New Testament · General Letters
Remember and beware, false teachers inside, the Day arriving like a thief.
A short, urgent letter about teachers who have got inside the community, and about the specific taunt that the promise of Christ's return has obviously failed. The answer is that God does not measure time as we do, and that the delay is patience rather than absence, not wishing that any should perish. The letter is blunt about its opponents, borrowing heavily from Jude for its catalogue of them, and its authorship is among the most debated in the New Testament, with early Christian writers themselves expressing doubts. It closes with a remarkable aside, referring to Paul's letters as Scripture and admitting that there are things in them hard to understand, which is a relief to hear from that quarter.
If you remember one thing
Its answer to the delay of Christ's return is that a thousand years are as a day, and that the delay is mercy giving people time.
“The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9
2 Peter 1:20-21
No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. Read both as a claim about origin and as a claim about interpretation, and traditions weigh it differently.
Authorship
Doubts about whether Peter wrote it are ancient rather than modern, voiced by early Christian writers themselves, and are usually raised on the basis of style and its relationship to Jude.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
The one righteous man of his generation, who built a ship on dry ground on the strength of a warning about weather he had never seen. After the flood God set the rainbow as the sign of a covenant made with every living creature.
A diviner from the Euphrates hired to curse Israel, who could only say what God gave him to say, including one of the clearest messianic lines in the Torah. The Bible's later verdict on him is harsh: Numbers, Peter, Jude, and Revelation all treat him as the pattern of a religious professional who sells his gift.
Abraham's nephew, who traveled with him from Haran and then chose the well-watered Jordan plain when the two had to separate, settling near Sodom. Rescued from the city before its destruction, at the cost of his wife, who looked back.
A Galilean fisherman who spoke first and thought later, walked on water and sank, confessed Jesus as the Christ, denied him three times, and was restored on a beach over breakfast. He preached the sermon at Pentecost and opened the door of the church to Gentiles at Cornelius' house.
A quiz for 2 Peter is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
