, upright man, is commonly by such laughed to scorn, and
those that depart from evil make themselves a prey; and particularly at the ministers of
the word, for a man that has scarcely so much common sense as to preserve him from
the character of an idiot, thinks himself a wit of the age, if he can at any rate break a jest
upon a Gospel minister: nor do the Scriptures of truth escape the banter and burlesque
of these scoffers; the doctrines of it being foolishness to them, and the commands and
ordinances in it being grievous and intolerable to them; yea, to such lengths do those
proceed, as to scoff at God himself; at his persons, purposes, providences, and promises;
at Jehovah the Father, as the God of nature and providence, and especially as the God
and Father of Christ, and of all grace in him; at Jehovah the Son, at his person, as being
the Son of God, and truly God, at his office, as Mediator, and at his blood, righteousness,
and sacrifice, which they trample under foot; and at Jehovah the Spirit, whom they do
despite unto, as the spirit of grace, deriding his operations in regeneration and
sanctification, as dream and delusion; and, most of all, things to come are the object of
their scorn and derision; as the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, a
future judgment, the torments of hell, and the joys of heaven; all which they represent as
the trifles and juggles of designing men: such as these, according to the prophets and
apostles, were to come in "the last days"; either in the days of the Messiah, in the Gospel
dispensation, the times between the first and second coming of Christ; for it is a rule
with the Jews (s), that wherever the last days are mentioned, the days of the Messiah are
intended; see Heb_1:1; when the prophets foretold such scoffers should come; or in the
last days of the Jewish state, both civil and religious, called "the ends of the world", 1Co_
10:11; a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, when iniquity greatly abounded, Mat_
24:11; or "in the last of the days"; as the words may be rendered; and so answer to ‫באחרית‬
‫,הימים‬ in Isa_2:2, and may regard the latter part of the last times; the times of the apostles were
the last days, 1Jo_2:18; they began then, and will continue to Christ's second coming; when some
time before that, it will be a remarkable age for scoffers and scorners; and we have lived to see an
innumerable company of them, and these predictions fulfilled; from whence it may be concluded,
that the coming of Christ is at hand: these scoffers are further described as
walking after their own lustswalking after their own lustswalking after their own lustswalking after their own lusts; either after the carnal reasonings of their minds, admitting of
nothing but what they can comprehend by reason, making that the rule, test, and standard of all
their principles, and so cast away the law of the Lord, and despise the word of the Holy One of
Israel; or rather, after their sinful and fleshly lusts, making them their guides and governors, and

23. giving up themselves entirely to them, to obey and fulfil them; the phrase denotes a continued
series of sinning, a progress in it, a desire after it, and pleasure in it, and an obstinate persisting in
it; scoffers at religion and revelation are generally libertines; and such as sit in the seat of the
scornful, are in the counsel of the ungodly, and way of sinners, Psa_1:1.
HENRY, “HENRY, “HENRY, “HENRY, “To quicken and excite us to a serious minding and firm adhering to what God
has revealed to us by the prophets and apostles, we are told that there will be scoffers,
men who will make a mock of sin, and of salvation from it. God's way of saving sinners
by Jesus Christ is what men will scoff at, and that in the last days, under the gospel. This
indeed may seem very strange, that the New Testament dispensation of the covenant of
grace, which is spiritual and therefore more agreeable to the nature of God than the Old,
should be ridiculed and reproached; but the spirituality and simplicity of New
Testament worship are directly contrary to the carnal mind of man, and this accounts for
what the apostle seems here to hint at, namely, that scoffers shall be more numerous and
more bold in the last days than ever before. Though in all ages those who were born and
walked after the flesh persecuted, reviled, and reproached those who were born and did
walk after the Spirit, yet in the last days there will be a great improvement in the art and
impudence of bantering serious godliness, and those who firmly adhere to the
circumspection and self-denial which the gospel prescribes. This is what is mentioned as
a thing well known to all Christians, and therefore they ought to reckon upon it, that
they may not be surprised and shaken, as if some strange thing happened unto them.
