Proud to be TJ's man

3:1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  In this passage we see clearly displayed the principles of preaching which Peter observed.

(1) 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.

(2) 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.

(3) He believed in the value of a compliment. The Greek word literally means “sun-judged.” A piece of pottery was “sun-judged” when it was held up to the sunlight in order to see any flaws or cracks. The thinking and intentions of God’s people must be able to stand up under scrutiny and not be led astray by immoral desires (Philippians 4:8–9). It is his intention to rouse their pure mind. 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.”

WHOLESOME MINDS If Peter were writing today, what concepts and ideas would he warn us against? He would warn us against beliefs that •      the difference between right and wrong is all a matter of personal choice. You ought to feel good about your beliefs and not offend anyone else’s choices. •      religion provides value only if it helps a person adjust to life and get a sense of self-worth. Religion that worries people is spooky and medieval. •      the worst sin is being intolerant of someone else’s ideas. After all, who are you to judge another person’s preferences? In contrast, Christians today believe that God is real, that God has spoken, that he is in control, and that all people should believe in him. Let God’s Word determine your thinking. He, not the world around us, sets our standards.

3:2 That you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. (4) He believed in the unity of Scripture. As he saw it there was a pattern in Scripture; and the Bible was a book centered 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.

Because God’s Word is true, we must pay attention to it and take its message seriously. New converts must be taught the Word and established in the doctrines of the faith, for new Christians are the false teacher’s primary targets. But older Christians must also be reminded of the importance of Bible doctrine and, in particular, the doctrines that relate to the return of Christ. Prophetic teaching must not lull us to sleep. Rather, it must awaken us to live godly lives and to seek to win the lost.

3:3 First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts. The “last days” began with Christ’s resurrection and will continue until his return.

The more the false teachers scoff, the more the Christians should be settled in their faith, knowing that this was only further assurance of Christ’s second coming.

SCOFFERS AND INQUIRERS In some churches, it’s considered discourteous to question anything. If you raise a question, you’re challenging authority and acting like a scoffer. Ironically, that kind of church is a scoffer’s dream-come-true. Where questions are not allowed, false teachers flourish like maggots in a garbage can. To inquire is a good thing. Inquirers raise honest, heartfelt questions; scoffers avoid real questions in favor of arguments that diminish God’s stature and ignore God’s Word. Inquirers want to know God better; scoffers want to hear themselves talk. While guarding against scoffers, healthy churches encourage inquirers. A church should never be a place where your mind closes down. Are you a scoffer or an inquirer?

3:4 And saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”  What is their argument? The uniformity of the world. “Nothing cataclysmic has happened in the past,” they argue, “so there is no reason to believe it will happen in the future.” They take the “scientific approach” by examining evidence, applying reason, and drawing a conclusion. The fact that they willfully ignore a good deal of evidence does not seem to disturb them.

The scientific approach works admirably in matters that relate to the material universe, but you cannot take Bible prophecy into a laboratory and treat it as though it were another hypothesis.

For that matter, the so-called “laws of science” are really only educated conclusions based on a limited number of experiments and tests. These laws are generalizations, always subject to change, because no scientist can perform an infinite number of experiments to prove his claim. Nor can he completely control all the factors involved in the experiments and in his own thinking.

3:5–6  They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water. What these scoffers were forgetting in their argument (that the world had remained unchanged since creation) was that God had created the world. The Creation disproves their “all things continue” argument because the creation of the earth was an imposed change on the formless void (Genesis 1:1–2). The very reason the world was continuing on in a stable, predictable pattern was because God, in his grace, had created it that way.

By the word of God the heavens were created (Genesis 1:6–8). By the word of God, an earth was formed out of water and by means of water (referring to the waters being gathered to allow the dry land to appear, Genesis 1:9–10).

However, this stability should not be taken for granted. The false teachers deliberately chose to ignore the fact that God had been involved in the world. For the waters that had parted in order to allow the dry land to appear had returned and covered the entire world—this was God’s judgment.

Peter continued:  By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.  As the creation was an act of God, so was the Flood. World refers to God’s judgment and destruction of the inhabitants of the world, not the world itself.

3:7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.  By God’s word, the heavens and the earth were created (3:5); by his word, the earth’s inhabitants were destroyed in judgment (3:6); by the same word God will bring future judgment and destruction. God had intervened before; he will intervene again.

But instead of destruction by water, Peter wrote that the heavens and earth have been reserved for fire. In Noah’s day the earth was judged by water; at the Second Coming it will be judged by fire.

Peter’s point was that destruction would come and the godless (those who have not believed) will not escape.

3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  Not only were they ignorant of what God had done in the past (2 Peter 3:5), but they were also ignorant of what God was like. When you study the works of God, especially in the Old Testament, you can see that He is never in a hurry, but He is never late.

He could have created the entire universe in an instant, yet He preferred to do it over a period of six days. He could have delivered Israel from Egypt in a moment, yet He preferred to invest eighty years in training Moses. For that matter, He could have sent the Savior much sooner, but He waited until “the fullness of the time was come” (Gal. 4:4). While God works in time, He is not limited by time.

To God, a thousand years is as one day, and one day as a thousand years. God can accomplish in one day what it would take others a millennium to accomplish! He waits to work, but once He begins to work, He gets things done!

The question still remained, “Why was the Lord delaying so long?”  Peter offered two reasons in 3:8–9. First of all, the Lord does not count time as people do. He is above and outside of the sphere of time. God sees all of eternity past and eternity future.

ANY DAY NOW To Christians wondering about God’s delayed return, Peter offers a three-part challenge. 1.    When has God ever failed to keep a promise? Never, and God will not fail now. 2.    When has God ever fulfilled a promise in quite the exact way all of us smart people think he should? Never. So don’t get too smart now. 3.    What could God possibly be waiting for? Well, look around at needy souls, lost without a Savior, ignorant of God’s promise. If you don’t have a tear in your eye, you’ve missed the point of God’s patience. Stop wondering; start spreading the word. Don’t let any human reasoning deter you from your hope and your duty.

3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The second reason for the Lord’s delay concerning His promise (the promise of his return) was not slackness. God was not tardy or late. Unlike people, God does not forget his promises, nor is he late in following through on them. Instead, the Lord is delaying his return because he is longsuffering and compassionate. He wants as many people as will to come to faith in him.

The Christian has three bold reasons for believing in His return: (1) He was once here (John 1:1-17; 1 John 1:1-3); (2) He has promised to return (John 14:1-3; Acts 1:10, 11; Revelation 22:12); (3) Jerusalem was destroyed (A.D. 70) and overridden by the Gentiles as Jesus prophesied would take place prior to His return (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). What Jesus foretold concerning Jerusalem has come to pass and cannot be denied.

Love is the reason that he delays the destruction of the world. God desires all people to be saved. He is not indifferent. God gave people free will. Some will exercise their free will and reject God, but this is not God’s desire.

God is loving, but he also executes perfect justice. His perfect love causes him to be merciful to those who recognize their sin and turn back to him, but he cannot ignore those who willfully sin.

God’s “delay” is actually an indication that He has a plan for this world and that He is working His plan. There should be no question in anybody’s mind whether God wants sinners to be saved.

1 Timothy 2:4 affirms that God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” These verses give both the negative and the positive, and together they assure us that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23, 32; 33:11). He shows His mercy to all (Rom. 11:32) even though not all will be saved.

 3:10   But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.  The day of the Lord is the day of Christ’s return and of God’s judgment on the earth. Peter explained that no matter how long it might take, the Day of the Lord will come, and it will come unexpectedly. We should live each day as though Christ could return at any moment. Christians must be morally clean and spiritually alert.

The Day of the Lord will be a time of judgment and destruction, for  the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

This is an extremely skeptical world. We live in extremely skeptical times. We are suspicious of everything. We tend to think that everything is guided by ulterior motives. We tend to believe that true openness and genuine honesty do not exist.

Our skepticism profoundly impacts the way we look at God. We do not place as much emphasis on what God said as on what God did not say. We are devoted to determining what God actually wants. We often attempt to determine God’s true desires by “reading between the lines.”

I sincerely doubt that any of us are capable of imagining the enormous frustration that we inflict on God.

Have you ever considered how easily God could have “given up” on humanity? Have you ever considered how easily God could have decided that one of the worst mistakes He ever made was creating humans with a free will?

If God were human, He would have cut His losses a long time ago. To me the greatest evidences that God is not human are seen in His patience, His forgiveness, and His mercy.

No human, not even the best of the best, can endure as much abuse, misrepresentation, and neglect as does God, and remain patient, forgiving, and merciful.

Important for us to relate more and more with the nature of God…important that we come to know Him as He really is. We begin with a strange text:

Abraham’s Bargain (Genesis 18:16-33). When God’s intentions regarding Sodom and Gomorrah becomes clear, Abraham is concerned because he has family down there. He begins bartering with God…think of his audacity….50…45…40…30…20 …10.

This is the very nature of God! He longs to save! The primary character of this text is not Abraham but God.

The Constant Refrain

(Exodus 34:6) “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”

God is a holy God and His nature is not to be taken for granted…but His nature is clearly revealed again…He wants to save!

Relate rebellious nature of the children of Israel and see the end result:

(Numbers 14:18) “‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'”

The law is read before a large group of people and, after standing for hours, they repented of their sins…and remembered God in the past and related it to their present:

(Nehemiah 9:17) “They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them…”

Psalmist complains about the abuse he’s taken in life:

(Psalms 86:15) “But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”

(Psalms 103:8-14) “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. {9} He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; {10} he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. {11} For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; {12} as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. {13} As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; {14} for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

This statement is like John 3:16 to the Jewish people……it is given as a constant reminder for the Israelites…..(Psalms 145:8) “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.”

(Joel 2:13) “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”

(Jonah 4:2) “He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

(Nahum 1:3) “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.”

