II Peter 3:8-15a reflects concern for the perceived delay and resultant anxiety in the return of the Lord Jesus. One reason for this delay, related to Ps 90:4, is that we experience time differently from the Lord. A line in the hymn by Isaac Watts, Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past,” expresses it well: "A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone. Short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun." Therefore, from a divine perspective, what we think of as slowness is divine patience with us, since God wants no human being to perish, but rather, in expression of divine mercy and love, to come to repentance.
Love caused Your incarnation, love brought You down to me;
Your thirst for my salvation procured my liberty.
O love beyond all telling, that led you to embrace
In love all loves excelling our lost and fallen race.[1]
A common image for the day of the Lord in the New Testament is that it will come like a thief (Matt 24, Luke 12, I Tess 5, Rev 3:3, 16:15). Thus, believers need to be attentive to each day, for the end of this time could come at any moment. This end will come with heaven and earth passing away with a loud noise and dissolution by fire, with all actions be disclosed. This suggests to the author that the only way to prepare for the day of the Lord is holiness. Even if God dissolves the world in this way, this does not mean that life on earth does not matter. The anticipated end leads to the ethical conclusion that we need to consider what sort of persons we ought to be by leading lives of holiness and godliness. We may word it differently, such as happiness, psychologically healthy, or to live from a moral center. In the classical tradition, values relate to what we believe in relation to human beings, while virtue relates to forming habits and moral character related to the divine will. Our choices reveal who we are. Choosing justice, peace, honor, fortitude, self-sacrifice, courage, self-control, and wisdom reveal who one is apart from the pragmatic concerns of the moment. Doing the right thing because it adheres to a moral code that transcends the pragmatic concerns of the moment is showing who we are. Such behavior discloses a hope that confronted by evil, the conviction remains that goodness and providence will prevail over darkness. The primary question for this author is not when or how the end of the earth and human history occurs, but how we live now. Holiness and godliness, far from being that offensive holier than thou attitude toward others, is that longing for God, for a heart of full of love, and a life that reflects that love. There, just as the Lord is showing patience and mercy, so human beings need to wait for the coming of the day of the Lord, in which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved and melt the earth with fire. We Christians are the ones who pray the Lord’s Prayer with the “thy kingdom come” petition. “From thence he shall come again to judge the living and the dead,” “we believe in the resurrection of the dead,” and “we believe in the life of the world to come,” says the Creed of Nicaea. The “waiting” for the day of God is what our hope thrives on. Our hope and trust that God — not evil or chaos — will be the ultimate victor keeps us working for the kingdom to come. The only way this can happen is if they are truly ready to meet the coming judge. Christians can rightly long for that day. Such a desire reflects a view of time that has a forward and eschatological orientation.[2] The prospect of judgment is not pleasant, especially when envisioned as a fire that dissolvers all that we have known. Yet, such a fire could be a purifying one, a transforming fire that was necessary before the beautiful end of this finite and temporal world that is embraced by the love of the Infinite and Eternal God. Such an orientation focuses on something far greater than just their individual lives. Yet, “these little Christians,” while they wait, receive their sanctification as they look forward to the revelation of the glory of God.[3] If we cultivate the ability to wait well, we will cultivate virtue of patience. patience is the "quality of being willing to bear adversities, calm endurance of misfortune, suffering, etc." It comes directly from the Latin patientia, meaning "endurance, submission" -- or literally "suffering" or the "quality of suffering." Ambrose Bierce, in his whimsical book, The Devil's Dictionary, said this of patience: "Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue. The dissolving of this earth and heaven will open the way for a new heaven and a new earth as promised in Isaiah 65:17. The end is life rather than death. For this reason, Christians rightly long for the coming of God, for if God does not come, only death and destruction will come. The hope is also the closing vision in Revelation 21:4. Despite present appearances, God is sovereign, and God is faithful to the promise of new life. Even as this community waits patiently in persecution, they know that dissolution will come first, and then will come new life. The eschatological nature of the rule of God defines an act of God. The rule of God is not something Jesus plants or grows from itself. Rather, we find here that the rule of God is to come only with the coming of a new heaven and a new earth, even though the righteousness of individuals is the condition of entry into the future fellowship of the rule of God.[4] Next, they are to pay attention to what it is that matters to them. They are to use the time they have wisely. As they wait for dissolution and new life. He urges them to wait for this end with peace rather than anxiety and regard the patience of the Lord as salvation.