Now to prevent the true Christian's being overcome, when attacked by these scoffers, we
are told,
I. What sort of persons they are: they walk after their own lusts, they follow the
devices and desires of their own hearts, and carnal affections, not the dictates and
directions of right reason and an enlightened well-informed judgment. This they do
in the course of their conversation, they live as they list, and they speak as they list; it
is not only their inward minds that are evil and opposite to God, as the mind of every
unrenewed sinner is (Rom_8:7), alienated from God, ignorant of him, and averse to
him; but they have grown to such a height of wickedness that they proclaim openly
what is in the hearts of others who are yet carnal; they say, “Our tongues are our
own, and our strength, and time, and who is lord over us? Who shall contradict or
control us, or ever call us to an account for what we say or do?” And, as they scorn to
be confined by any laws of God in their conversation, so neither will they bear that
the revelation of God should dictate and prescribe to them what they are to believe;
as they will walk in their own way, and talk their own language, so will they also
think their own thoughts, and form principles which are altogether their own: here
also their own lusts alone shall be consulted by them. None but such accomplished
libertines as are here described can take a seat, at least they cannot sit in the seat of
the scornful. “By this you shall know them, that you may the better be upon your
guard against them.”
JAMISON, “JAMISON, “JAMISON, “JAMISON, “Knowing this first — from the word of the apostles.
shall come — Their very scoffing shall confirm the truth of the prediction.
scoffers — The oldest manuscripts and Vulgate add, “(scoffers) in (that is, ‘with’)
scoffing.” As Rev_14:2, “harping with harps.”

24. walking after their own lusts — (2Pe_2:10; Jud_1:16, Jud_1:18). Their own
pleasure is their sole law, unrestrained by reverence for God.
CALVIN, “CALVIN, “CALVIN, “CALVIN, “3.Knowing this first. The participle knowing may beAPPLIED to the Apostle, and in
this way, “I labor to stir you up for this reason, because I know what and how great is your impending
danger from scoffers.” I however prefer this explanation, that the participle is used in place of a verb,
as though he had said, “Know ye this especially.” For it was necessary that this should have been
foretold, because they might have been shaken, had impious men attacked them suddenly with scoffs
of this kind. He therefore wished them to know this, and to feel assured on the subject, that they might
be prepared to oppose such men.
But he calls the attention of the faithful again to the doctrine which he touched upon in the second
chapter. For by the last days is commonly meant the kingdom of Christ, or the days of his kingdom,
according to what Paul says, “Upon whom the ends of the world are come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11
.) (177)The meaning is, that the more GodOFFERS himself by the gospel to the world, and the
more he invites men to his kingdom, the more audacious on the other hand will ungodly men vomit
forth the poison of their impiety.
He calls those scoffers, according to what is usual in Scripture, who seek to appear witty by shewing
contempt to God, and by a blasphemous presumption. It is, moreover, the very extremity of evil, when
men allow themselves to treat the awful name of God with scoffs. Thus, Psalms 1:1 speaks of the
seat of scoffers. So David, in Psalms 119:51 , complains that he was derided by the proud,
because he attended to God’s law. So Isaiah, in Isaiah 28:14 , having referred to them, describes
their supineSECURITY and insensibility. Let us therefore bear in mind, that there is nothing to be
feared more than a contest with scoffers. On this subject we said something while explaining the third
chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians. As, however, the Holy Scripture has foretold that they would
come, and has also given us a shield by which we may defend ourselves, there is no excuse why we
should not boldly resist them whatever devices they may employ.
BENSON, “2 Peter 3:3 . Knowing this first — That your faith in the prophetic word may not be
shaken, but that you may be armed and prepared for the trial; that there shall come in the last days —
The expression here used, επ’εσχατου των ηµερων, is different from υστεροις
χρονοις, future, orlatter times, (1 Timothy 4:1 ,) and from εσχαταις ηµεραις, the last days, 2
Timothy 3:1 . It is also different from επ’ εσχατων των χρονων, these last times, 1 Peter
1:20 . And it probably means the last part of the days of the world’s duration. Scoffers
— Or mockers, who shall ridicule the expectation of such awful events, and deride the truths,
promises, and threatenings of the divine word; walking after their own lusts — Influenced by their
appetites and passions, and their earthly and sensual inclinations. Here the apostle has laid open the
true source of infidelity, and of men’s scoffing at religion. “They may pretend to religion,” as Dr. Benson
says, “but they are governed by sense and appetite, and they take refuge in infidelity, and scoff at
religion, to make themselves easy in their vices.” “When the apostle wrote this passage, there were
Epicureans and others among the Gentiles, and Sadducees among the Jews, who ridiculed the
promises of the gospel concerning the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, the destruction
of the earth, and a future state ofREWARDS and punishments. Wherefore, seeing the scoffers, of
whom St. Peter here speaks, had not yet appeared, but were to come in the last period of the duration
of the world, it is probable that they were to arise in the church itself. Accordingly they are reproved, (2
Peter 3:5 ,) for being wilfully ignorant of the MosaicHISTORY of the creation and of the deluge;
and Jude says, (Jude 1:18-19 ,) the scoffers separated themselves from other Christians, and had
not the Spirit, though they pretended to be inspired. The evil of scoffing at the doctrines and promises
of the gospel may be learned from Psalms 1:1 , where scoffing at religion is represented as the
highest stage of impiety.” — Macknight.