What Patience Is/Is Not

Patience is “slow to anger” and “steadfastness.”

Patience is not: apathy or tolerance. God is holy and He will reckon eventually with the unholiness of man and his willful decisions…of his ignoring the teachings of God. “Whatever” will not be tolerated by God when all is made right on His timetable.

Patience With a Purpose

God’s patience is for the purpose of giving an opportunity to repent. (Romans 2:4) “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”

(2 Peter 3:9-10) “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. {10} But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”

Why has Christ not yet returned to earth? Because God loves man; He does not want any person to perish, not a single person. God is not slack in fulfilling His promise nor is He powerless to return and judge the earth. He has not returned for one reason and one reason only. He wants more and more people to come to repentance.

Very simply, God is slow to give in and to judge and condemn us. God loves and cares for us despite our sin and rebellion, cursing and rejection. This is the very reason He sent Christ to save us. He loves and cares for us; therefore, He is suffering a long time with us.

God wants no person to perish. To perish is a terrible thing. It means to be utterly lost and destroyed. It means to lose eternal life and to be cut off from life forever and ever.

It means to be spiritually destitute, completely empty of all good. It means to suffer the judgment, condemnation, and punishment of separation from God forever and ever. It means to be in a state of suffering forever and ever apart from God.

The point is this: God does not want us perishing; He does not want us cut off and separated from Him. God wants us to spend eternity with Him not apart from Him.

There are in this passage three great truths on which to nourish the mind and rest the heart.

Time is not the same to God as it is to man.  As the Psalmist had it:  “A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).

When we think of the world’s hundreds of thousands of years of existence, it is easy to feel dwarfed into insignificance; when we think of the slowness of human progress, it is easy to become discouraged into pessimism.

There is comfort in the thought of a God who has all eternity to work in.  It is only against the background of eternity that things appear in their true proportions and assume their real value.

We can also see from this passage that time is always to be regarded as an opportunity.  As Peter saw it, the years God gave the world were a further opportunity for men to repent and turn to him.  Every day which comes to us is a gift of mercy.  It is an opportunity to develop ourselves; to render some service to our fellow-men; to take one step nearer to God.

Finally, there is another echo of a truth which so often lies in the background of New Testament thought.  God, says Peter, does not wish any to perish.

Ever and again there shines in Scripture the glint of the larger hope.  We are not forbidden to believe that somehow and some time the God who loves the world will bring the whole world to himself.

A Word Straight to You and Me. God hasn’t and will never give up on you and me! It’s easy for us to think God acts toward us the way we act toward each other. We’ve all had people “give up on us” as a result of some disagreement or event. One of the great tragedies is when family “gives up on us.” The message today: God doesn’t give up on us.

Patience. God is often more patient with us than we are with ourselves. We assume that if we fall, we aren’t born again. If we stumble, then we aren’t truly converted. If we have the old desires, then we must not be a new creation.

If you are anxious about this, please remember, “God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again” (Phil. 1:6 ).^[1]

Closing comments

God’s people are to be patient. The psalmist learned to be patient when confronted with the prosperity of the wicked:

Psalm 37:1–3 (ESV) Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! ² For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. ³ Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Psalm 37:9–13 (ESV) For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. ¹⁰ In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. ¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. ¹² The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, ¹³ but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

Psalm 37:34–38 (ESV) Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off. ³⁵ I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree. ³⁶ But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found. ³⁷ Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. ³⁸ But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Christian love is patient (1 Cor. 13:4, 7).  Christians need patient endurance in the face of persecution. Perseverance is part of maturity (Jas. 1:2-4). Job’s perseverance is another example for suffering Christians (Jas. 5:11).

^[1] Lucado, M., & Gibbs, T. A. 2001, 1996. God’s inspirational promises . J. Countryman: Nashville, TN

We Americans do not handle delays very well. Our culture simply does not like to wait. Yet we wait less today than men have ever waited.

We travel at high speed waiting less to arrive at a distant place. Communica­tions which formerly took months now are completed in seconds. Meals which used to take hours to cook are now done in minutes in microwave ovens.

People used to have to wait until they had cash to purchase a new car or home. Now these things are bought on credit. We do not have to wait. Fewer and fewer people are willing to wait until marriage to enjoy the pleasures of sex. We Americans are not accustomed to waiting.

Men do not enjoy waiting for anything, or anyone, including God. But the trust is men have been waiting on God all through history.

Noah waited a good 100 years or so for the flood to come upon the earth (compare Genesis 5:32; 6:10; 7:6).

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for the birth of the son God had promised them (compare Genesis 12:4; 21:5).

Abraham did not even possess the promised land in his lifetime, and it was more than 400 years until his descendants took possession of it (compare Genesis 12:1-3; 15:12-16).

From their constant questions about the coming of our Lord’s kingdom, it was evident the disciples were not excited about waiting either.

When Jesus tarried three days before going to the place Lazarus had fallen sick and died, both Martha and Mary cautiously chided Jesus for coming too late (see John 11:21, 32).

God’s promises never come too late; in truth, they are never “late” at all. When the Scriptures indicate a time for God’s actions, the fulfillment is always precisely on time (see Exodus 12:40-41).

When Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would be expelled from the land and held captive in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12), the fulfillment of this prophecy would take place precisely at the end of 70 years. Knowing this, Daniel prayed accordingly (Daniel 9:1-3ff.).

Likewise, the birth of the Lord Jesus came about exactly on schedule (Galatians 4:4-5).

But there are mockers who seek to convince themselves and others that the promise of our Lord’s second coming is false based upon the passage of much time and compounded by no visible evidences that He will come at all.

A woman who worked for the Internal Revenue Service at times had to communicate with delinquent taxpayers.

On one occasion she called Anchorage and was patched through to a ham operator in the Aleutian Islands. Two hours later the ham operator raised the taxpayer’s home base and from there reached him at sea with his fishing fleet.

After the woman identified herself as being with the IRS in Utah, there was a long pause. Then over the static from somewhere in the North Pacific came: “Ha! Ha! Come and get me!” (In Reader’s Digest, “Life in These United States,” 10/82)

A lot of people scoff at God and the warning of His coming judgment like that fisherman scoffed at the IRS. They somehow think that either it will never happen because it hasn’t happened yet or that if it ever does happen, they’ll be okay.

And while few are so bold as openly to scoff at God and the judgment, many do so practically by living as if they will never stand before Him to give an account. The idea of facing Him in judgment is so far from their minds that it never affects how they live.

Mockers believe they have given God plenty of time to fulfill His promise to return and thus have now concluded that His time is up. “If He hasn’t come by now,” they say, “He simply isn’t coming.”

Another prevalent response: I read of a minister who was talking with a colleague about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The colleague said, “Well, if that’s the way God really is, then I’m not going to believe in Him!”

That is strange logic! Not believing in God doesn’t make Him go away. Yet I’ve often heard people dismiss God’s judgment by saying, “I believe in a God of love. He would never judge anyone, except maybe the worst of the worst of sinners.”

Or, some will say, “I don’t believe in the Old Testament God of judgment. I believe in Jesus, who never condemned anyone.”

Really? Jesus spoke more often and more graphically about hell than anyone else in the Bible. He used the story of Sodom’s destruction to warn about the final judgment when He returns (Luke 17:29-32).

The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals a God who will bring judgment on sinners, but who shows mercy to those who repent of their sins and trust in Him.

In our text, Peter wants his readers to know that although God’s judgment may be delayed, it is absolutely certain.

He uses three historical examples of judgment and two examples of God’s rescuing the righteous from judgment both to warn and to encourage.

The warning is, God will righteously judge all the ungodly. None will escape. The encouragement is, God will rescue the godly from judgment. Therefore, we should have the courage to stand firm in following God in an ungodly world.

The fallen angels (2:4). For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment.

We wish we knew more about the creation of the angels and the fall of Lucifer and his host, but most of these details are shrouded in mystery.

Many Bible students believe that Isaiah 14:12-15 describes the fall of Lucifer, the highest of the angels. Some students feel that Ezekiel 28:11-19 also deals with the same topic.

Revelation 12:4 suggests that perhaps one third of the angels fell with Lucifer, who became Satan, the adversary of God.

If God did not even spare his angels, neither will he spare the false teachers. Judgment will come. The angels who sinned were cast … into hell. That phrase in Greek is one word (used only here in the New Testament), literally meaning “to cast into Tartarus.”

In Greek mythology, Tartarus, located in the lowest part of the underworld, was the place of punishment of rebellious gods and the departed spirits of very evil people.

These angels were imprisoned in this hell, committed … to chains of deepest darkness.

It is not necessary to debate the hidden mysteries of this verse in order to get the main message: God judges rebellion and will not spare those who reject His will.

If God judged the angels, who in many respects are higher than men, then certainly He will judge rebellious men.

The old world (2:5). If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others. I think that with the flood we often get so hung up on the geologic issues or questions of how Noah could get all those animals on the ark that we miss the main point, namely, that the flood was a horrific judgment on the entire earth.

Everyone and everything that were not on the ark perished! The Bible uses the flood story as a warning to everyone since that time that a far worse future judgment is coming, when all the ungodly who are not “on board” Jesus Christ will perish eternally.

Yet even as God was destroying all the sinful people in Noah’s day, he powerfully protected those who followed him, eight people in all: Noah and seven of his relatives (his wife, three sons, and their wives, Genesis 8:16).

Genesis 6:3 indicates that God waited 120 years before He sent the Flood. All during that time, Noah ministered as a “herald” of God’s righteousness.

Nobody believed Noah’s message! Jesus made it clear that people were enjoying their normal lives up to the very day that Noah and his family entered the ark! (Luke 17:26-27).

No doubt there were plenty of “experts” who laughed at Noah and assured the people that a rainstorm was out of the question. Had anybody ever seen one? The apostates in Peter’s day used that same argument to “prove” that the Day of the Lord would not come (2 Peter 3:3ff).

