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General letters · New Testament · 3 chapters

The book of 2 Peter

Peter’s testament: grow and stand firm

Author
The apostle Simon Peter (1:1)
Written
Around AD 66–67, shortly before his death
Time covered
Peter’s last years, under Nero, as false teachers infiltrate the churches
Key word
Knowledge

Peter begins with the essentials: God’s power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and we are to add to our faith a chain of seven virtues, up to love (1:3-7). He recalls that he did not follow fables: he saw the majesty of Jesus on the holy mount, and prophecy comes from the Holy Spirit (1:16-21). He then unmasks the false teachers: God judged the angels, Noah’s world, and Sodom and Gomorrah, and will know how to judge them too (2). Finally, he answers the scoffers: the Lord is not slack; he is patient; his day will come as a thief, and then will come new heavens and a new earth (3).

Main theme

Facing false teachers and scoffers, believers must grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, rely on the word of the apostles and prophets, and live holy lives while waiting for the day of the Lord.

Outline

  1. 2 Peter 1 — Growing in true knowledge

    The Christian virtues, Peter’s eyewitness testimony, and the authority of prophecy.

  2. 2 Peter 2 — False teachers unmasked

    Their methods, their portrait, and the certainty of their judgment.

  3. 2 Peter 3 — The day of the Lord

    An answer to the scoffers, God’s patience, and a final exhortation to grow.

Key points

  • God’s power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (1:3).
  • Faith must grow through seven virtues added one to another, from virtue to love (1:5-7).
  • Peter was an eyewitness of Jesus’ glory at the transfiguration (1:16-18).
  • Scripture is not of human origin: the prophets spoke “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (1:21).
  • God judged the rebel angels, the world of the flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah, but he delivered Noah and Lot (2:4-9).
  • The false teachers promise liberty while they themselves are slaves of corruption (2:19).
  • The Lord is not slack: he is patient, wanting all to come to repentance (3:9).
  • Peter ranks Paul’s letters among the Scriptures (3:15-16).
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:3–4 — Everything needed for godly living has already been given to us in Christ.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
2 Peter 1:20–21 — A foundational text on the divine inspiration of Scripture.
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.
2 Peter 3:9 — God’s patience explains the delay before Christ’s return.

Jesus in 2 Peter

Peter calls Jesus “our God and Savior” (1:1) and “our Lord and Savior” (3:18). He testifies to having seen him glorified on the holy mount, honored by the Father’s voice (1:17), as a foretaste of his coming in power (1:16). Jesus is “the Lord that bought them” (2:1), and his return, certain, will open the way to new heavens and a new earth (3:10-13).

Did you know?

  • In 1:15, Peter calls his approaching death his “departure”: the Greek word is exodos, the one Luke uses for the “departure” of Jesus that Moses and Elijah spoke of at the transfiguration (Luke 9:31); and this is precisely the scene Peter recounts right afterward (1:16-18).
  • 2 Peter 3:16 is the only passage in the New Testament that explicitly places letters of Paul beside “the other scriptures.”
  • Chapter 2 of 2 Peter and the epistle of Jude are very similar: the same false teachers, the same fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah, Balaam, and “clouds” and “darkness” reserved for the ungodly.

Quiz on 2 Peter

According to Peter, what has God’s divine power given us?

According to 2 Peter, how will the day of the Lord come?

According to Peter, how did the prophets speak from God?

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