“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
Back in verse 5 of this chapter Peter has exposed the ignorance of the scoffers by saying in reference to their faithless question concerning the Lord’s coming, ‘…when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water”
Now, to show a contrast between their faithlessness and the faithful expectation of the believer, he gives this admonition; ‘But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Get it? The mockers are deliberate in their ignorance of the past in order to deny the predictions for the future. We are to be deliberately aware of a certain truth, so that we do not lose hope in regards to that same prediction for the future, for which we eagerly await.
What are we to be aware of for our own encouragement and hope? That God does not measure time the way we do. So we cannot use our own assessment of things as a gauge to chart His activities.
How can we say He is late, or He is early? He has made His plan and so certain is the fulfilling of it that the prophets spoke of the final days of earth as though already accomplished.
It is the fool who says “Christ has not come therefore He will never come”
That same fool thinks that because he seemingly got away with sin yesterday he will continue to get away with it tomorrow.
The false teacher preaches his lies, pretending he is speaking for God so silly people will give him their money and their loyalty. And because he got away with it today and has built his little empire and surrounded himself with sycophants who shield him with legal protection and field the hard questions, he thinks he cannot be touched.
But there is tomorrow and another tomorrow after that and another tomorrow after that, and with each passing tomorrow his destruction draws more certain and more near.
Now before we go too far into the text there is a point of error I want to address just so we’re clear on one thing.
I have heard in times past people debating the Creation timeline, saying that the ‘days’ mentioned in the Genesis creation account are really thousands of years. One of the arguments they give for support of that theory is that in 2 Peter 3:8 it says that to God a thousand years is a day and a day as a thousand years.
Therefore when the Holy Spirit inspired the documentation of the creation account He was speaking from God’s point of view.
Beloved, Peter is not telling us there that God doesn’t know how to tell time. He is only making the point that God is not governed by time since He is Eternal and that what is a very long time to us means nothing to the One who exists beyond the realm of time.
The Bible says,
“God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Gen 1:5 (also see Ex 20:8-11)
If you go to bed tonight and wake up and a thousand years has passed, please call me and I’ll change my theology.
Now let’s get back…
THE LORD’S PATIENCE
Here is further evidence of the ‘backwardness’ of the thinking of the fallen (sinful) mind. The scoffer mocks the Word of God and casts doubt on its validity based on the fact that what it predicts hasn’t happened yet.
If he understood the truth, he would be rejoicing, not mocking, because the very reason for the seeming delay is that God is patient, wanting even that scoffer to repent and be saved from eternal punishment for sin.
This is the claim Peter makes in verse 9, but the Bible is its own defense.
We’ve already seen, in Peter’s first letter (3:20) that it was God’s patience that allowed 120 years to go by, giving people opportunity after opportunity to repent while Noah built the ark.
We don’t have time here for a long history lesson, but if we go back through the Old Testament we see example after example of God holding back the outpouring of His wrath on sinners to give them a chance to see their sin and repent.
Unbelievers like to paint God as a vengeful, wrathful God who watches untiringly for someone to step slightly out of line so He can punish them with illness or financial ruin or destruction of their home. In their hatred of Him as His enemies they shake a defiant fist at the sky and put every inconvenience and every misfortune on His shoulders. In truth, even then, He is waiting patiently for them to respond to the call of His gentle Holy Spirit and turn from darkness to light.
When Peter says the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, he is using a term that denotes delay as in loitering rather than speed of movement. He says God is not loitering.
In other words, God is not just neglectful. He hasn’t occupied Himself with other things and forgotten His promises. He isn’t tardy.
I have to tell you that I’ve always had a little bit of a problem with hearing people say, “If the Lord tarries…” etc. Here is why. That word is used abundantly in the King James version, because that’s how they talked in the 17th century.
If you look up the instances it is used it normally refers to waiting, delaying. So it was ok for them to use it then.
However there are actually no less than 10 Greek words in the manuscripts that translators rendered as ‘tarry’, so accuracy in modern English would call for much more specific translation in each case.