God’s punishment is not arbitrary. Those who deserve punishment will receive his punishment; those who trust in him will receive his grace.

Peter’s readers should understand the comparison—those who choose the wrong path face eternal consequences.

If you want to read a description of the world before the Flood, read Romans 1:18ff.

CHOICES – The choices sound simple—follow God or rebellious humanity— but there was nothing simple about Noah’s decision.

• His faith in God gave him the reputation of an outcast, a fool. No one wants to feel that way today. We rely too readily on the approval of others.
• Noah invested all he had in God’s promise. He placed his entire family fortune, everything he had, inside that ark. Today, we rely on diversified portfolios to protect against uncertain markets. We don’t trust our financial security to God alone.
• Noah’s witness was entirely rejected. He convinced no one. As a preacher, he would have been regarded as a total failure.

If the choice between God and the world seems simple and clear, perhaps you have not counted the real cost.

When you compare our world with Noah’s world, you see some frightening parallels. The population was multiplying (Gen. 6:1), and the world was filled with wickedness (Gen. 6:5) and violence (Gen. 6:11, 13).

Lawlessness abounded. True believers were a minority, and nobody paid any attention to them! But the Flood came and the entire population of the world was destroyed. God does indeed judge those who reject His truth. The choices sound simple—follow God or rebellious humanity— but there was nothing simple about Noah’s decision.

Sodom and Gomorrah (2:6). If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

Genesis 18–19 describes the sinfulness of these cities and Abraham’s effort to keep them from being destroyed.

When not even ten righteous people could be found in the cities, God destroyed the cities by burning them to ashes: “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain” (Genesis 19:24–25).

After the conflagration, “Abraham … looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:27–28).

Lot’s future sons-in-law thought that he was joking when he warned them to flee the impending judgment.

These actions today are being condoned/praised rather than seen for what they represent. In what sense were their filthy deeds “unlawful”?

They were contrary to nature (see Rom. 1:24-27). The flagrant sin of Sodom and the other cities was unnatural sex, sodomy, or homosexual behavior, a sin that is clearly condemned in Scripture.

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In spite of Abraham’s intercessory prayer (Gen. 18:22ff) and Lot’s last-minute warning, the people of Sodom perished in fire and brimstone.

Peter states that God made the people of Sodom “an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.”

In other words, the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah was not a one-time oddity. It is in Scripture as a warning of the judgment to come.

2:9 Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

God has reserved the unjust for special punishment on that day of judgment. The false teachers may seem successful (for “many” follow them), but in the end, they will be condemned.

What a contrast between the false teachers and the true children of God! We have an inheritance reserved for us (1 Peter 1:4) because Jesus Christ is preparing a home for us in heaven (John 14:1-6).

Some people would have us believe that God will save all people because he is so loving. But it is foolish to think that God will cancel the last judgment. Don’t ever minimize the certainty of God’s judgment on those who rebel against him.

We have a lot of emphasis on tolerance of others and the self-help benefits of the Bible, but we must not dilute God’s clear words of warning. To turn away from God is to turn to ruin.

Conclusion. I read recently of a brochure that a funeral home printed and displayed on the day of a burial: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.” But they left out some crucial words: “shall not perish but have eternal life”!

Jesus didn’t come and die on the cross just to give us warm, fuzzy feelings about God’s love.

He offered Himself to pay the penalty for sin that we deserved to rescue us from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).

The preservation of Noah and the rescue of Lot give us the hope that if we trust in Christ and turn from our sins, and are immersed in water in order to have our sins forgiven, God will mercifully spare us from the judgment to come.

We Americans do not handle delays very well. Our culture simply does not like to wait. Yet we wait less today than men have ever waited.

We travel at high speed waiting less to arrive at a distant place. Communica­tions which formerly took months now are completed in seconds. Meals which used to take hours to cook are now done in minutes in microwave ovens.

People used to have to wait until they had cash to purchase a new car or home. Now these things are bought on credit. We do not have to wait. Fewer and fewer people are willing to wait until marriage to enjoy the pleasures of sex. We Americans are not accustomed to waiting.

Men do not enjoy waiting for anything, or anyone, including God. But the trust is men have been waiting on God all through history.

Noah waited a good 100 years or so for the flood to come upon the earth (compare Genesis 5:32; 6:10; 7:6).

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for the birth of the son God had promised them (compare Genesis 12:4; 21:5).

Abraham did not even possess the promised land in his lifetime, and it was more than 400 years until his descendants took possession of it (compare Genesis 12:1-3; 15:12-16).

From their constant questions about the coming of our Lord’s kingdom, it was evident the disciples were not excited about waiting either.

When Jesus tarried three days before going to the place Lazarus had fallen sick and died, both Martha and Mary cautiously chided Jesus for coming too late (see John 11:21, 32).

God’s promises never come too late; in truth, they are never “late” at all. When the Scriptures indicate a time for God’s actions, the fulfillment is always precisely on time (see Exodus 12:40-41).

When Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would be expelled from the land and held captive in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12), the fulfillment of this prophecy would take place precisely at the end of 70 years. Knowing this, Daniel prayed accordingly (Daniel 9:1-3ff.).

Likewise, the birth of the Lord Jesus came about exactly on schedule (Galatians 4:4-5).

God is never “late;” He is always “on time.”

But there are mockers who seek to convince themselves and others that the promise of our Lord’s second coming is false based upon the passage of much time and compounded by no visible evidences that He will come at all.

A woman who worked for the Internal Revenue Service at times had to communicate with delinquent taxpayers. On one occasion she called Anchorage and was patched through to a ham operator in the Aleutian Islands. Two hours later the ham operator raised the taxpayer’s home base and from there reached him at sea with his fishing fleet.

After the woman identified herself as being with the IRS in Utah, there was a long pause. Then over the static from somewhere in the North Pacific came: “Ha! Ha! Come and get me!” (In Reader’s Digest, “Life in These United States,” 10/82)

A lot of people scoff at God and the warning of His coming judgment like that fisherman scoffed at the IRS. They somehow think that either it will never happen because it hasn’t happened yet or that if it ever does happen, they’ll be okay.

And while few are so bold as openly to scoff at God and the judgment, many do so practically by living as if they will never stand before Him to give an account. The idea of facing Him in judgment is so far from their minds that it never affects how they live.

Mockers believe they have given God plenty of time to fulfill His promise to return and thus have now concluded that His time is up. “If He hasn’t come by now,” they say, “He simply isn’t coming.”

Another prevalent response: I read of a minister who was talking with a colleague about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The colleague said, “Well, if that’s the way God really is, then I’m not going to believe in Him!”

That is strange logic! Not believing in God doesn’t make Him go away. Yet I’ve often heard people dismiss God’s judgment by saying, “I believe in a God of love. He would never judge anyone, except maybe the worst of the worst of sinners.”

Or, some will say, “I don’t believe in the Old Testament God of judgment. I believe in Jesus, who never condemned anyone.”

Really? Jesus spoke more often and more graphically about hell than anyone else in the Bible. He used the story of Sodom’s destruction to warn about the final judgment when He returns (Luke 17:29-32).

The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals a God who will bring judgment on sinners, but who shows mercy to those who repent of their sins and trust in Him.

Peter saw no hope for these apostates/false teachers; their doom was sealed. His attitude was different from that of “tolerant” religious people today who say, “Well, they may not agree with us, but there are many roads to heaven.”

Peter made it clear that these false teachers had “forsaken the right way” (2 Peter 2:15), which simply means they were going the wrong way!

In our text, Peter wants his readers to know that although God’s judgment may be delayed, it is absolutely certain. He uses three historical examples of judgment and two examples of God’s rescuing the righteous from judgment both to warn and to encourage. The warning is, God will righteously judge all the ungodly. None will escape. The encouragement is, God will rescue the godly from judgment. Therefore, we should have the courage to stand firm in following God in an ungodly world.

Since God judges all the ungodly and mercifully saves the godly, we should stand firm in following Him and resist all false teaching.

In this section, Peter proved that judgment finally does come, no matter how secure the sinner might feel. He used three examples to verify this truth (see also Jude 6-8).

The fallen angels (2:4). For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment.

We wish we knew more about the creation of the angels and the fall of Lucifer and his host, but most of these details are shrouded in mystery.

Many Bible students believe that Isaiah 14:12-15 describes the fall of Lucifer, the highest of the angels. Some students feel that Ezekiel 28:11-19 also deals with the same topic.

Revelation 12:4 suggests that perhaps one third of the angels fell with Lucifer, who became Satan, the adversary of God.

If some people still did not believe in future judgment and punishment, Peter gave examples of how God had judged evil in the past.

If God did not even spare his angels, neither will he spare the false teachers. Judgment will come. The angels who sinned were cast … into hell. That phrase in Greek is one word (used only here in the New Testament), literally meaning “to cast into Tartarus.”

In Greek mythology, Tartarus, located in the lowest part of the underworld, was the place of punishment of rebellious gods and the departed spirits of very evil people.

These angels were imprisoned in this hell, committed … to chains of deepest darkness.

False teachers will face the same judgment as the rebellious angels. Where are these fallen angels now? We know that Satan is free and at work in the world (1 Peter 5:8), and that he has an army of demonic powers assisting him (Eph. 6:10-12), who are probably some of the fallen angels.

It is not necessary to debate the hidden mysteries of this verse in order to get the main message: God judges rebellion and will not spare those who reject His will.

If God judged the angels, who in many respects are higher than men, then certainly He will judge rebellious men.

The old world (2:5). If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others. I think that with the flood we often get so hung up on the geologic issues or questions of how Noah could get all those animals on the ark that we miss the main point, namely, that the flood was a horrific judgment on the entire earth.

Everyone and everything that were not on the ark perished! The Bible uses the flood story as a warning to everyone since that time that a far worse future judgment is coming, when all the ungodly who are not “on board” Jesus Christ will perish eternally.

