OUTLINE: 2 Peter

1. Peter’s Final Challenge 

--A Greeting from Peter 

--Partakers of the Divine Nature 

--Eyewitnesses of His Majesty 
2. Deliverance from False Prophets 
--False Teachers Among You 
--Historic Evidence for Their Judgement 
--Characteristics of the False Teachers 
3. The Return of Jesus 
--The Coming Judgement 
--The Day of the Lord 
--Final Exhortations 

1. Peter’s Final Challenge 

A Greeting from Peter

Simon Peter, 

a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, 

-to them that have obtained like precious faith with us 

--through the righteousness of God 

--and our Savior Jesus Christ: 

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

1:1,2

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Partakers of the Divine Nature 

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.
--And beside this, giving all diligence,

 add to your faith virtue; 

and to virtue knowledge; 

And to knowledge temperance; 

and to temperance patience; 

and to patience godliness; 

And to godliness brotherly kindness; 

and to brotherly kindness LOVE. 

-For if these things be in you, and abound, 

--they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful 

in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

-But he that lacketh these things is blind, 

--and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
*Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
1:3-9,13,14

That hath called us to glory and virtue - To virtue or courage as the means; and glory - the kingdom of heaven, as the end.
--Lust, or irregular, impure desire, is the source whence all the

corruption which is in the world springs. 

--Lust conceives and brings forth sin; 

--sin is finished or brought into act, and then brings forth death. 

This destructive principle is to be rooted out; 

and love to God and man is to be implanted in its place.
*The nearness of death makes the apostle diligent in the business of life. Nothing can so give composure in the prospect, or in the hour, of death, as to know that we have faithfully and simply followed the Lord Jesus, and sought his glory.

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Eyewitnesses of His Majesty 

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 

--For He received from God the Father honor and glory, 

when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, 

This is My beloved Son, 

in whom I am well pleased.

--And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
*We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 

--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.

1:16-21

--For they are not cunningly devised fables - Like those common among the heathens.
--Now both at His baptism, and at His transfiguration, Jesus Christ

was declared to be this chosen person, God's only Son, the beloved One in Whom He Delighted. The voice, therefore, from heaven, and the miraculous transfiguration of His person, have confirmed the prophetic doctrine concerning Him.
They saw with their eyes and heard with their ears things that were beyond the comprehension of man. They were eyewitnesses of His majesty, and they realized that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, to whom patriarchs and prophets had witnessed
*Knowing this first - Considering this as a first principle, that no prophecy of the Scripture, whether that referred to above, or any other, is of any private interpretation - proceeds from the prophet's own knowledge or invention, or was the offspring of calculation or conjecture. It is not any man's own word. It is God, not the prophet himself, who thereby interprets things till then unknown.

2. Deliverance from False Prophets 

False Teachers Among You 

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

3:1-3

Concerning these observe, 

--Their business is to bring in destructive errors, even damnable heresies. There are damnable heresies as well as damnable practices; and false teachers are industrious to spread pernicious errors. 

--Damnable heresies are commonly brought in privily, under the cloak and color of truth. 

They will make merchandise of you - Only use you to gain by you, as merchants do their wares.

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Historic Evidence for Their Judgement 

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 

And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 

And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 

The Lord knoweth 

--how to deliver the godly out of temptations, 

--and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
2:4-9

--but cast them down to hell; they were hurled out of heaven, from whence they fell as lightning, into the either into the air, as in Ephesians 2:2 or into the earth; as in Revelation 12:9 ...come forth,

and rove about in this earth, and in the air: and these, when removed from their ancient seats in heaven, were not merely bid to go away, as the wicked will at the day of judgment; or were "drove" out, as Adam was from the garden of Eden; but "cast down"; with great power, indignation, wrath, and contempt, never to be raised and restored again:
--and delivered them into chains of darkness: leaving them under the guilt of sin, which is the power of darkness, and in black despair; shutting them up in unbelief, impenitence, and hardness of mind; being holden with the cords of their sins, and in the most dreadful state of bondage.

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Characteristics of the False Teachers

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. 

Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 

Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 

But these, as natural brute beasts, 

made to be taken and destroyed, 

speak evil of the things that they understand not; 

and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 

And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. 

Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 

Having eyes full of adultery, 

and that cannot cease from sin; 

beguiling unstable souls: 

an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; 

cursed children: 

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet. 

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 

--For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 

--For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

--But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

2:10-22

--Are not afraid to speak evil of dignities - They are lawless and disobedient, spurn all human authority, and speak contemptuously of all legal and civil jurisdiction. Those in general despise governments, and speak evil of dignities, who wish to be under no control, that they may act as freebooters in the community.

--But these, as natural brute beasts - As those natural animals void of reason, following only the gross instinct of nature, being governed neither by reason nor religion.
--The word here rendered riot [carousing], comes of a root that signifies to break, for there is nothing that doth so break and emasculate the minds of men as rioting and reveling; luxury draws out a man’s spirits, and dissolves him.
--Following the way of Balaam - They are like Balaam, who was guilty of the greatest of sins — leading others into sin, and that for the sake of his own gain.
*The apostle, in the last two verses of the chapter, sets himself to prove that a state of apostasy is worse than a state of ignorance;

3. The Return of Jesus 

The Coming Judgement 

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.

3:3-7

The apostle Peter anticipated that there would be scoffers, who mock the promise of Christ’s return due to its delay. 

--These mockers represent a challenge to the faith of Christians, who face the erosion of their hope by the apparent delay in the fulfillment

of God’s promise. 

--These skeptics argue from a perspective of uniformitarianism, suggesting that since the world appears unchanged, Christ’s return is unlikely.
--The scoffers are not merely skeptics. They are those who walk after their own lusts. Their opposition to the promise of Christ's return is rooted in their desire to live without accountability, without judgment.

*Peter counters the scoffers’ argument by appealing to Scriptural history. He reminds them that the same word of God that created the world also brought about the flood in Noah’s time. Just as God’s word once brought judgment through water, it will also bring judgment through fire.

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The Day of the Lord

--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.
3:8-13

--The elements shall melt with fervent heat - At this coming of the Lord it shall not only be very tempestuous round about Him, so that the very heavens shall pass away as in a mighty violent storm, but a fire shall go before Him, that shall melt the elements of which the creatures are composed. 

--The earth, and its inhabitants, and all the works that are therein,

shall be burnt up.
*Jesus Himself said, "If you had known what hour the thief was coming, you would have kept watch" (Matthew 24:43). 

*Paul echoed it: "The day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2). 

*Revelation reiterates it: "Behold, I come as a thief" (Revelation 16:15). 

The promise is consistent across the New Testament. His coming will be sudden, certain, and transformative. The watching church will not be caught unaware, but the world will be.

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Final Exhortations 

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 Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
3:14-18

--Mark what our Apostle says of the writings of Paul, "Wherein are

some things which are hard to be understood." 

--And mark the danger to which we are exposed, lest we, being unlearned and unstable, should wrest even the Word of God itself to our own destruction.
*Paul's letters contain deep things—theology that requires thought, patience, ...to understand. And there are always those who are unlearned and unstable who will twist Paul's words to justify whatever they wish.
--We must grow in grace. 

--We must grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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