Thursday, July 28, 2016
2nd Peter ~ The Fact of Christ's Return (3:1-16), Conclusion and Doxology (3:17-18)
2 Peter 3 NLT
1 This is my second letter to you, dear
friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking
and refresh your memory.
2 I want you to remember what the holy
prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your
apostles.
3 Most importantly, I want to remind
you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following
their own desires.
4 They will say, “What happened to the
promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors,
everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5 They deliberately forget that God
made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth
out from the water and surrounded it with water.
6 Then he used the water to destroy the
ancient world with a mighty flood.
7 And by the same word, the present
heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day
of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8 But you must not forget this one
thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand
years is like a day.
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow
about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
10But the day of the Lord will come as
unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise,
and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and
everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
11 Since everything around us is going
to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,
12 looking forward to the day of God and
hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the
elements will melt away in the flames.
13 But we are looking forward to the new
heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
14 And so, dear friends, while you are
waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living
peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
15 And remember, our Lord’s patience
gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote
to you with the wisdom God gave him—
16speaking of these things in all of his
letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are
ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite
different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result
in their destruction.
17 You already know these things, dear
friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of
these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.
18 Rather, you must
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory
to him, both now and forever! Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)