Peter referred to the Flood three times in his two letters (see 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:6). God did not spare the ancient world—for the great sinfulness of all mankind led him to destroy the entire rebellious civilization.

Yet even as God was destroying all the sinful people in Noah’s day, he powerfully protected those who followed him, eight people in all: Noah and seven of his relatives (his wife, three sons, and their wives, Genesis 8:16).

Genesis 6:3 indicates that God waited 120 years before He sent the Flood. All during that time, Noah ministered as a “herald” of God’s righteousness. If you want to read a description of the world before the Flood, read Romans 1:18ff.

Salvation had been available to everyone (Peter described Noah as a preacher of righteousness); however, few had chosen to believe.

Gentile civilization had become so corrupt that it was necessary for God to wipe the earth clean. He saved only eight people, Noah and his family, because they had faith in God (Heb. 11:7).

But nobody believed Noah’s message! Jesus made it clear that people were enjoying their normal lives up to the very day that Noah and his family entered the ark! (Luke 17:26-27).

No doubt there were plenty of “experts” who laughed at Noah and assured the people that a rainstorm was out of the question. Had anybody ever seen one? The apostates in Peter’s day used that same argument to “prove” that the Day of the Lord would not come (2 Peter 3:3ff).

God’s punishment is not arbitrary. Those who deserve punishment will receive his punishment; those who trust in him will receive his grace. Peter’s readers should understand the comparison—those who choose the wrong path face eternal consequences.

CHOICES – The choices sound simple—follow God or rebellious humanity— but there was nothing simple about Noah’s decision.

• His faith in God gave him the reputation of an outcast, a fool. No one wants to feel that way today. We rely too readily on the approval of others.
• Noah invested all he had in God’s promise. He placed his entire family fortune, everything he had, inside that ark. Today, we rely on diversified portfolios to protect against uncertain markets. We don’t trust our financial security to God alone.
• Noah’s witness was entirely rejected. He convinced no one. As a preacher, he would have been regarded as a total failure.

Today, we smartly pick careers that provide significant incentive and reward. Who would decide to invest his or her life when there are no observable results to be gained?

If the choice between God and the world seems simple and clear, perhaps you have not counted the real cost. Very few counselors today will advise the Noah track. It’s just too risky. But there really is no other choice!

When you compare our world with Noah’s world, you see some frightening parallels. The population was multiplying (Gen. 6:1), and the world was filled with wickedness (Gen. 6:5) and violence (Gen. 6:11, 13).

Lawlessness abounded. True believers were a minority, and nobody paid any attention to them! But the Flood came and the entire population of the world was destroyed. God does indeed judge those who reject His truth. The choices sound simple—follow God or rebellious humanity— but there was nothing simple about Noah’s decision.

Sodom and Gomorrah (2:6). If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. A third example of God’s certain punishment of evil is the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18–19 describes the sinfulness of these cities and Abraham’s effort to keep them from being destroyed.

When not even ten righteous people could be found in the cities, God destroyed the cities by burning them to ashes: “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain” (Genesis 19:24–25).

After the conflagration, “Abraham … looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:27–28).

Lot’s future sons-in-law thought that he was joking when he warned them to flee the impending judgment.

In what sense were their filthy deeds “unlawful”? They were contrary to nature (see Rom. 1:24-27). The flagrant sin of Sodom and the other cities was unnatural sex, sodomy, or homosexual behavior, a sin that is clearly condemned in Scripture (Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:24-27; 1 Cor. 6:9).

In spite of Abraham’s intercessory prayer (Gen. 18:22ff) and Lot’s last-minute warning, the people of Sodom perished in fire and brimstone.

Ezekiel (16:49) also informs us that the people of Sodom were arrogant and had abundant food and ease, but they did not help the poor.

Peter states that God made the people of Sodom “an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.”

In other words, the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah was not a one-time oddity. It is in Scripture as a warning of the judgment to come.

Having cited these three examples of certain judgment, Peter then applied the lesson to the subject at hand, the false teachers

2:9 Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

God has reserved the unjust for special punishment on that day of judgment. The false teachers may seem successful (for “many” follow them), but in the end, they will be condemned.

What a contrast between the false teachers and the true children of God! We have an inheritance reserved for us (1 Peter 1:4) because Jesus Christ is preparing a home for us in heaven (John 14:1-6).

Some people would have us believe that God will save all people because he is so loving. But it is foolish to think that God will cancel the last judgment. Don’t ever minimize the certainty of God’s judgment on those who rebel against him.

We have a lot of emphasis on tolerance of others and the self-help benefits of the Bible, but we must not dilute God’s clear words of warning. To turn away from God is to turn to ruin.

Conclusion. I read recently of a brochure that a funeral home printed and displayed on the day of a burial: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.” But they left out some crucial words: “shall not perish but have eternal life”!

Jesus didn’t come and die on the cross just to give us warm, fuzzy feelings about God’s love.

He offered Himself to pay the penalty for sin that we deserved to rescue us from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).

The preservation of Noah and the rescue of Lot give us the hope that if we trust in Christ and turn from our sins, and are immersed in water in order to have our sins forgiven, God will mercifully spare us from the judgment to come.

e.

When you think of cruelty, you probably think of terrorists blowing up innocent people or of evil parents abusing a little child. But you probably wouldn’t think of false prophets.

John MacArthur writes, “Nothing is more wicked than for someone to claim to speak for God to the salvation of souls when in reality he speaks for Satan to the damnation of souls.”

It’s interesting that in 2 Peter 2 there are no direct exhortations or commands. Rather, Peter just describes the false teachers and their evil ways at length.

It’s as if he is holding up a Most Wanted Poster with some hideous, evil-looking characters, saying, “This is what these guys look like, so watch out for them!”

One of the most successful rackets in the world today is that of selling “fake art.” Even some of the finest galleries and private collections have been invaded by paintings that are clever counterfeits of the great masters.

But counterfeits are nothing new. Satan is the “great imitator” (2 Cor. 11:13-15), and he has been hard at work ever since he deceived Eve in the Garden (Gen. 3:1-7).

He has false Christians (Matt. 13:38; John 8:44), a false gospel (Gal. 1:6-9), and even a false righteousness (Rom. 9:30-10:4).

The nation Israel was constantly being led astray by false prophets. Elijah had to contend with the prophets of Baal when they promoted a pagan religion.

It was the Jewish false prophets who did the most damage, for they claimed to speak for Jehovah God.

Why do people follow the pseudo-prophets? Because the religion of the false prophets was easy, comfortable, and popular. The fact that the false prophets preached a false peace did not worry the people (Jer. 6:14). That was the message they wanted to hear!

Jesus had told the disciples that false teachers would come:

• “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15–16).
• “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray” (Matthew 24:11).

Peter spared no words against these false teachers, explaining their evil characteristics and motives, the danger of their teaching, and the certainty of their fate.

The church has done a great deal to identify false teachers and cults today, so what dangers do we face?

False teachers today may be the ones who ignore or leave out elements of scriptural teaching such as:

• warnings about Christ’s second coming
• dangers of cultural infiltration into our lifestyles through materialism and secularism
• pitfalls of sexual immorality and greed.

Peter presented three aspects of this subject of false teachers in the church.

1. Beware of false teachers because they are a perpetual threat to God’s people

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you ….” The first phrase refers back to the history of God’s people in the Old Testament.

It is true that Christians have wrongly divided over minor doctrinal disputes, personality conflicts, and other petty issues. Such divisions are sin.

But it is also a sin to minimize doctrine to the point where in the name of love and unity, we tolerate false teachers who deny the fundamental doctrines of the faith.

1. C. Ryle: “Controversy in religion is a hateful thing. It is hard enough to fight the devil, the world and the flesh, without private differences in our own camp. But there is one thing which is worse than controversy—and that is false doctrine tolerated, allowed, and permitted without protest …. Three things there are which men never ought to trifle with—a little poison, a little false doctrine, and a little sin.”

2. Beware of false teachers because their methods are subtle and deceptive.

Peter says (v. 1) that these false teachers “will secretly introduce destructive heresies.” They will use (v. 3) “false words.”

We get our word “plastic” from the Greek word for “false.” It meant, “made up,” or “fabricated.”

The false teachers were accusing Peter and the apostles of following “cleverly devised tales” (1:16), but Peter counters by saying that they are making up their own stories and doctrines.

In contrast to the inspired prophets and apostles, who wrote down God’s revealed truth in His Word, these false teachers were tools of Satan to promote deception.

The Greek word translated “secretly introduce” means to bring in from outside. They add worldly concepts to the Bible and give them the same authority as Scripture.

False teachers often use Scripture, but they twist it by bringing in teaching from outside to pervert the true meaning of Scripture. Often, they are not up-front about their agenda.

They cleverly work in a little error here and another error there, until they have taken people into a complete denial of the gospel. Paul warned that just as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, even so his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:13-15). But they use subtlety and deception to gain followers.

3. Beware of false teachers because their doctrine is destructive.

Peter calls their teaching, “destructive heresies.” The word heresy originally was a neutral term that referred to a school of thought or a teaching. It can also refer to factions or divisions within the church (Gal. 5:20; 1 Cor. 11:18; Titus 3:10).

But by adding the word “destructive,” Peter shows that he is talking about seriously wrong doctrine that destroys lives and churches and, if unchecked, leads to eternal judgment.

Peter takes us to the root of their destructive heresy when he adds (2:1), “even denying the Master who bought them.” Master is a strong word for Sovereign or Owner.

We get our word “despot” from it, but in New Testament times it did not have the negative connotation that “despot” has in our language.

It was used for the earthly master of slaves or to emphasize God’s absolute lordship.

Here (and in Jude 4) it refers to Jesus Christ. These false teachers were denying, both by their teaching and lifestyle, the lordship of Jesus Christ as the rightful owner of His people.

