2 Peter 3:10-18 - Are You Ready?

2 Peter 3:10-18

The Day of the Lord

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons 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 dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Be Steadfast

14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Are you ready for the day of the Lord at His unannounced return?  That is Peter’s challenge wake-up call to us all.  No matter how many self-proclaimed biblical scholars set dates and times based on their interpretations of scripture, Jesus will return quite unexpectedly on His terms as He told us many times.  The coming back will be for judgment in righteousness (Psalm 9:8, John 16:8, Acts 17:31) and will be terrifying (2 Corinthians 5:11, Hebrews 10:29-31) to those who have rejected the gospel of grace offered them, especially when they see the omnipotent power of God in the dissolution of the creation by loud noises and unbearable heat melting earth and all the works of man upon it.  Knowing these glimpses of the day of judgment on the world and our escape from it by sheer grace alone, should we not be motivated to live with holy conduct and godliness as we are told here?  We know and yearn for the day of His return and know we are accountable for the talents we have been entrusted with to build upon for His kingdom.  We also know that we who are in Christ have a sure footing on the foundation of His grace for certain salvation from His wrath on that day, yet are we not also motivated to please Him in every way because of that grace?  We should be building on that foundation with imperishable works prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10) and not with worthless “wood, hay and stubble” as 1 Corinthians 3:12-13, 14-15 tells us plainly.  Yes, we have not been saved at such a cost of the suffering and death of God’s Son only to live for ourselves since we have been purchased at such a cost (1 Corinthians 6:20) and are expected and should be motivated to live accordingly with holiness in view of the day and of eternity.  Some of these things are difficult to comprehend completely, but enough have been explained that we can find the answers in diligent study of scripture.  There are some, however, of these end times that are assumed by some and scripture is twisted to back up the person interpretations (2 Peter 1:20-21) given as if gospel truth.  These we are to avoid through solid interpretation practices to extract and not inject meaning into the Bible.  Since we know these things, we are called to watch and be aware that we do not doubt our certain path forward in sanctifying grace based on the evidential truths of scripture.  We do not follow those who misinterpret scripture to follow them off the path, but follow Christ in grace and knowledge of Him according to His word!  May we grow in that grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to whom we give glory forever in this understanding.  Are you ready?