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Bible Study from 2 Peter 3:15-18
A final warning and a final plea!
By I Gordon
Introduction
2 Pet 3:15-18 “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
The last verses of 2 Peter chapter 3 are, in many ways, a recap of the two main themes from chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1, I’m sure you will recall, deals with Christian growth – growing in grace. Chapter 2 is about being on guard against false teachers. And it is these two thoughts that Peter wants to drive home just one more time before closing his letter. Now if Peter considered these two themes important enough to state them again in his closing, who am I to disagree? As he wanted to close his letter with one final warning and one final plea, then I will do the same.
Things
that go together…
Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation,
just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and
unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own
destruction.
There are people that distort the scriptures, just as Peter says above. Having recently been in a brief debate with an atheist, I was directed to one of the web sites that list the so-called “contradictions” in the Bible. Let me tell you that it was an absolute eye opener into the lengths some will go to, to try and escape from the reality of God.[1] Talk about distorting the word of God. Now, we should expect ignorance from an atheist when it comes to the Bible because they generally approach it with an agenda of manipulating what it says instead of genuinely wanting to meet its author. So we can expect ignorance there. But in its context, Peter isn’t talking about atheists or those that oppose the Bible when they distort it. Nope. In its context, Peter is writing about those that teach from the Bible. He is not talking about those outside the church, but some who find themselves on the inside and right up the front in the pulpit. This is why things get a little scarier. And it is also why there is a need to heed Peter’s final warning and final plea.
Now there are some things that always go together.[2] Peter tells us about these people saying that they are untaught and unstable. These two things go together. If you are untaught in the true ways of God, you will be unstable in your Christian life. You will always be chasing the next fad going from one thing to another. Untaught and unstable. This of course, is the same thought that Paul had in Ephesians 4:13 where he instructs us to grow into maturity in our Christian life so that we will
‘…no
longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there
by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their
deceitful scheming.’
The
final warning – Be on guard!
“Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.”
The final warning of 2 Peter is this – be
on your guard! Be careful and watchful for there are forces at work that would
like nothing more than for you to be drawn away from the truth of the word of
God. Friends, we live in a dangerous time. When the disciples asked Jesus about
the signs of the end time, the very first thing He replied with is “watch out
that no one deceives you.” (Matt 24:4) Today, more so than in any time, you
need to follow the advice of Paul in 1 Thes 5:21-22 where he says “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid
every kind of evil.”
So how do you test things? Well, good question and that will be addressed in this next section.
The
final plea – Grow in grace and knowledge
2 Pet 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen”
But!... But grow Peter tells us. Peter’s
final plea is that you would grow both in grace and in the knowledge of the
Lord Jesus.[3]
There is a way to avoid the problems and traps of the false teachers and
deception mentioned above. Grow! Now, in the natural, growing taller is pretty
normal for most people. I’m sure you’ve been successful to some degree! Given
the right environment of food, water, light and interaction we all seem to grow
physically without too much strain and effort on our part. Well, growing
spiritually is exactly the same. Given the right environment, growth will take
place automatically and naturally. There is a saying concerning the health of
your body that “you are what you eat”. Well, you are spiritually what you feed
on as well. You need to feed your spirit just as you feed your body for “man does not live on bread alone but on
every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.’ (Deut 8:3)
Here is where the Christian church faces one of its biggest challenges in this age. People are entertained, not fed. But Jesus, in re-commissioning Peter, didn’t tell him to ‘entertain my sheep’. No, He told Peter to ‘feed His sheep.’ (John 21:15-17) Every Shepherd of God’s people has the same commission. But it’s not just the responsibility of the Shepherds! Listen again to the word of the Lord –
“Come,
all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without
cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not
satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat
what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” (Isa
55:1-3)
The food that the Lord offers is without cost financially… but it will cost you in time. You need to spend time in His word, in His presence, to truly ‘eat what is good’. This isn’t fast food or take-away food! No, it will take some meditating…You will have to chew God’s word over spiritually, and not just gulp it down! It does take time. But as you do so, the promise of God to you is that you will ‘delight in the richest of fare.’
Amen!
Post Study Article:
I said above that we live in a difficult time. In many churches you don’t really even need to bring your Bible anymore. With this in mind, the following (tongue in cheek!) article has been used with permission from ‘The Sacred Sandwich’ website. It is very funny… well, it would be if it wasn’t so relevant.
http://www.sacredsandwich.com/headline5.htm
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RARE SIGHTING NEAR |
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Eerily reminiscent of the famous 1967 Bigfoot
picture (inset), a blurred figure carrying a Bible was recently caught on
film in a church parking lot in |
The scientific
community was rocked this month when new photographic evidence was presented
which appears to confirm the existence of a homonid species long considered
extinct by most experts: the elusive Bible-carrying churchgoer. The
photograph, taken by Clem Pilsner, is the first known sighting of the creature
in twenty years which anthropologists have officially named “Homo biblia sacra”
or “Suburban Bible
Pilsner, a window
washer from
Deacon Horatio
Boomer, an official spokesman for First Church of Ripley, refused to comment on
the sighting. “We don’t feel comfortable speculating on such fanciful
tales of fiction,” Boomer sternly announced before heading toward the church
building. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have to get the church ready for our
Left Behind reader’s group.”
In stark contrast
to the church’s apparent skepticism, the townspeople at Harry’s Diner were not
surprised at Pilsner’s shocking discovery. “We’ve been hearing about this
critter off and on for years,” waitress Gloria Philpot explained. “Last
year, when Stu Murray claimed he’d seen it over at the Catholic Church we
laughed him out of the diner. But when Clem interrupts his Sunday beer run
to snap a picture of the thing, you gotta take it seriously. We're just
glad he didn't have his gun at the time.”
While specialists
who have examined the photograph generally agree that the Pilsner photo is not
doctored, they cannot verify that the object in the creature’s hand is actually
a Bible. An FBI document analyst, Harold Tucker, has his doubts.
“We’ve had hundreds of sightings over the past three years,” Tucker explained,
“and inevitably they always turn out to be holding copies of The Purpose Driven
Life or The Prayer of Jabez.” Tucker’s conclusions so far?
“Considering the lack of suit and tie on the creature, my gut tells me we’re
possibly looking at an Xtreme Teen Bible, and not a King James.”
When asked if this
could be evidence of a new, evolved species of Homo biblia sacra, Tucker
replied, “Don't be stupid. Christians don’t believe in evolution.”