If someone claims that you can believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and yet not submit to Him as Lord, it is destructive doctrine. It deceives people into thinking that they are saved because they “accepted Christ through baptism.”

But Jesus said that He will say to such people, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). They will be damned because their lives denied “the Master who bought them.”

4. Beware of false teachers because their influence is alluring.

“Many will follow their sensuality…” (2:2). They had a large following. They were “successful!”

It’s amazing how the Christian world thinks that if a man has a huge following, he must be sound in the faith. If he builds a megachurch, the Christian world looks to him as a leader, without questioning what he teaches.

These false teachers invariably cater to the flesh. They do not preach against sin. They do not mention divine judgment or hell.

They avoid truths like denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Christ no matter what the cost.

Rather, they soothe people with uplifting thoughts about how much God loves you and wants you to have your best life now.

If they ever mention the death of Christ, they say that He did it because He believed in your great worth. Now you need to believe in yourself and ask God to help you fulfill your dreams. People follow that kind of false teaching by the droves, because it feeds their pride.

5. Beware of false teachers because their motives are impure.

Peter shows that these men are driven by two related evil motives: sensuality and greed. At the root of both of these is their own self-centeredness and pride. They want to exploit their followers to gratify themselves.

There is always a connection between false doctrine and impure living. Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out which came first, but invariably, they are intertwined.

False doctrine leads to ungodly living, but the reverse is also true. If a man gets involved in sexual sin, the Bible convicts him. So he has to change the teaching somehow to dodge his guilty conscience.

6. Beware of false teachers because their teaching and lifestyles result in dishonor to the way of the truth.

Peter says (2:2), “because of them the way of the truth will be maligned.”

The Christian faith is the way of the truth because Jesus Himself is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

But when professing Christians, and especially professing Christian leaders, do not live according to the truth of God’s Word, unbelievers mock and disregard the truth.

The TV preachers who live lavishly while milking their audiences for more money and the well-known pastors who get exposed in sex scandals cause the world to scoff at the faith. Steer clear of them all!

7. Beware of false teachers because they and all that follow them are heading toward eternal destruction.

Peter uses the word “destruction” 5 of the 18 times that it appears in the New Testament.

He adds (v. 3), “their judgment from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.”

He also uses the word in 3:7 in reference to “the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly men” and again in 3:17, where he says that the false teachers twist the Scriptures “to their own destruction.”

The fact that many follow the evil example of their conduct is proof that people would rather follow the false than the true, the sensual rather than the spiritual.

These false teachers are very successful in their ministry:

• They have glowing statistics to report and crowds gather to hear them!
• They flatter sinners and tell them the kind of ego-building words that they want to hear.

Religion can be a tremendous tool for exploiting weak people, and these false teachers use religion just to get what they can. They are not ministers; they are merchandisers.

The true minister of Jesus Christ has nothing to hide: his life and ministry are an open book. He preaches the truth in love and does not twist the Scriptures to support his own selfish ideas.

The false teachers are not dummies. Their “made-up” stories were not so ridiculous that gullible people would dismiss them as jokes. The false teachers were probably experts at stretching the truth … until the final product was no longer the truth.

We have in the church today two kinds of false teachers. First, there are those who “loose” what God has “bound.” (See Matthew 16:19 and 18:18.)

That is, they teach as unnecessary some things that in God’s sight are essential.

Second, there are those who would “bind” what God has “loosed.” That is, they teach as necessary some things that God did not make essential.

I call this “Jesus +.

Safeguards will help along the way:

• Pay attention to the teacher’s ethical and moral behavior. The Bible stresses that false teachers will have immorality in their lives. Watch how they treat people and money. Don’t excuse or cover up bad behavior.
• Choose your church carefully. Is the living Christ at the center of your church’s ministry? Do leaders pray? Is the Bible honored and taught? Is God at work there?

“False” churches may be very busy, but their teaching reveals the void when Christ and the Bible are pushed to the side. If that is the case, go somewhere else.

Tired of a boring, do-nothing religion—the kind that shuffles into a pew on Sunday and stays awake by thinking about what what you have to do when you get home that afternoon?

Peter has a deal for us. “Off the couch,” he says. “Let’s start growing’.”

These eight qualities move us from couch-potato faith (lots of bulk, not much activity) to marathon faith (lean, mean, light, strong, and on the move).

Peter gives us a plan for moral development, but he gives us few clues for how we should present these truths to others.

The only clue seems to be that the eight virtues are presented in four pairs, indicating that one virtue develops out of the other. So we know they are progressive and active.

Some have explained the relationship of these virtues to each other like steps or rungs on a ladder. We must reach one in order to progress to the next. Others see them as spokes of a wheel to be developed simultaneously.

Perhaps they are like the Russian dolls, where each contains a smaller box inside of the other. This would indicate that to discover the next virtue, we must realize and express the prior one.

• We must fully cooperate with God, using all diligence in developing each characteristic.
• We can meditate and ask God for discernment for how we should understand and apply each one.
• In areas where we are weak, we can double our efforts to exemplify the virtue.

The Christian Life Begins with Faith (2 Peter 1:1-4). “Faith” is, of course, the first characteristic, for without it, Christians are no different from the pagans in the world around them.

The faith Peter referred to is faith in Christ, faith that brings them into the family of God. While people might have some of the following characteristics by nature, those are worthless in eternity without being grounded in faith.

Peter called it “like precious faith.” It means that our standing with the Lord today is the same as that of the Apostles centuries ago. They had no special advantage over us simply because they were privileged to walk with Christ, see Him with their own eyes, and share in His miracles.

Faith Results in Spiritual Growth (2 Peter 1:5-7). Where there is life, there must be growth. The new birth is not the end; it is the beginning. God gives His children all that they need to live godly lives, but His children must apply themselves and be diligent to use the “means of grace” He has provided.

Peter now lists seven characteristics of the godly life.

These graces relate to each other the way the branch relates to the trunk and the twigs to the branch. Like the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22-23), these qualities grow out of life and out of a vital relationship with Jesus Christ.

The first quality of character Peter listed was virtue. It basically means “excellence.” To the Greek philosophers, it meant “the fulfillment of a thing.” When anything in nature fulfills its purpose, that is “virtue—moral excellence.”

The word was also used to describe the power of the gods to do heroic deeds. The land that produces crops is “excellent” because it is fulfilling its purpose. The tool that works correctly is “excellent” because it is doing what a tool is supposed to do.

A Christian is supposed to glorify God because he has God’s nature within; so, when he does this, he shows “excellence” because he is fulfilling his purpose in life. True virtue in the Christian life is not “polishing” human qualities, no matter how fine they may be, but producing divine qualities that make the person more like Jesus Christ.

Faith helps us develop virtue, and virtue helps us develop knowledge (2 Peter 1:5).

The word translated “knowledge” in 2 Peter 1:2-3 means “full knowledge” or “knowledge that is growing.” The word used here suggests practical knowledge or discernment.

It refers to the ability to handle life successfully. It is the opposite of being “so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good!” This kind of knowledge does not come automatically.

Knowledge leads to patience and patience leads to self-control.

Knowledge can leads us to be cruel in applying scripture to others in our teaching. It could easily cause us to be arrogant or conceited.

Self control helps us to be tender, kind, discerning in our application of God’s word, to self and especially to others.

Patience is the ability to endure when circumstances are difficult.

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Prov. 16:32).

“He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls” (Prov. 25:28).

Patience is not something that develops automatically; we must work at it. God uses difficult people or difficult situations to develop this quality.

Whatever happened to self-control? Many books and speakers guide wandering souls to self-fulfillment, self-satisfaction, and self-awareness. Not many tackle self-control.

Self-control requires an honest look at our strengths and weaknesses, with emphasis on the latter. It means building the will to say no when a powerful appetite inside you screams yes.

To self-control, add godliness: “God-likeness.”

In the original Greek, this word meant “to worship well.” It described the man who was right in his relationship with God and with his fellowman.

Perhaps the words reverence and piety come closer to defining this term.

It is that quality of character that makes a person distinctive. He lives above the petty things of life, the passions and pressures that control the lives of others.

He seeks to do the will of God and, as he does, he seeks the welfare of others.

We must never get the idea that godliness is an impractical thing, because it is intensely practical. The godly person makes the kinds of decisions that are right and noble.

He does not take an easy path simply to avoid either pain or trial. He does what is right because it is right and because it is the will of God.

To godliness, add brotherly kindness: a virtue that Peter must have acquired the hard way, for the disciples of our Lord often debated and disagreed with one another.

If we love Jesus Christ, we must also love the our brothers and sisters in Christ.

“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love” (Rom. 12:10).

The fact that we love our brothers and sisters in Christ is one evidence that we have been born of God (1 John 5:1-2).

But there is more to Christian growth than brotherly love; we must also have the sacrificial love that our Lord displayed when He went to the cross.

The kind of love (“charity”) spoken of in 2 Peter 1:7 is agape love, the kind of love that God shows toward lost sinners.

This is the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13, the love that the Holy Spirit produces in our hearts as we walk in the Spirit (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22).

When we have brotherly love, we love because of our likeness to others; but with agape love, we love in spite of the differences we have.

It is impossible for fallen human nature to manufacture these seven qualities of Christian character.

They must be produced by the Spirit of God.

To be sure, there are unsaved people who possess amazing self-control and endurance, but these virtues point to them and not to the Lord. They get the glory.

When God produces the beautiful nature of His Son in a Christian, it is God who receives the praise and glory.

Spiritual Growth Brings Practical Results (2 Peter 1:8-11) How can the believer be certain that he is growing spiritually? Peter gave three evidences of true spiritual growth.

Fruitfulness (v. 8).

Christian character is an end in itself, but it is also a means to an end. The more we become like Jesus Christ, the more the Spirit can use us in witness and service.

The believer who is not growing is idle (“barren”) and unfruitful. His knowledge of Jesus Christ is producing nothing practical in his life.

