Commentary - 2 Peter 3:1-7

Bird's-eye view

In this crucial section of his final letter, the apostle Peter addresses a corrosive skepticism that was unsettling the church. This is not a gentle doubt, but a hostile mockery aimed at the heart of the Christian hope: the promise of the Lord's return. Peter's task here is twofold. First, he must ground the believers in the unshakable authority of Scripture, reminding them that both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles spoke with one voice about these things. Second, he must dismantle the intellectual foundation of the mockers' argument. Their case rests on a flawed philosophy of history, a kind of lazy uniformitarianism, which assumes that because things have always been a certain way, they will always be that way. Peter demolishes this by pointing to God's past, catastrophic intervention in the Genesis flood. The same God whose word created the world out of water once destroyed that world with water. That same authoritative word has now reserved the present world for a future judgment by fire. The passage is a pastoral exhortation to remember what God has said and done, and to trust His promises over the lust-fueled taunts of the ungodly.

The core conflict is between two competing views of reality. The mockers see a closed system, a world running on its own, where God, if He exists, does not intervene. Peter presents a world created, sustained, judged, and ultimately consummated by the powerful and active word of God. This is not just an academic debate; the mockers' theology is a direct rationalization of their desire to live according to their own lusts. Peter's response is a call to steadfastness, rooted in the certainty of God's character and the reliability of His Word.

Outline

Context In 2 Peter

This third chapter is the culmination of Peter's argument throughout the letter. In chapter 1, he established the bedrock certainty of the apostolic testimony, grounded in their eyewitness experience of Christ's majesty and the "more sure" prophetic word. In chapter 2, he delivered a blistering warning against the false teachers who were secretly infiltrating the church, describing their depraved character, their greedy motives, and their certain doom, using Old Testament examples of judgment like the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, in chapter 3, he addresses the specific doctrinal error that these false teachers were spreading: a denial of the Parousia, the second coming of Christ. The mockers of chapter 3 are the intellectual and spiritual children of the false teachers of chapter 2. Their scoffing is the predictable fruit of a theology that seeks to remove God's final accountability. Peter's final words are therefore a pastoral charge to stand firm against this deception, armed with a right understanding of God's Word, God's timetable, and God's character.

Key Issues

The Willful Amnesia of Mockers

At the heart of Peter's counter-argument is the charge of willful ignorance. The mockers are not honest seekers of truth who have simply overlooked a piece of data. Peter says, "it escapes their notice," a phrase that carries the sense of a deliberate choice. They are committed to their conclusion, which is that God does not and will not intervene, because that conclusion allows them to live as they please. In order to maintain this conclusion, they must actively suppress the evidence of God's past interventions. They have to forget the flood. They have to forget creation itself.

This is a profound insight into the nature of unbelief. Unbelief is not a lack of evidence; it is a suppression of evidence. As Paul says in Romans 1, the truth about God is plain, but unrighteous men "suppress the truth in unrighteousness." The mockers' argument from "the way things have always been" is only possible if you first edit history to remove all the times God has turned the world upside down. Their worldview is built on a foundation of willful amnesia. Peter's task, and ours, is to be faithful historical witnesses, reminding the world, and ourselves, that history is His story, and He has already shown that He is not a distant, inactive landlord.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,

Peter begins with pastoral affection, calling them "beloved." This is not a detached theological treatise; it is a warm-hearted warning from a shepherd to his flock. He identifies this as his second letter, linking it to the authority and content of his first. His stated purpose is not to reveal some new, secret knowledge, but to "stir up" what they already possess. The verb means to awaken, to arouse from slumber. And what he wants to awaken is their "sincere mind." A sincere mind is one that is pure, unmixed, and without hypocrisy. It is a mind that is receptive to God's truth. The antidote to sophisticated mockery is not greater sophistication, but a simple, sincere faith that is willing to be reminded of foundational truths.