The word ‘tarry’ has come to mean something less positive in the modern English, although it is not used much anymore… primarily by old timers stuck in the King James translation.
So let’s just make clear that the Lord is not ‘tarrying’ as might be said of a school boy playing by the pond on his way to school. He isn’t dillydallying.
God is patient, but His patience is built into His plan. From our standpoint it may seem like He is delaying. But He has ‘fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead’. (Acts 17:31)
That day has not moved. It draws nearer with each passing day. But a loving God in laying the divine plan included His patience in the mix to give men time to repent.
We have the example of the building of the ark and the history of God’s people, and also the individual sinner. Paul knew that it was only the patience of God that preserved him through his stubbornness and vengeance against the young church.
“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” 1 Tim 1:15-16
BUT THE DAY OF THE LORD
It is a good thing to be aware of God’s patience. It is good for the sinner to hear, because that may give hope to the one who has long thought he was beyond salvation. It is good for the child of God because awareness of God’s patience assures him that he still has time to pray for the lost and tell them the good news of Jesus Christ, and also that the promises of God are not forgotten but are in store for him still, perhaps even around the next bend.
It is a good thing to be aware of God’s patience. But it is not a good thing to presume upon God’s patience.
Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes in a time when he was feeling really chipper and high-spirited. You can tell in verses like chapter 9 verse 12.
“Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.”
Gloomy or not, he wrote the truth. Remember, this too is God’s Word.
There are more specific warnings in the New Testament though, pertaining to the unawareness of men who are presuming upon God’s patience and forgetting that ultimately, they are not in control.
Remember the rich man in Luke’s gospel? He built more barns because he ran out of room for all his crops. And he spoke to his soul (instead of thanking God), telling his soul to kick back and eat, drink and be merry because he was set for years to come.
God’s response to him though, was ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you, and now who will own what you have prepared?” Lk 12:20
And we’ve recently had occasion to consider 1 Thessalonians 5:3 where Paul assured his readers concerning those who do not await Christ’s coming:
“While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”
So this word ‘But’ at the beginning of verse 10 is a very important one.
The Lord is patient. His promises are not delayed, but His patience endures waiting for all who will to repent.
But there is a time when the patience of God comes to its end. Remember? He built patience into His plan but the plan will continue to fulfillment and that plan must finally vindicate His Holiness and His Son’s sacrifice and the faithfulness of the saints of the ages. Patience must end and it will end with a bang.
To those who hold that God’s creation ‘days’ were thousands of years because they don’t think it all could have been done in six literal days, I say but think again, because what He called into being over a period of six days He will speak out of existence in an instant.
Hebrews 1:2 says that God made the world through His Son, and verse 3 says that the Son of God ‘upholds all things by the word of His power’
The power of the Word of God, that is Christ who spoke all things into existence, presently keeps all things together. Godless men and Godly men alike have Him to thank at every second of every day that they do not fly apart atom by atom.
In the day of the Lord He will simply hold back that power and every atom that makes up the entire created universe will split simultaneously. “…the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up”. 3:10
Although I just said it in brief, Warren Wiersbe’s more detailed explanation of this is worth stopping for here:
“Kenneth Wuest gives an accurate and graphic translation of these words: “In which the heavens with a rushing noise will be dissolved, and the elements being scorched will be dissolved, and the earth also and the works in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
Many Bible students believe that Peter here described the action of atomic energy being released by God. The word translated a great noise in the King James Version means “with a hissing and a crackling sound.” When the atomic bomb was tested in the Nevada desert, more than one reporter said that the explosion gave forth “a whirring sound,” or a “crackling sound.” The Greek word Peter used was commonly used by the people for the whirring of a bird’s wings or the hissing of a snake.
“The word melt in 2 Peter 3:10 means “to disintegrate, to be dissolved.” It carries the idea of something being broken down into its basic elements, and that is what happens when atomic energy is released. “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” said our Lord (Matt. 24:35), and it appears that this may happen by the release of the atomic power stored in the elements that make up the world. The heavens and earth are “stored with fire” (2 Peter 3:7, WUEST), and only God can release it.