The word translated “idle” also means “ineffective.” The people who fail to grow usually fail in everything else!

Some of the most effective Christians I have known are people without dramatic talents and special abilities, or even exciting personalities; yet God has used them in a marvelous way.

Why? Because they are becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. They have the kind of character and conduct that God can trust with blessing. They are fruitful because they are faithful; they are effective because they are growing in their Christian experience.

These beautiful qualities of character do exist “within us” because we possess the divine nature. We must cultivate them so that they increase and produce fruit in and through our lives.

Vision (v. 9).

Nutritionists tell us that diet can certainly affect vision and this is especially true in the spiritual realm. The unsaved person is in the dark because Satan has blinded his mind (2 Cor. 4:3-4). A person has to be born again before his eyes are opened and he can see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

But after our eyes are opened, it is important that we increase our vision and see all that God wants us to see. The phrase cannot see afar off is the translation of a word that means “shortsighted.” It is the picture of somebody closing or squinting his eyes, unable to see at a distance.

There are some Christians who fail to see the greatness of God’s family around the world. Some believers see the needs at home but have no vision for a lost world.

Jesus admonished His disciples, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).

Some congregations today are like the church at Laodicea: they are proud that they are “rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” and do not realize that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). It is a tragedy to be “spiritually nearsighted,” but it is even a greater tragedy to be blind!

If we forget what God has done for us, we will not be excited to share Christ with others. Through the blood of Jesus Christ we have been purged and forgiven!

God has opened our eyes! Let’s not forget what He has done! Rather, let’s cultivate gratitude in our hearts and sharpen our spiritual vision.

Life is too brief and the needs of the world too great for God’s people to be walking around with their eyes closed!

Security (vv. 10-11).

If you walk around with your eyes closed, you will stumble! But the growing Christian walks with confidence because he knows he is secure in Christ.

It is not our profession of faith that guarantees that we are saved; it is our progression in the faith that gives us that assurance.

The person who claims to be a child of God but whose character and conduct give no evidence of spiritual growth is deceiving himself and heading for judgment.

While it is true that God must work in us before we can do His will (Phil. 2:12-13), it is also true that we must be willing for God to work, and we must cooperate with Him.

Divine election must never be an excuse for human laziness.

The Christian who is sure of his election and calling will never “stumble” but will prove by a consistent life that he is truly a child of God.

He will not always be on the mountaintop, but he will always be climbing higher.

In fact, the growing Christian can look forward to “an abundant entrance” into the eternal kingdom!

The Greeks used this phrase to describe the welcome given Olympic winners when they returned home.

The word ministered in 2 Peter 1:11 is the same as the word add in 2 Peter 1:5, and is the translation of a Greek word that means “to bear the expenses of a chorus.”

When the Greek theatrical groups presented their dramas, somebody had to underwrite the expenses, which were very great. The word came to mean “to make lavish provision.”

If we make lavish provision to grow spiritually (2 Peter 1:5), then God will make lavish provision for us when we enter heaven!

Just think of the blessings that the growing Christian enjoys: fruitfulness, vision, security—and heaven’s best! All this and heaven too!

The Christian life begins with faith, but that faith must lead to spiritual growth—unless it is dead faith. But dead faith is not saving faith (James 2:14-26). Faith leads to growth and growth leads to practical results in life and service. People who have this kind of Christian experience are not likely to fall prey to apostate false teachers.

 

One of the most crucial lessons to learn as a Christian is how to handle suffering. In this fallen world, suffering is a certainty.

It may be the physical suffering that goes with living in these frail bodies that get sick and die. It may be the grief of watching a loved one suffer and die.

It may be problems stemming from your own sin or from others’ sins against you. It may be the common pressures of life, of providing a living and wondering how you’re going to pay all the bills.

It may be the emotional suffering of struggling with feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, anger, worry, or fear.

But wherever it comes from, suffering is inevitable. And, it can make you grow bitter or better, depending on how you handle it.

It is significant that in Jesus’ parable of the sower, two of the three soils that failed to produce a crop represent people who did not know how to handle suffering.

The rocky soil, Jesus explained, pictures those who receive the word joyfully at first, but do not sink down roots, so that when affliction or persecution comes, they fall away.

The thorny ground reflects those who seem to grow for a while, but then allow, among other things, the worries of the world to choke out the word so that it does not bear fruit unto eternal life (Mark 4:16-19).

1. To grow solid through suffering, humble yourself before God (5:6-7).

The Greek word translated “anxieties” comes from a word meaning to divide. Anxieties divide our minds, so that we cannot concentrate on anything else.

Someone has defined “worry” as “a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”

Thus worries and anxieties distract us from the productive things God wants us to do and consume us by diverting all our thoughts into these channels of fear.

Why is there a need for humbling yourself in a time of trial? Because at the heart of anxiety is the proud notion that I can handle things by myself.

We all have a sinful tendency to lift ourselves up and to pull the Lord down. We’ll call on God for a little boost now and then, to get us through something.

But we don’t know what it means to cast ourselves totally upon the Lord until He yanks the rug out from under us through some trial that is bigger than us. Even then we tend to scramble to regain control without submitting to God’s mighty hand over us.

At the root of this self-reliance is pride. Suppose you were on a ship which encountered a fierce storm at sea. You don’t know anything about handling a ship in such rough waters, but the captain is a seasoned veteran who has brought his ship safely through many such storms.

Wouldn’t it be the height of arrogance for you to go up on the bridge and tell him how to run the ship or, even worse, to take the helm from him?

George Muller used to tell the story of a boy who was walking along the road carrying a heavy load. A man came along in a horse-drawn cart and offered him a ride. The boy climbed in the cart, but he kept the heavy load on his shoulders. When the man asked him why he didn’t put the load down on the cart, the boy replied that he didn’t want to burden the horse!

We’ve climbed into the cart of salvation through Christ. He is in fact bearing our load. Why don’t we let go and put it all on Him?

We’re prone to doubt two things in a time of intense trial: God’s sovereign control over circumstances: “Where is God in all this?”

And, we doubt His concern for us: “If God is in control and cares, then why is this happening to me?”

Peter says that we must bow and acknowledge God’s mighty hand—His sovereignty and power. He wasn’t asleep at the helm when this trial hit me. And, we must bow and affirm His loving care—He cares for me personally, in spite of how it may seem in the middle of my crisis.

How do we cast all care upon God? Try this simple prayer: “Heavenly Father, you know what problems I face today. You know where I will meet discouragement, and where I may feel too weak to go on. You know that most of my anxiety is over worldly pursuits that won’t matter when I am with you in eternity. Today I will trust you each hour for the strength, wisdom, and love to make this day worthwhile. In all my busyness today, let me feel all your joy. In Christ’s name, Amen.”

2. To grow solid through suffering, resist the devil (5:8-9).

No sooner has Peter got us to relax by casting our cares on the Lord than he yells, “Wake up! Be alert! There’s a lion on the prowl, and he’ll eat you for lunch if you aren’t careful!”

George Morrison put it: “God does not make His children carefree in order that He may make them careless”

The fact is, in a time of trial, you are especially vulnerable to the enemy of our souls. You must be sober and alert so that you can resist his attacks.

When it comes to dealing with the devil, Christians often go to one of two extremes: Either they see the devil behind every bush; or, they ignore him altogether.

The former are more prevalent in Christian circles now than the latter. These folks see the devil everywhere. They go around casting out the demons of every common cold, the demons of car trouble, the demons behind emotional problems, etc.

They often blame the devil for problems that stem from their own sin or mistakes.

But the Bible just tells us to resist the devil.

The devil will get you to think that you’re the only one in the world going through the kind of suffering you’re experiencing. Your trial is unique! Surely, no one else understands! “They have slain your prophets, and I alone am left!”

Remember that verse 6 comes before verse 9: We must bow before God before we stand against the devil.

Resisting the devil is a defensive posture. I don’t advise stalking him like a lion hunter. But if he roars against us, we stand firm in the full armor of God and he will flee.

Also, we need to understand that we are to flee certain sins, but resist the devil.

3. To grow solid through suffering, trust the sovereign Lord (5:10-11).

Peter is saying, “God hasn’t forgotten you in your trial. He is the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ in the first place. Thus you can trust Him to use the trial for His purpose in your life, because He is the sovereign Lord who has all dominion forever and ever!”

But trusting God has fallen on hard times in Christian circles. It is viewed as about the most impractical thing you can do. If you came to me with a big problem in your life and asked, “What should I do?” and I said, “I think you should trust God,” you’d probably go away thinking, “What worthless counsel!”

And yet from cover to cover the Bible extols the practical benefits of putting our trust in the living God as the way to deal with our problems!

You ask, “How can I trust God? It seems so hard to do when I’m in the middle of a crisis!” There are at least four ways to nurture your faith suggested in these two short verses (9 & 10):

• Put the trial in perspective. It will only last “for a little while.” You say, “For a little while! I’ve been going through this suffering for years!” But even a whole lifetime is a little while in light of eternity.
• Put God in perspective. He is “the God of all grace.” His grace is like the ocean, a limitless supply, that keeps breaking over our lives time and time again. It will never run out.

Remember, God withholds grace from the proud, but gives it to the humble (5:5), those who lower themselves by admitting their total need. So in your time of trial, come as a needy soul and ask, and He will give you abundant grace to meet your need.

He is mighty to save His people from every trial, if it be His will. Even more, He is mighty to save us from eternal destruction. Nothing can separate us from His love and care. In your trial, rehearse in your mind God’s mighty strength as seen over and over in the Bible.

• Put God’s calling and purpose for you in perspective. He “called you to His eternal glory in Christ.” You didn’t come to Him by your own strength or effort. He called you.

He didn’t call you to condemn you, but to bring you to His eternal glory in Christ. You will dwell in His presence throughout eternity. In your trial, look ahead to what God has promised for those whom He has called, and you can trust Him to bring you through it.

