Relevant reading: 2 Peter 3:1–7, 10
After a brief review, Ken turns to the final chapter of 2 Peter and its themes of hope and judgment.
We all have a tendency to forget the most important truths that define us as followers of Jesus. Therefore, we need a continual reminder that we live in a hostile world. We do not belong to the world but to our Father’s house. This means that we are eternal beings. Our calling, then, is to live as ones who belong to God and are not defined by temporal things.
In a culture that spurns any authority except the authoritative self, we must consistently return to these foundational truths upon which we build our lives.
Have you ever heard the argument that you shouldn’t believe in miracles because it goes against our common experience? This is no new argument. Peter dealt with the same kind of uniformitarian philosophy. The false teachers of his day also mocked the idea of God’s intervention in human affairs. They refused to believe that God’s judgment would come upon them. Because everything continues as it always has, they argued, it will also continue that way.
But Peter has an answer, and, ironically, he defeats the mockers with their own reasoning.
The mockers base their unbelief in the apparent lack of God’s intervention in the past and present. But God has in fact intervened in cataclysmic ways. To prove this, Peter chooses the two historical examples of creation and the flood. These two events prove that God has the power both to create the world out of nothing and to intervene in and judge it. Therefore, we should anticipate a third cataclysmic event: the judgment of fire for the ungodly.
Moreover, when God has revealed his judgment in the past, it has always come suddenly and without warning. “They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:27)
Just as the flood came without warning, so Jesus will return like a thief in the night (2 Peter 3:10). Therefore, we must be ready at any moment, not presuming upon God’s patience, but living in light of our eternal home He is preparing for us.
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Watch part 11 of the series on 2 Peter. This teaching normally takes place Monday nights but is being taught virtually during closings related to COVID-19.
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