“For this reason, I do not personally believe that God will permit sinful men to engage in an earth-destroying atomic war. He will, I believe, overrule the ignorance and foolishness of men including well-meaning but unbelieving diplomats and politicians, so that He alone will have the privilege of “pushing the button” and dissolving the elements to make way for a new heaven and a new earth. Peter no doubt had in mind Old Testament passages such as Isaiah 13:10–11; 24:19; 34:4; and 64:1–4 when he wrote these words. The first passage is especially emphatic that God will bring judgment and not sinful man. “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity,” says the Lord. It does not sound as though He will give this task to some nervous military leader or some angry politician.”
(Wiersbe, W. W. 1996, c1989. The Bible exposition commentary. "An exposition of the New Testament comprising the entire ’BE’ series"--Jkt. Victor Books: Wheaton, Ill.)
HOW WE OUGHT TO BE
The contrasts that Peter has been drawing through this chapter continue here.
The mockers have let certain things escape their notice; history that might have led them to use common sense and say, ‘Well, if God did this, then certainly He will eventually do that which He has promised”. But since they are deliberately ignorant of the past, they cannot see the future.
By contrast, believers are to be diligent to not let it escape their notice that God is patient and His promises are sure.
So this contrast follows, that since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, we ought to be people of holy conduct and godliness.
They are mockers coming with their mocking. We are believers, coming with our believing.
Now Peter is not asking a question where the English translates, “…what sort of people ought you to be”. There isn’t even a question mark at the end of the sentence.
He is actually declaring this: What a people of holy conduct and godliness you ought to be, considering how all these things are to be destroyed!
In keeping with the hope into which He has brought you, as those who believe that His coming is imminent, the result in your daily life and behavior should be that you live as those who are not of this world, who will infinitely outlive this world, who will be standing by when He says, ‘You might want to cover your ears…’
If we are not as the scoffers, if we are those who are given new life in His name and therefore will not come into condemnation but have already passed out of death and into life Jn 5:24, then we shouldn’t have to be told to look for and hasten the coming of the day of God.
I’m saying, that because of the way things are going to go in the end we should be eagerly waiting and watching for His coming like children unable to sleep on Christmas Eve.
Now I want to explain a couple of terms here, and then make a comment or two and then we’re done for today.
You might notice in verse 10 Peter speaks of ‘the day of the Lord’, and then in verse 12 he says ‘the coming of the day of God’. These are not the same thing.
The day of the Lord is a reference to the final turmoil; the great cataclysm that will take place when Christ destroys the present heaven and earth to make way for the new heaven and earth He has promised to make, which is mentioned in verse 13 of our text and also in Revelation 21:1. It will be the day of the final judgment of all unbelievers.
The day of God is a reference to the eternal state which is finally ushered in by the day of the Lord; when all God’s enemies are vanquished and all things are subjected to Him.
Having made that distinction, the attitude of the believer should be a mixed one. While we eagerly await the coming of the day of God, when we will take up our eternal abode where righteousness dwells, we should at the same time be sobered at the reality of final judgment coming on a fallen world system and unrighteous men.
We’ve heard this term enough to harden us to the reality of it, but it is a sober truth that there, but for the grace of God, go we.
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Eph 2:1-9
Believers should therefore experience something of which John spoke in his Revelation, chapter 10 verses 9-10, when he was given the little book to swallow and it was sweet in his mouth but bitter in his stomach.
This news is sweet to us because God has made us to be partakers of the day of God, and at the same time bitter because of the coming of the day of the Lord in which the elements will melt with an intense heat.
This is a contrast that runs through Scripture as the revealed character of God and which is therefore the character of the believer; the new creature in Christ: sorrow for sin and grieving for the ravages of sin, and at the same time rejoicing for the final victory over sin and the coming of the day of God where He will create something so new to us that we cannot now imagine it, and then cause us to dwell there with Him in righteousness and eternal bliss.