• Put God’s purpose for trials in perspective. He Himself will “perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” “Perfect” means to equip, repair, or render complete. It was used of Peter “mending” his fishing nets (Matt. 4:21).

God will put you back together after the trial so that you will be useful to Him. “Confirm” means to fix, set fast, or strengthen. Jesus told Peter that after he was restored from his denial of Jesus, he would “strengthen” [same word] his brothers.

“Establish” means to lay the foundation. Jesus used it to describe the house founded on the rock that withstood the storm (Matt. 7:25).

Thus the overall idea is that the sovereign God will use the trials to establish you in your faith and to equip you to serve others in His cause. So you can trust Him in the process. Thus, to grow solid through suffering, humble yourself before God, resist the devil, and trust the sovereign Lord. Finally,

4. To grow solid through suffering, stand firm with other saints in God’s true grace (5:12-14).

This section is the concluding greeting of the letter. But it contains a powerful truth, stated also at the end of 5:9, that you don’t go through suffering alone. And there is a strong testimony that what Peter has written is God’s true grace and an exhortation to stand firm in it.

Note first that we go through suffering with other believers. These final verses are brimming with warm relationships.

When we go through trials, we should go through them together, supporting one another as family in Christ.

Healthy churches are hard to find! What makes for a healthy church? Many scriptural elements could be listed. Especially important is a strong commitment to God’s Word, our only authority for faith and practice.

But what makes a commitment to God’s Word happen? The answer is strong leadership. Most churches rise and fall with the quality of leadership. But, of course, leaders can’t lead without supportive followers.

And, even with strong leaders and supportive followers, that ubiquitous sin, human pride, often gets in the way and causes problems. With those factors in mind, Peter here gives us a prescription for a healthy church:

In a healthy church, the elders will shepherd and the flock will submit, all in a spirit of mutual humility.

Times of persecution demand that God’s people have adequate spiritual leadership. If judgment is to begin at God’s house (1 Peter 4:17), then that house had better be in order, or it will fall apart!

This explains why Peter wrote this special message to the leaders of the church, to encourage them to do their work faithfully. Leaders who run away in times of difficulty are only proving that they are hirelings and not true shepherds (John 10:12–14).

Peter wrote this letter just before Emperor Nero began cruelly persecuting Christians in Rome and throughout the empire.

About thirty years earlier, Peter, fearing for his life, had three times denied even knowing Jesus (John 18:15–27).

Since then, having learned how to stand firm in an evil world, Peter encouraged other Christians, who were facing pressure to deny their faith. Peter believed and lived what he wrote in this letter—later he was executed by the Romans for believing in and preaching Christ.

Those who stand for Christ will be persecuted because the world is ruled by Christ’s greatest enemy. But just as the small group of early believers stood against persecution, so we must be willing to stand for our faith with the patience, endurance, and courage that Peter exhibited.

The churches to which Peter wrote were facing “fiery ordeal,” 4:12. Such trials test the cohesiveness and strength of a church.

1. In a healthy church, the elders will shepherd the flock (5:1-4).

In the New Testament there are three terms used to describe the same office of leadership in the church, each from a slightly different perspective.

Elder focuses on the character qualities of the man, that he is a mature man of God. As 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 make clear, the main qualification for elders is not that they have impressive spiritual gifts. Rather, it is that they be godly men.

Overseer (or, “Bishop”; Greek, “episkopos”) is used interchangeably with elder (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5, 7) and looks at the primary function of the office, to superintend matters in the local church.

The third term, Pastor (which means “Shepherd”) looks at the function of the elder/overseer from the metaphor of the church as God’s flock. It focuses on the tasks of providing leadership, care, feeding, and protection for God’s people.

Peter points out the requirement, the responsibility and the reward of shepherding God’s flock:

A. The requirement for shepherding is a close personal experience with Christ (5:1). So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed:

Peter models what he is exhorting: He does not lord it over these men, although as an apostle, he could have asserted his authority. “Apostle” referred to men entrusted with authority from Christ to establish churches.

“Lording it over” the flock (5:3) recalls the silly debates the twelve had about who was the greatest, and the Lord’s teaching about the greatest being the servant of all. “Be clothed with humility” recalls Jesus taking a towel and girding Himself as He washed the disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17).

An elder who wants to shepherd the flock conscientiously must be a student of the apostolic witness in Scripture, especially as it relates to the cross (“the sufferings of Christ”) and the coming kingdom of Christ (“the glory that is to be revealed”).

The cross is at the center of the Christian life and an elder must live by the cross daily and be able to help others to do so.

Focusing on the suffering of Christ is the motivation for dealing with sin and for loving Christ more. Focusing on the glory that is to be revealed in Christ’s coming kingdom makes an elder live in holiness and hope in light of Christ’s coming.

1. The responsibility of shepherding is to exercise oversight with the right attitude (5:2-3). …shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; ³ not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

Being the spiritual leader of a flock has its dangers, and Peter pointed out some of the sins that the elders must avoid. The first was laziness—“not by constraint but willingly.”

Paul stresses this in his qualifications for an elder: “not greedy of filthy lucre” (1 Tim. 3:3); “not given to filthy lucre” (Titus 1:7). He must not be a lover of money nor devote himself to pursuing money.

It means a willingness to serve because of a readiness and an eagerness within the heart. This is the difference between a true shepherd and a hireling: a hireling works because he is paid for it, but a shepherd works because he loves the sheep and has a heart devoted to them.

Be an example to the flock (v. 3). The contrast is between dictatorship and leadership. You cannot drive sheep; you must go before them and lead them. It has been well said that the church needs leaders who serve and servants who lead.

It is by being an example that the shepherd solves the tension between being “among” the sheep and “over” the sheep. People are willing to follow a leader who practices what he preaches and gives them a good example to imitate.

Peter here sums up the shepherding task with the term, “exercising oversight” Peter here describes this attitude with a series of three contrasts:

(1) “Not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God” (5:2)

A man should not be in leadership out of duty, but out of delight. Paul says that an overseer should “aspire to the office” (1 Tim. 3:1).

Yet serving as an overseer is not a matter of self-willed ambition, but rather of the calling of God, as seen in the phrase, “according to God,” which probably means, “according to God’s will.”

During times of persecution, an elder and his family would be the first targets. The rest of the time, pastoral leadership is more often the grind of mucking out the stalls rather than the glory of recognition. So an overseer must serve gladly because God has called him to the task, not grudgingly because he was forced into it.

(2) “Not for sordid gain, but with eagerness” (5:2)

The opposite of serving under compulsion is serving eagerly. But some serve eagerly for the wrong reasons, either financial gain (here) or power (next phrase).

(3) “Nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock” (5:3)

The word underscores the fact that the flock belongs to God and is entrusted to overseers as those who will answer to God.

Rather than leading by lording, they are to lead by example. This does not mean that elders can never exercise authority (Titus 1:11; 2:15). There are times when they must take a stand and say, “We are not going to do that….allow this practice or this false teaching to go on in this church.”

Sometimes they must enforce church discipline or confront spiritual bullies. But their normal mode of leadership should be their example of godly living.

We need to remember that leadership is more a responsibility than a privilege. If a man is into leadership for the perks, whether status, money, or power, he is abusing a sacred trust.

Leadership, whether in the church, the home, or the government, means that you’re the one whom God holds accountable for the direction of things under your care.

“If that thought doesn’t cause you to break out in a cold sweat, then you’ve got wrong ideas about leadership!”

Thus, the requirement for shepherding is a close personal experience with Christ. The responsibility of shepherding is to exercise oversight with the right attitude.

C. The reward for shepherding is the unfading crown of glory (5:4). ⁴ And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

The rewards for the work don’t come until the Chief Shepherd returns. That Christ is the “Chief Shepherd” again reminds us that we are only under-shepherds, accountable to the Chief.

Our motivation for serving as pastors must never be to receive the praise of men, but only the desire to hear on that great day, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

2. In a healthy church, the flock will submit to the elders (5:5a). ⁵ Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.

There is some debate over why Peter singles out “young men.” My understanding is that he assumed that the women would be in submission to the elders; but young men are more prone to resent their authority.

Younger men are often more impatient and idealistic than the more mature men in leadership. They may not understand why the elders don’t move more quickly. So he singles them out as representing all in the church who are not elders and tells them to submit.

Submission does not mean mute acceptance of decisions. There is a place for expressing disagreement and voicing concerns. But submission is primarily an attitude of respect and a recognition of rank.

If the elders go against a clear principle of Scripture, then the flock is responsible to appeal to them based upon the Word.

If an elder is violating Scripture, he should be removed from office, since no human authority transcends God’s authority.

3. In a healthy church, everyone will relate to one another in a spirit of humility (5:5b). Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Peter was recalling Jesus taking the towel and girding Himself as He washed the disciples’ feet.

Humility (lit., “lowliness of mind”) is the robe with which we all must gird ourselves. The Bible never exhorts us to think more highly of ourselves than we do or to improve our self-esteem, as we’re being told to do by many Christian writers. But it often tells us that we need to humble ourselves.

Humility is being aware of our own insufficiency, but trusting in Christ’s all-sufficiency.

Chrysostom called humility “the foundation of our philosophy.”

Augustine said, “If you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second, third, and always I would answer, Humility.”

Nothing could be worse than to have God set Himself against you! Nothing is more essential than receiving His grace!

The early Christians must have wondered why they were targeted with such abuse and hatred when they were living peacefully and striving to do God’s will.

However, Jesus himself suffered, and he warned his followers that they too would face suffering.

Christians should not be surprised by suffering, for this is what Jesus had said to Peter and the other disciples at the Last Supper, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20).

A participant in the Last Supper, the apostle John, later wrote, “Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you” (1 John 3:13). Peter offered this warning to his readers as well.