I now turn to an exegetical and homiletical consideration of the text.
In II Peter 3:8-15a, we have a continuation of the concern for the delay of the return of the Lord Jesus. As part of the background, II Peter reflects the situation of Christians who experienced anxiety at the perceived delay in the return of Christ. As such, the letter poses as a repository of the most important thoughts the apostle had to offer the church in crisis (cf. II Peter 1:12-15). Thus, the rhetoric of II Peter suggests that this epistle is indeed a "letter to a community in the fire.”
This section begins by offering another reason for the delay of the day of the Lord. 8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, referring to Psalm 90:4, with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The point is that human time and divine time are two quite different things. The hymn by Isaac watts, “Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past,” offers a beautiful sentiment as well. "A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone. Short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun." The Infinite and Eternal God relates to time in a way separate from the way we do. When we have frustration regarding divine timing, we are to remember the promise we have from God. When we have our customary impatience, we need to remember that 9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Thus, the delay they are experiencing in the return of the risen Lord ought to be an occasion for joy, for it gives time for people to repent. Such divine patience is an expression of the mercy of God. Those who take the occasion of the delay to scoff ought to see in the delay an expression of divine mercy and love.
Love caused Your incarnation, love brought You down to me;
Your thirst for my salvation procured my liberty.
O love beyond all telling, that led you to embrace
In love all loves excelling our lost and fallen race.[5]
We also need to remember an important image 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. We see the image in Matthew 24 and Luke 12, in I Thessalonians 5, and in Revelation 3:3 and 16:15. They need to be attentive, for the day will come unexpectedly. No one is completely secure, for the end could come at any moment. When it does come, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.[6] Scholars will point to the common theme in Jewish apocalyptic and Qumran of destruction by fire. The author is offering counsel to a community in crisis while upholding a teaching of the early church that inspires respect for the divinely appointed destiny of the world.
The theme of II Peter 3:11-15a is that holiness prepares one for the Day of the Lord. Clearly, one can think of the Day of the Lord as an excuse to live in any way one chooses. It will all burn anyway. Just as clearly, the letter does not intend such a result. The writer has expressed concern for the way of his life of his opponents.
The focus of this letter is on internal divisions within the church. The internal divisions seem no less threatening or problematic for the life of the community. In II Peter, the writer seeks to establish clear boundaries in the community between the elect and the accursed, between the truth and "false teachings." The rhetoric of the letter gets heated and polemical. In II Peter 1:16 the writer answers a charge that his school has propagated "cleverly devised myths" regarding the second coming of Christ. Such a claim bears witness to the fact that the community's interpretation of church tradition was under fire. To these attackers the letter writer wages the retort of "false prophets" and "false teachers" (2:1). The author characterizes the proponents of these attacks as licentious and compares them through scriptural allusion to the population of the world prior to the flood of Noah and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (2:4-10). Stock in their imagery of wrongdoing, these characterizations say more, no doubt, about the perception of the writer has of his own community's besieged reality than they do about any behavior of their antagonists.
In contrast to his opponents, those who follow the guidance of this letter are to grow in the image of Christ. Thus, the remaining verses of the unit detail what right living is to be within the context of waiting for the day of the Lord. This passage calls the community to holiness. 11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness. The primary question for this author is not when or how the end of the earth and human history occurs, but how we live now. These characteristics are in direct contrast to the antagonists of the community. Even if God dissolves the world in this way, this does not mean that life on earth does not matter. Holiness and godliness should define their lives. I do not have many people in my direct acquaintance whom I think of as holy. Frankly, most of them would bristle at others calling them that. The people whom I know who think of themselves as holy usually become quite obnoxious, eventually. However, a truth that we need to hear is in this statement. Yet, it reminds me of the statement in a poem by Browning: “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what is heaven for?” Most of us have a varied assortment of faults and foibles that disqualify us as being holy in the conventional sense of the word. Yet, holiness is that longing for God, for a heart of full of love, and a life that reflects that love. Therefore, they are 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? We Christians are the ones who pray the Lord’s Prayer with the “thy kingdom come” petition, and the “waiting” for the day of God is what our hope thrives on. Our hope and trust that God — not evil or chaos — will be the ultimate victor keeps us working for the kingdom to come. The only way this can happen is if they are truly ready to meet the coming judge. Christians can rightly long for that day. Such a desire reflects a view of time that has a forward and eschatological orientation.[7] The prospect of judgment is not pleasant, especially when envisioned as a fire that dissolvers all that we have known. Yet, such a fire could be a purifying one, a transforming fire that was necessary before the beautiful end of this finite and temporal world that is embraced by the love of the Infinite and Eternal God. Such an orientation focuses on something far greater than just their individual lives. Yet, “these little Christians,” while they watch wait, receive their sanctification as they look forward to the revelation of the glory of God.[8] In their troubling time, they are to dig deep into the scriptures. In it, they will again see the divine promise. 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. We find the promise in Isaiah 65:17. The end is life rather than death. For this reason, Christians rightly long for the coming of God, for if God does not come, only death and destruction will come. The hope is also the closing vision in Revelation 21:4. Despite present appearances, God is sovereign, and God is faithful to the promise of new life. Even as this community waits patiently in persecution, they know that dissolution will come first, and then will come new life. The eschatological nature of the rule of God defines an act of God. The rule of God is not something Jesus plants or grows from itself. Rather, we find here that the rule of God is to come only with the coming of a new heaven and a new earth, even though the righteousness of individuals is the condition of entry into the future fellowship of the rule of God.[9] Next, they are to pay attention to what it is that matters to them. They are to use the time they have wisely. As they wait for dissolution and new life, 14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish. In that way, they will show their abiding belief that the apparent delay of that Day is an opportunity: 15a and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.