25. COFFMAN, “Wheaton declared that it is "likely"[11] that the mockers here are the same as the
falseTEACHERS of the preceding chapter; and Dummelow considered it "probable";[12] but the
view here is that they were almost certainly the same. This is indicated by two considerations: (1) They
are sensual characters, walking after their own lusts, as were the false teachers; and (2) they are
evidently people who were familiar with the "promise" of the Lord's coming, who hadINDEED once
believed it, but then became mockers. From this, the deduction is that the great apostasy is still under
consideration.
In the last days ... There is a difference in this expression from "latter times" (1 Timothy 4:1 ) "the
last days" (2 Timothy 3:1 );[12] from which Macknight concluded that, "Perhaps it means the last
part of the days of the world's duration."[13] There is also a marked difference in the attitude of those
mentioned in 2 Peter 2 and here. There, the approach is one of stealth and deception; here the
opposition is bold and challenging. "Anthropocentric hedonism always mocks at the idea of ultimate
standards and aFINAL division between the saved and the lost."[14]
[11] David H. Wheaton, op. cit., p. 1257.
[12] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p.
1052.
[13] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book
House, reprint, 1969), p. 560.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Michael Green, op. cit., p. 129.
BARCLAY, “THE DENIAL OF THE SECOND COMING (2 Peter 3:3-4 )
3:3-4TO BEGIN with, you are well aware that in the last days there will come mockers with their
mocking, guiding their steps by the law of their own lusts and saying, "What has happened to the
promise of his Coming? For, since the day when our fathers fell asleep, everything remains the same
as it was from the foundation of the world."
The characteristic of the heretics which worried Peter most of all was their denial of the Second
Coming of Jesus. Literally, their question was: "Where is the promise of his Coming?" That was a form
of Hebrew expression which implied that the thing asked about did notEXIST at all. "Where is the
God of justice?" asked the evil men of Malachi's day (Malachi 2:17 ). "Where isYOUR God?" the
heathen demanded of the Psalmist (Psalms 42:3 ; Psalms 79:10 ). "Where is the word of the
Lord?" his enemies asked Jeremiah (Jeremiah 17:15 ). In every case the implication of the
question is that the thing or the person asked about does not exist. The heretics of Peter's day were
denying that Jesus Christ would ever come again. It will be best here at theBEGINNING to
summarize their argument and Peter's answer to it.
The argument of Peter's opponents was twofold (2 Peter 3:4 ). "What has happened," they
demanded, "to the promise of the Second Coming?" Their first argument was that the promise had
been so long delayed that it was safe to take it that it would never be fulfilled. Their second assertion
was that their fathers had died and the world was going on precisely as it always did. Their argument
was that this was characteristically a stable universe and convulsive upheavals like the Second
Coming did not happen in such a universe.
Peter's response is also twofold. He deals with the second argument first (2 Peter 3:5-7 ). His
argument is that, in fact, this is not a stable universe, that once it was destroyed by water in the time of
the Flood and that a second destruction, this time by fire, is on the way.
The second part of his reply is in 2 Peter 3:8-9 . His opponents speak of a delay so long that they
can safely assume that the Second Coming is not going to happen at all. Peter's is a double answer.
(a) We must see time as God sees it. With him a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as
a day. "God does notPAY every Friday night." (b) In any event God's apparent slowness to act is not
dilatoriness. It is, in fact, mercy. He holds his hand in order to give sinning men another chance to