Every Christian who lives a godly life experiences a certain amount of persecution. On the job, in school, in the neighborhood, perhaps even in the family, there are people who resist the truth and oppose the Gospel of Christ.

No matter what a believer says or does, these people find fault and criticize.

Peter explained about a special kind of persecution—a “fiery trial”—that was about to overtake the entire church.

It would not be occasional personal persecution from those around them, but official persecution from those above them. Thus far, Christianity had been tolerated by Rome because it was considered a “sect” of Judaism, and the Jews were permitted to worship freely.

That attitude would change and the fires of persecution would be ignited, first by Nero, and then by the emperors that followed.

Peter gave the believers four instructions to follow in the light of the coming “fiery trial.”

Expect Suffering (1 Peter 4:12) Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Persecution is not something that is alien to the Christian life. Throughout history the people of God have suffered at the hands of the unbelieving world.

Christians are different from unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14-18), and this different kind of life produces a different kind of lifestyle. Much of what goes on in the world depends on lies, pride, pleasure, and the desire to “get more.” A dedicated Christian builds his life on truth, humility, holiness, and the desire to glorify God.

This conflict is illustrated throughout the Bible. Cain was a religious man, yet he hated his brother and killed him (Gen. 4:1-8). The world does not persecute “religious people,” but it does persecute righteous people.

Why Cain killed Abel is explained in 1 John 3:12: “Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”

The Pharisees and Jewish leaders were religious people, yet they crucified Christ and persecuted the early church. “But beware of men,” Jesus warned His disciples, “for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues” (Matt. 10:17).

Imagine scourging the servants of God in the very house of God!

God declared war on Satan after the Fall of man (Gen. 3:15), and Satan has been attacking God through His people ever since.

Christians are “strangers and pilgrims” in an alien world where Satan is the god and prince (John 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:3-4).

Whatever glorifies God will anger the enemy, and he will attack. For believers, persecution is not a strange thing. The absence of satanic opposition would be strange!

Jesus explained to His disciples that they should expect opposition and persecution from the world (John 15:17-16:4).

But He also gave them an encouraging promise: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). It was through His death on the cross of Calvary, plus His resurrection, that He overcame sin and the world (John 12:23-33; see Gal. 6:14).

The image of “fire” is often applied to testing or persecution even in modern conversation. “He is really going through the fire,” is a typical statement to describe someone experiencing personal difficulties.

It is important to note that not all of the difficulties of life are necessarily fiery trials. There are some difficulties that are simply a part of human life and almost everybody experiences them.

Unfortunately, there are some difficulties that we bring on ourselves because of disobedience and sin. Peter mentioned these in 1 Peter 2:18-20 and 3:13-17. The fiery trial he mentioned in 1 Peter 4:12 comes because we are faithful to God and stand up for that which is right.

It is because we bear the name of Christ that the lost world attacks us.

Christ told His disciples that people would persecute them, as they had Him, because their persecutors did not know God (John 15:20-21).

The word “happened” is important; it means “to go together.” Persecution and trials do not just “happen,” in the sense of being accidents. They are a part of God’s plan, and He is in control.

Rejoice in Suffering (1 Peter 4:13-14)

Literally, Peter wrote, “Be constantly rejoicing!” In fact, he mentioned joy in one form or another four times in these two verses! “Rejoice … be glad also with exceeding joy …. Happy are ye!”

The world cannot understand how difficult circumstances can produce exceeding joy, because the world has never experienced the grace of God (see 2 Cor. 8:1-5).

Peter named several privileges that we share that encourage us to rejoice in the midst of the fiery trial.

Our suffering means fellowship with Christ (v. 13).

13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

It is an honor and a privilege to suffer with Christ and be treated by the world the way it treated Him. Not every believer grows to the point where God can trust him with this kind of experience, so we ought to rejoice when the privilege comes to us. “And they [the Apostles] departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).

Christ is with us in the furnace of persecution (Isa. 41:10; 43:2). When the three Hebrew children were cast into the fiery furnace, they discovered they were not alone (Dan. 3:23-25). The Lord was with Paul in all of his trials (Acts 23:11; 27:21-25; 2 Tim. 4:9-18), and He promises to be with us “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20, nasb). In fact, when sinners persecute us, they are really persecuting Jesus Christ (Acts 9:4).

Our suffering means glory in the future (v. 13).

“Suffering” and “glory” are twin truths that are woven into the fabric of Peter’s letter. The world believes that the absence of suffering means glory, but a Christian’s outlook is different.

The trial of our faith today is the assurance of glory when Jesus returns (1 Peter 1:7-8). This was the experience of our Lord (1 Peter 5:1), and it shall also be our experience.

But it is necessary to understand that God is not going to replace suffering with glory; rather He will transform suffering into glory.

Jesus used the illustration of a woman giving birth (John 16:20-22). The same baby that gave her pain also gave her joy. The pain was transformed into joy by the birth of the baby.

The thorn in the flesh that gave Paul difficulty also gave him power and glory (2 Cor. 12:7-10). The cross that gave Jesus shame and pain also brought power and glory.

Mature people know that life includes some “postponed pleasures.” We pay a price today in order to have enjoyments in the future.

Our suffering brings to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit (v. 14). 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

He is the Spirit of glory and He has a special ministry to those who suffer for the glory of Jesus Christ. This verse can be translated “for the presence of the glory, even the Spirit, rests on you.”

The reference is to the Shekinah glory of God that dwelt in the tabernacle and in the temple (Ex. 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10-11). When the people stoned Stephen, he saw Jesus in heaven and experienced God’s glory (Acts 6:15; 7:54-60). This is the “joy unspeakable and full of glory” that Peter wrote about in 1 Peter 1:7-8.

In other words, suffering Christians do not have to wait for heaven in order to experience His glory. Through the Holy Spirit, they can have the glory now. This explains how martyrs could sing praises to God while bound in the midst of blazing fires.

Our suffering enables us to glorify His name (v. 14). Tell them you are a Christian—bring Christ’s name into the conversation—and things will start to happen. Our authority is in the name of Jesus, and Satan hates that name. Every time we are reproached for the name of Christ, we have the opportunity to bring glory to that name.

The word “Christian” is found only three times in the entire New Testament (1 Peter 4:16; Acts 11:26; 26:28). The name was originally given by the enemies of the church as a term of reproach; but in time, it became an honored name.

Of course, in today’s world, the word “Christian” means to most people the opposite of “pagan.” But the word carries the idea of “a Christ one, belonging to Christ.”

Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna about the middle of the second century. He was arrested for his faith and threatened with death if he did not recant. “Eighty and six years have I served Him,” the saintly Bishop replied, “and He never did me any injury. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

“I have respect for your age,” said the Roman officer. “Simply say, ‘Away with the atheists!’ and be set free.” By “the atheists” he meant the Christians who would not acknowledge that Caesar was “lord.”

The old man pointed to the crowd of Roman pagans surrounding him, and cried, “Away with the atheists!” He was burned at the stake and in his martyrdom brought glory to the name of Jesus Christ.

Examine Your Life (1 Peter 4:15-18) 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

In the furnace of persecution and suffering, we often have more light by which we can examine our lives and ministries.

The fiery trial is a refining process, by which God removes the dross and purifies us. Meanwhile, God’s judgment begins “at the house of God,” the church (1 Peter 2:5). This truth ought to motivate us to be as pure and obedient as possible.

There are several questions we should ask ourselves as we examine our own lives.

Why am I suffering? (v. 15)

If a professed Christian breaks the law and gets into trouble, or becomes a meddler into other people’s lives, then he ought to suffer!

Am I ashamed, or glorifying Christ? (v. 16)

This statement must have reminded Peter of his own denial of Christ (Luke 22:54-62). Jesus Christ is not ashamed of us (Heb. 2:11)—though many times He surely could be!

The Father is not ashamed to be called our God (Heb. 11:16).

Am I seeking to win the lost? (vv. 17-18)

Note the words that Peter used to describe the lost: “Them that obey not the Gospel …. the ungodly and the sinner.” The argument of this verse is clear: If God sends a “fiery trial” to His own children, and they are saved “with difficulty,” what will happen to lost sinners when God’s fiery judgment falls?

The phrase scarcely be saved means “saved with difficulty,” but it does not suggest that God is too weak to save us. The reference is probably to Genesis 19:15-26, when God sought to rescue Lot from Sodom before the city was destroyed. God was able—but Lot was unwilling! He lingered, argued with the angels, and finally had to be taken by the hand and dragged out of the city! Lot was “saved as by fire” and everything he lived for went up in smoke (see 1 Cor. 3:9-15).Times of persecution are times of opportunity for a loving witness to those who persecute us (see Matt. 5:10-12, 43-48). It was not the earthquake that brought that Philippian jailer to Christ, because that frightened him into almost committing suicide! No, it was Paul’s loving concern for him that brought the jailer to faith in Christ.

Commit Yourself to God (1 Peter 4:19) 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

When we are suffering in the will of God, we can commit ourselves into the care of God. Everything else that we do as Christians depends on this. The word is a banking term; it means “to deposit for safekeeping” (see 2 Tim. 1:12).

This picture reminds us that we are valuable to God. He made us, redeemed us, lives in us, guards, and protects us.

This commitment is not a single action but a constant attitude. “Be constantly committing” is the force of the admonition. How do we do this? “By means of welldoing.” As we return good for evil and do good even though we suffer for it, we are committing ourselves to God so that He can care for us. This commitment involves every area of our lives and every hour of our lives.

Why did Peter refer to God as “a faithful Creator” rather than “a faithful Judge” or even “a faithful Savior”? Because God the Creator meets the needs of His people (Matt. 6:24-34).

It is the Creator who provides food and clothing to persecuted Christians, and who protects them in times of danger. When the early church was persecuted, they met together for prayer and addressed the Lord as the “God, which has made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is” (Acts 4:24). They prayed to the Creator!