Peter Marty, a Lutheran pastor and the editor of The Christian Century, recently wrote in that magazine about the life he seeks to live. He names three things. He wants to lead a happy life, and he says he does not mean “feel-good experiences that bring gratification at others’ expense, but rather a happy state of mind. …” He also wants to be an interesting person, leading a psychologically rich life. His third desire echoes themes from the heart of the Christian faith: “I also want to live a life of deep meaning in which there’s a moral center: one where virtue is prized, depth of character matters, and purpose comes through serving others. In its best moments, this life of meaning gets organized less around self-centered desires and more around generous commitments that help other lives flourish.”
In the classical tradition, values relate to what a person believes and focuses on relation to others, while virtue is related to the alignment of human will and action to the divine. It refers, not so much to “doing the right things,” but to the forming of habits and hence of moral character. Our choices in crucial moments reveal who we are. A good example is Tolkien in his epic, The Lord of the Rings, in which the primary thrust of the narrative is guided by virtue and not personal pragmatism. Subsequently, Jackson’s films did a wonderful job of capturing this. Consider for a moment the virtues that drove the actions of the primary characters in Tolkien’s narrative. Aragorn sought justice, peace, and honor. Samwise displays unwavering fortitude. Frodo exhibits self-sacrifice, temperance, courage, and wisdom. The characters often do the right thing because it is the right thing as defined by God’s law and objective moral code. In the face of pure evil, they maintain a deep conviction that goodness and providence will prevail over darkness. It is these virtues that make the novel so influential, timeless, and epic. Such a book runs counter to much thinking today that places more important on what we value individually, which leads to emphases like valuing self-esteem more than self-sacrifice.[10]
This passage raises the human issues of waiting and patience. Waiting presents an enormous challenge. We are impatient, I-can-fix-it types of people ... but we cannot fix all situations. We too often assume that we can make everything in life better by acting. Sometimes, acting now is not the answer. Sometimes, the answer is to wait, even at the risk of having others accuse you of procrastination.[11]
On the lighter side, waiting is not something most of us enjoy in everyday life. We do not like it when the computer gives us the classic symbols that say to us that we will need to wait. Most of us do not like to wait in line. Such moments will often lead us to expressions of impatience. I came across a few ideas that might productively occupy our time while we wait.
Strike up a conversation with a stranger and learn their story.
Pull out your journal and describe everything you see in the waiting area. This trains you to be observant and exercise your writing skills.
Work through your unread emails. If your inbox is empty, you might surprise at the relief you feel and the message your email program gives you. It might be time for the beach.
Make that appointment with your dentist or any of those other medical types you dread but need to see. It will make the waiting seem less painful by comparison.
If you can find an outlet, recharge all your device batteries. You might even try offering to share your charger with someone else and strike up a conversation.
Buy tacky postcards from the newsstand, write notes to your friends and family, and mail them later.
Ask whoever is next to you about their favorite band or podcast and give it a listen right then.
Cull through your photo gallery on your phone and delete pictures you do not need.
Ask a waiter or flight attendant how their day is going. They will have some eye-opening stories to tell!
Skype or Facetime your parents, grandparents or kids and catch up with them.
