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2 Peter 3

2 Peter book home•Chapter 3 of 3•18 verses

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2 Peter 3 Overview

Peter reminds believers that scoffers will mock Christ’s promised coming and deliberately ignore God’s past judgment in the flood. The day of the Lord will come, the present heavens and earth will face fiery judgment, and believers should live holy and godly lives while looking for new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. Peter closes by warning that unstable people twist Paul’s Scriptures.

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Before you read 2 Peter 3

Coming from

Peter warns that false teachers will secretly bring destructive heresies, exploit people through covetousness, and live in sensual rebellion while promising liberty. He compares their judgment with fallen angels, the flood generation, and Sodom, while pointing to Noah and Lot as examples that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly and reserve the unjust for judgment.

In this chapter

Leads into

The canonical sequence continues into 1 John.

Key understandingExplore deeper

God’s apparent delay is longsuffering, not failure of promise; His timing reflects mercy.

Peter explicitly calls Paul’s writings ‘scriptures,’ providing important New Testament evidence that apostolic letters were recognized alongside other Scripture.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Christ’s promised coming is certain

Scoffing does not cancel God’s word.

God’s patience serves mercy

The Lord is longsuffering and not willing that any should perish.

Future judgment should shape present holiness

Believers look for and hasten toward God’s promised new creation.

Scripture can be twisted

Unlearned and unstable people wrest Paul’s writings to their own destruction.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Genesis 7–8

The flood is Peter’s historical analogy for divine judgment.

Matthew 24:35–44

Jesus teaches certainty of His words and unexpectedness of the day.

Revelation 21:1

John later sees a new heaven and new earth.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not turn ‘not willing that any should perish’ into a claim that God delights in damnation

Peter explicitly presents His patience as merciful.

Do not use the day-as-a-thousand-years line as a conversion formula for prophetic time periods

Peter’s point is God’s relation to time and patience, not a universal arithmetic key.

Do not make holy living the cause of entering the new creation

It is the fitting response of people already looking for God’s promise.

Read 2 Peter 3 watching for…

The scoffers’ argument.

What they willingly ignore.

God’s relation to time and longsuffering.

The day of the Lord and fiery judgment.

New heavens and new earth.

Peter’s statement about Paul’s Scriptures.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-7Peter reminds believers of prophetic and apostolic words and warns that scoffers will deny Christ’s coming while forgetting the flood 8-10The Lord is not slack concerning his promise; the day of the Lord will come as a thief and the present heavens and earth will pass away 11-14Knowing these things, believers should live holy lives while looking for new heavens and a new earth and be diligent to be found in peace 15-18Paul’s writings are acknowledged, unstable people twist Scripture, and believers are told to beware error and grow in grace

This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:

That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

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2 Peter 3:1

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