A Disciple's JourneyNäide

Be Ready

Peter quotes some false teachers as saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Peter argues that these false teachers were trying to dismiss the claims of Christ and the Christian hope in order to justify sin. Their key tactic was to try to make the current order of things seem permanent, whereas they would make the promised order of things seem like a fantasy. But Peter reminds the church that God remade the world once in Noah’s flood, and he can and will certainly remake it again through the purifying fire of his judgment. What Christians are looking for is a new creation, when we will experience all that God has stored up for us. As Peter says, “according to his promise we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). That’s not a fantasy! That is what is truly real.

As Peter approached the summit of his journey, when he looked back at all that he had left behind, all that he had given up in order to reach God, he saw clearly just how temporary and small it all was. It all pales in comparison to what awaits him, what awaits every believer, when we finally get to see God and get to enter into his eternal kingdom. Since we are “waiting for and hastening” this “coming day of God,” then, Peter says, we ought to live “lives of holiness and godliness,” being “diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace (2 Peter 3:12, 14). We have so much ahead of us. So let’s be ready for it. Let’s live like it right now. That was Peter’s last encouragement to us! That’s the perfect note for us to end our study of his life and writings.