2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles,

Here is the substance of the reminder. It is the Word of God, delivered in two dispensations but forming one unified revelation. First, "the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets," which is the Old Testament. Second, "the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles," which is the New Testament gospel. Notice how he frames the latter. It is the commandment of the Lord, not merely from the Lord. The apostles are not the source of the authority, but the commissioned mouthpiece. Peter is placing the apostolic teaching on the same level of divine authority as the prophetic writings of the Old Testament. The entire Bible, from Genesis to the apostles, is the ground upon which the believer must stand.

3 knowing this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,

He tells them to know this "first of all," as a primary piece of defensive intelligence. The church should not be surprised or shocked when mockery arises. It has been prophesied. It is a feature of the landscape of "the last days," which is the entire period between Christ's first and second advents. The character of these men is given in three strokes. They are "mockers," defined by their sneering contempt for God's truth. Their activity is "mocking," it is what they do. And their motivation is "following after their own lusts." This is the crucial diagnostic key. Their theological skepticism is not born from a dispassionate search for truth. It is the intellectual smokescreen for a rebellious heart that wants to be its own god and serve its own appetites.

4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

Here is the specific content of their mockery. "Where is the promise of His coming?" This is a rhetorical question dripping with sarcasm. It implies that so much time has passed that the promise is obviously null and void. Their supporting argument is an appeal to the status quo. The "fathers" refers to the previous generations of believers who have died. They are saying that nothing has changed. The sun rises, the sun sets, people are born, people die. Their philosophy is a rigid uniformitarianism: what we see now is how it has always been and how it will always be. They mistake the long patience of God for the non-existence of God, or at least for His non-involvement.

5 For 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,

Peter begins his rebuttal by accusing them of a willful, selective memory. The phrase "it escapes their notice" implies a deliberate overlooking of inconvenient facts. What fact do they ignore? The doctrine of creation. They see a world of natural processes, but they forget that this world was brought into being "by the word of God." The universe is not an autonomous, self-existent machine. It is a divine artifact, spoken into existence. Peter specifically mentions that the earth was formed "out of water and by water," alluding to the Genesis 1 account where the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The very fabric of the world is contingent on God's powerful word.

6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being deluged with water.

This is the knockout blow to their uniformitarian argument. The same instruments God used in creation, His word and water, were the instruments He used for de-creation. "The world at that time," the antediluvian civilization, was utterly destroyed. It was "deluged with water." This is Peter's great historical proof that "all" does not continue "just as it was." God has intervened in the past in a global, catastrophic judgment. The mockers' entire premise is built on a lie, a lie they maintain by deliberately ignoring the most dramatic divine intervention in the history of the world apart from the incarnation itself.

7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Peter now draws the direct parallel between the past judgment and the future one. The same agent, "His word," is at work. Just as that same word held the world in existence before the flood, that same word is now holding the "present heavens and earth" in existence for a specific purpose. They are "reserved for fire." The word reserved means they are being stored up or treasured up for a future event. The first judgment was by water; the final judgment will be by fire. And this cosmic event is not impersonal. It is tied directly to "the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." The ungodly men are the mockers themselves. The very judgment they deny is the one for which the cosmos is being held in reserve.

Application

The spirit of the mockers Peter describes is not a relic of the first century. It is the default setting of the modern mind. We live in an age that is dogmatically committed to the idea that "all continues just as it was," a philosophy that dismisses the supernatural out of hand. The taunt, "Where is the promise of His coming?" is echoed in every philosophy and lifestyle that lives as though there is no final judgment and no returning King.

Peter's response must be our response. We are not called to be innovators, but faithful "reminders." We must constantly stir up our own sincere minds, and the minds of our children and our churches, with the whole counsel of God's Word. When the world presents its lust-fueled skepticism, we must not be ashamed to point back to the foundational truths of creation, the fall, and the flood. These are not embarrassing myths to be allegorized away; they are the historical anchors of our faith. They prove that God acts.

We must also take to heart the connection between lust and unbelief. When we find our own faith in God's promises wavering, we should first examine our hearts for compromise and sin. A sincere mind is a repentant mind. The best defense against the spirit of mockery is a life of joyful obedience to the commandments of the Lord and Savior. When we are walking in the light, the promise of His return is not a doctrine to be defended, but a blessed hope to be cherished.