#30 Top 40 New Testament Passages: God Wishes No One to Perish (2nd Peter 3:9)

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2nd Peter 3:9)

Peter's second New Testament letter deals with false teachers negatively affecting the Church. It seems the major issue is lax morality, a desire to seek personal pleasure, rather than seek God's holiness. Whereas his first letter was more about suffering persecutions from outsiders, this letter is about internal threats to proper doctrine and order for the community that follows Christ.

In the opening to the second letter, Peter reminds the Church that through God's divine power we have everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of God in Christ. (2nd Peter 1:3) Through God's goodness and glory, shared with us through faith in Christ, we are enabled to participate in God's divine nature. I interpret that to be the gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, for in the Spirit we also enjoy the presence of the Father and The Son. (John 14:23) It is through divine empowerment that we might pursue holy lives that reflect the righteousness and pure love of God. Through the Spirit we are made into new humans filled with divine power and eternal life. We can escape the corruption of this world. (2nd Peter 1:4)

Some unfortunately have fallen away from the fullness of life God gives through Jesus Christ. They follow the corrupt desire of sinful nature, rather than the transformed nature of the new creation in Christ. (2nd Peter 2:10) They are bold and arrogant, seducing the weak minded to follow them in their pursuit of selfish pleasure. (2nd Peter 2:13-14) They promise freedom in their sinful pursuits, when really they are slaves to depravity. (2nd Peter 2:19)

For if, after they have escaped the corruptions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb,

“The dog turns back to its own vomit,” and, “The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.” (2nd Peter 2:20-22)

Peter is trying to encourage "wholesome thinking", meaning pure, unsullied or sincere. (2nd Peter 3:1) Peter reminds the church that we are living in the last days, before the great Day of the Lord, as some would call it, Judgment Day. The prophets are full of warnings of a great reckoning for all humankind, as is the New Testament. Consider Paul in his letter to the Romans.

For God will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil... but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good... (Romans 2:6-10)

Peter then reminds the Church that scoffers will come in these last days before the triumphant return of Christ and the great judgment. 

First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts 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!” (2nd Peter 3:3-4)

The scoffing has to do with the second coming of Jesus and the final judgement of humanity. If first century Christians had doubts about Jesus' return, what do you think now, two thousand years after the promise? We are hard pressed not to have doubts. 

Peter argues that such scoffing is in error, for they do no recognize the timetable from which God operates is God's own business. And God is eternal, not bound to calendars and watches. What seems to us to be a long time waiting on Jesus to return, is merely like a day in terms of eternity. (2nd Peter 3:8) The Day is coming, make no mistake about that. So live you life as one who will stand before the judge of all souls and give an account. 

Peter then reminds us that what seems like slowness on God's part is actually a good thing. God is showing patience. Patience means salvation. (2nd Peter 3:9, 15) God's patience with humanity is a sign of God's compassion for us all. God doesn't want any of us to perish. God desires all of us to repent, to turn our lives away from sinful desires and turn toward God in joyful obedience.

Peter says that the earth and the heavens (that's the entire created order) will be consumed in fire. Then a new heave and earth will be made where righteousness is at home. Knowing that this current world we live in is going to be destroyed, we who claim to follow Jesus ought to leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. (2nd Peter 3:11b-12a)

To hasten the Day is to earnestly desire its coming. The early Church had an expression for its earnest desire to see the triumphant return of Jesus. In the Greek language it is Maranatha, which means "Come, our Lord!" To hasten the Day is to live in accordance with what the Day will bring, judgement and eternal reward.

The Apostle Paul wrote that the Church should be examining our lives now as preparation for judgment. 

If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1st Corinthians 11:31-32)

We make it our aim to please The Lord. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. (2nd Corinthians 5:9-10)

All this talk of judgement sounds harsh, but remember what Peter says, "God does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance." (2nd Peter 3:9) Like the scoffers who live in error, they think that by doing whatever they desire they are enjoying freedom. In truth pleasure seeking is an empty way of life that leads to enslavement to the very thing we think we enjoy. Instead of freedom we become mastered by a craving for more. It is the nature of every kind of addiction to become enslaved to a substance or a bodily experience. 

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. (Ephesians 4:19)

God would save you from such a fate, if you would but recognize His loving-kindness and patience for you. 

Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4b)