On a broader scale, and more seriously, every stage of our lives involves some new form of waiting. When our children are tiny, we wait years for a good night's sleep. When our children are toddlers, we wait eagerly for the time when they will no longer wear diapers, can take a bath on their own and dress themselves. When our children are teenagers and driving, we often wait anxiously until we hear the front door close and know they are safely home. Moreover, at any stage of life, we can experience waiting for the results of medical tests. This kind of waiting is the hardest of all. A weekend can seem like an eternity if we are waiting to find out whether a tumor is malignant or benign.
Since so much of our lives involves waiting, we would show some wisdom if we cultivated an ability to wait well. If we learn to wait well, we will need to cultivate the specific virtue of patience. An unknown source offers the insight that patience is not so much the ability to wait, but the ability to have a good attitude while waiting.
We can become so impatient. We want to learn the lessons of life quickly. We want happiness quickly given to us, rather than learn to be happy in the actual course of life. We can be impatient with the fires of life. We may be Christians who have experienced the fires of persecution, as many do around the globe. We may be Christians who have experienced the fires brought by suffering in health or relationships. Our impatience leads us to ask, as it often does in the Old Testament, “How long, O Lord.” “Oh that you would tear down the heavens and come down,” says Isaiah 63:1. Today, Christians inherit the hope and promise of the return of the Lord Jesus. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” says the Lord’s Prayer. “From thence he shall come again to judge the living and the dead,” “we believe in the resurrection of the dead,” and “we believe in the life of the world to come,” says the Creed of Nicaea. The delay of the Day, felt in the first century, is a delay some Christians feel deeply. Do I dare say it? In this setting, skepticism seems quite natural. On the other hand, if we have grown uncomfortable with the way the world is, we may become convinced that things have gotten so bad that surely the Lord will come soon. We want relief. We want it now.
Human life is so messy. We reach many corners around which we cannot see. We must go through the valley of death. We must climb difficult mountains. The terrain of human life is far from easy. I am not sure why, but this world, with all its imperfections, sin, and suffering, is the world that God loves and the world with which God is patient. The way may seem difficult, but the purpose is clear. We are to lead “lives of holiness and godliness” through it all. We are to “strive to be found by God at peace, without spot or blemish.”
One source says that patience is the "quality of being willing to bear adversities, calm endurance of misfortune, suffering, etc." It comes directly from the Latin patientia, meaning "endurance, submission" -- or literally "suffering" or the "quality of suffering." Ambrose Bierce, in his whimsical book, The Devil's Dictionary, said this of patience: "Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue." No wonder, then, that waiting is so difficult. It requires that we be patient, that is, that we suffer to the point of despair. Who wants to do that?
We have the promise of the return of the Lord Jesus. We may well have many questions regarding the nature of that return. Regardless, our author is going to give some advice as we wait patiently.
The waiting might be the hardest part of being a Christian, but it is also the most important part. God has given us the tools and the time to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world in anticipation of a Second Advent. Let us wait well!
O Lord, how shall I meet You, how welcome you aright?
Your people long to greet You, my Hope, my heart’s Delight!
O kindle, Lord most holy, a lamp within my breast,
[1] (Paul Gerhardt, 1653)
[2] Barth CD III.2, [47.1] 497.
[3] Barth Church Dogmatics IV.2 [66.6] 606.
[4] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 35.
[5] (Paul Gerhardt, 1653)
[6] The number of textual variants attests to the difficulty of the last line of verse 10. Siniaticus, Vaticanus and several miniscules simply read, “and the earth and the works in it will be found.” Other manuscripts supply the more sensible version that it will be found destroyed or that it will be burned. The surrounding phrases seem to leave little doubt that the author is talking about the violent dissolution of the earth and the heavens. Hence, although the simple “it will be found” is probably the most original reading, this verse shows evidence of early corruption. It would be very difficult to argue that this phrase warrants some reading in which the present system is not drastically changed.
[7] Barth CD III.2, [47.1] 497.
[8] Barth Church Dogmatics IV.2 [66.6] 606.
[9] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 35.
[10] —Jack Lee, “Rings of Power and the Loss of Transcendent Virtue,” Patheos.com, September 6, 2022. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/chorusinthechaos/review-rings-of-power-transcendent-virtue/.
[11] In spired by Holly W. Whitcomb, Seven Spiritual Gifts of Waiting (Augsburg, 2005), 12.
[12] (Paul Gerhardt, 1653)
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