September 16th 2017 – 2 Peter 3:14-16

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

2 Peter 3:14-16

We note once again that for the Apostles the return of Christ was never a matter for fruitless speculation (as unfortunately it has so often become in our time) but an incentive to the greatest moral and spiritual endeavour (14). To be found 'in peace' means to be unashamed before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28). This will mean everything to us then, though we may set little store by it now. Again the need is for living in the light of eternity: In the meantime we are to reckon that each succeeding day of delay shown by the longsuffering of God is further opportunity given us to reach them that are lost with the offer of salvation: Paul also, says Peter, has reminded you of these things, and we may recall a similar thought in Romans 2:4. 'The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance'; although probably the reference to Paul includes his teaching on the Second Coming of Christ and the Day of Judgment. It is interesting to notice Peter's reference to some aspects of Paul's teaching as being hard to understand and we may remember what is said in Hebrews 5:11 about being dull of hearing. True understanding of the Scriptures is a matter not of intellect but of the heart. An old Scottish saint once said, 'The best commentary on Holy Scripture is a heavenly state of mind', and it still remains true that the Bible yields its treasures only to patient and reverent study and to those who sit in lowly obedience at the feet of Jesus. Spiritual truth is discerned only by the spiritual.