The patience of God waits for the last one He has predestined to respond to the call and believe unto salvation. In that instant it will be the beginning of the end for all who have not believed, and only the beginning for those who have.
As Lewis wrote at the end of his Narnia adventures, “The term is over, the holidays have begun. The dream is ended, this is the morning”.
Knowing, because we have been told by God’s Word, that these things are coming and are imminent, oh, how we ought to be living in holiness and godliness, eagerly looking for and hastening with the Gospel message, the great day of God, where all things will be subjected to Him, all enemies subdued and made a footstool for His feet, all things made brand new, and we are finally ushered into that place He has gone to prepare for us, where righteousness reigns supreme!
CLOSING ENCOURAGEMENTS
Try for just a moment to put yourself in Peter’s place. He is in prison in Rome, Nero’s persecutions are in full swing now, he knows, as we have seen in chapter 1 verse 14 that he is very soon going to fulfill the words of Jesus in John 21:18 and be martyred.
In this place if you were writing a letter to those you loved but knew you would never see again this side of Heaven, would you talk of trivialities?
Would you write of important but secondary matters?
Of course not. You would write to them of the most important things weighing on your heart and you would choose your words carefully to give the best benefit to the readers of your letter.
So Peter has spoken of the Christian virtues as qualities that should be present and increasing in the believer’s lives. The focus of the larger part of this epistle has been on the character and certain destruction of the false teachers. Then finally he has refuted the foolish mocking of scoffers who faithlessly claim that Jesus is not coming back, and he has ensured his readers that not only is Jesus coming back but when He does He will put things right, and those who are His will finally see the great day of God.
As he begins his closing remarks, from verse 14 through 18, wherein he recaps these main points of his letter, Peter writes “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things…”
What things? The new heavens and new earth. The glorious Kingdom which will be our eternal home where righteousness has set up housekeeping. Where we will enjoy in the presence of God, a perfect and permanent existence.
Now we’ve had plenty of exposure over the past weeks to warnings about false teachers. We are aware of their devices and we know that the way to avoid being snared by their deceit is by having our minds stirred up by way of reminder of the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandments of our Lord and Savior spoken by His Apostles. (3:1-2) In other words, following closely the Word of truth, believing His Word and not the emotions and supposed experiences of the false teachers.
We know these things.
So in our final words of this study I want to focus on this phrase, ‘since you look for these things’.
Christians, in these final days of earth, when the lines are so often blurred and even the people in the church are so often unable to see the difference between what is essential and what is not; what is sound doctrine and what is error; what is fluff and what is of an eternal value, the difference between the happy and effectual Christian versus the frustrated, empty, confused pew-sitter, comes down to who is ‘looking for these things’ and who is not.
What do I mean by that? I mean you either believe the coming of our Lord in glory is imminent or you do not.
I cannot read your heart, I can only tell you that I want you to be a happy and effectual Christian, eagerly awaiting the sound that will snatch you up to meet Him in the air.
So you have to judge for yourself, and you have to ask Him to reveal your heart to you.
Do you desire to be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless at His coming?
Now in our doctrinal teaching from other epistles you have learned that the true believer has been brought into a position of being holy and blameless before Him through the death and resurrection of Christ. God sees you now, holy and blameless before Him.
That’s not what I’m talking about now, and it’s not what Peter is talking about. Here in chapter 3 verse 14 Peter is saying that as those who eagerly await His coming and are really looking for it, our belief that He could come for us at any moment ought to make us diligent to pursue in our private lives, holiness and spotlessness; a lifestyle that maintains our sense of the peace of God in our hearts.
You have to do your own searching, believer, and be agonizingly honest with yourself. Because Jesus is coming.
A final word of encouragement. Be steadfast in the truth. Continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and by this on-going process the Spirit will continue through you to bring glory to God. This is the highest call of the Christian, because it is the one thing we will continue to do through eternity. We were created for it.
